This week Neil Calloway considers something that could change the film industry…
On Monday, seemingly out of nowhere, a new company announced an innovation that could change the way you experience movies. Dreamscape Immersives is not only a name that sounds like it’s out of a Philip K Dick novel, it offers the possibility of getting as close to a Total Recall experience as you’d ever want to.
They claim that their “untethered VR headsets” allow users to be unconstrained by wires and explore films worlds in a way that has been impossible until now. Of course, if like me you’re of a certain age, Virtual Reality just makes you think of The Lawnmower Man or that early 1990s TV game shows presented by Craig Charles featuring graphics so blocky they make Minecraft look realistic. However, the technology has come on leaps and bounds since then, and Virtual Reality is quickly becoming a familiar sight at events and even art exhibitions. If it can be used in a gallery, it can be used by film studios to add to the movie going experience.
Dreamscape Immersives, with backing from MGM, 21st Century Fox and Warner Bros., among others, is hoping to open a “VR Multiplex” in LA this year, swiftly followed by other locations, including one in London. They’re not the only company who are working on this either, offering groups of people Virtual Reality experiences without individuals having to buy expensive headsets.
The idea would be to allow customers to explore cinematic worlds of films they have just seen, to interact with friends and other users, and even virtual characters. Women could spend the evening with Christian Grey in his Red Room while their partners hunt Predators with Dutch and Blain in Val Verde. Coming out of seeing La La Land with my girlfriend, I wanted to dance through the multiplex. Virtual Reality would make that possible. I need to learn to dance first, of course. Imagine hanging out in the Mos Eisley Cantina or Rick’s bar in Casablanca.
Obviously there are more practical applications. Kids could explore historic events at school. Visitors to ancient sites like Stonehenge could see what it looked like at various stages of its construction.
Though scientists are apparently close to creating a Woolly Mammoth using cloning and frozen DNA, a process apparently”de-extinction”, VR could be the closest you come to visiting Jurassic Park, and safer than the real thing too.
Let’s face it, going to the cinema is possibly the most anti social entertainment activity you can have. Essentially it involves sitting in a dark room staring at a screen and not speaking to anyone else for two hours. Nobody sung “There’s only one Kylo Ren” during The Force Awakens. You can’t go crowd surfing while watching the latest film in the Marvel Comic Universe, but Virtual Reality offers the chance to share that experience. I’ll certainly give it a go, as long as I can strap on a proton pack and help destroy the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
Originally published February 19, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
