Do films that remediate games (Ready Player One) gain immediacy or become hypermediated and less
immersive?
Following from my Skyrim VR post, i thought I would touch on the Film side of VR with watching the movie Ready Player One recently made me think a lot about the aspects that are in the film, that we also can relate too in our own lives. Following the footsteps of Tron. ‘I wanted it to feel like we took motion picture cameras and went into the world of Tron’ (Kosinski, 2011).
The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.
Digital media, video games included, enable us ...to manipulate our ‘selves’ and multiply them indefinitely (Filiciak 2003 p.88). Ready player one is seen as a metaphor for social media and digital platforms reflecting on the issues within the digital age, which i agree with children these days are too lost within their technology compared to previously where they would be going outside to play in the field compared to nowadays where they are on their iPads. The film delves on that our real world is unliveable in and the OASIS is the freedom away from the downfall of the real world.The film takes transmedia to another level with inspiration from classic video games, movies, and popular culture.
Ready player one follows on from Avatar James Cameron's work; Steven Spielberg was inspired by the use of 3D effect, which was seen as immersive for its time and wanted to improve on them in his own style. Stephen Spielberg's experience using motion capture within his films is well known for example, The Adventures of Tintin and the BFG, so it was no surprise he transferred this knowledge onto Ready player one, showing the had a strong plan on how he wanted to work with the actors in capturing their performances. James Cameron’s Avatar had many of the technology used in ready player one invented to be used to create the film such as the fusion camera system, performance capture, and Simul cam were invented for the film alone.
‘Avatar is a rare example of 3-D used in tandem with 2-D depth cues to make the 3-D experience more comfortable, and in fact thematically ties in with the true goal of immersive film technologies: that of creating and controlling a person's perception of reality, and thus, reality itself.’ Diana Stephens (2015) p. 83.
Throughout the release of Ready Player One they wanted to create a immersive excitement around the release by using more modern technology. To push the boundaries of normal conventional trailers warner brothers released a 360 degrees version of the ready player one trailer to go across social platforms allowing technology being able to link together. Facebook then used the movie as one of the first tests of a new augmented reality world of OASIS using location trackers on their site.
Spielberg used the Vicon motion capture cameras Digital Domain built the capture volume and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) combining the capture volume made up of Vicon motion capture cameras to create the SFX for the animated avatars.
Spielberg scouted out digital domain because of their different use of VR headsets. Something that was super cool for Ready Player one was that additional sets were built to allow for stunt sequences and a separate VR volume allowed Spielberg to use simul-cam allowing him to review shots, making decisions on takes there and then.
The different VR headsets helped allow to see the virtual worlds while filming motion capture, scouting sets in which Spielberg used visual virtual cameras, and even when shooting on practical sets.
To allow Stephen Spielberg to visualise every single set in the OASIS they created him an avatar to allow him to walk through the space and virtually see the set through virtual reality goggles, this helped him process the scene and figure out how he was going to shoot each sequence. Allowing him to delve into the world he created of the OASIS.
From this Spielberg got the actors to wear virtual reality headsets so they would be able to visualise and get a feeling for the virtual the set they were working on, as otherwise they were working in a bare-naked white set, but with the goggles they didn’t need to imagine just remember what the environment looked like when they went back to the motion capture volume.
On physical side when the actors needed to interact with physical props. For example, the virtual DeLorean from back to the future a simple car frame was made for the capture volume then recreated as CG car later on.
This circles back to the question of is there different potential for body, identity and relationships with the online world, with the human player getting so deep into the virtual world with their online avatar that the virtual reality becomes their real reality in their mind. From physical to social relations in the OASIS we find the lead character Parzival and Art3mis’s relationship develop through the virtual world. With Wade wearing a heat-sensitive haptics suit, that when other avatars apply pressure to another players body. When an object or other avatar touches their avatar.
Today from the
haptics suit the Teslasuit is in the process of being developed but how far
would it remove the user from the real world. Causing them to lose themselves
in the virtual reality world because of them receiving their needs via the VR.
The Teslasuit it is actually a new channel of communication and a new way of
making VR experience deeper, immersive, and more realistic.
Bibliography
Following from my Skyrim VR post, i thought I would touch on the Film side of VR with watching the movie Ready Player One recently made me think a lot about the aspects that are in the film, that we also can relate too in our own lives. Following the footsteps of Tron. ‘I wanted it to feel like we took motion picture cameras and went into the world of Tron’ (Kosinski, 2011).
The world of Ready Player One is composed of the computer generated world of the OASIS, controlled by the government. The players use the world to disappear from their reality of their overcrowded homes and depressing lives. 'Virtual reality is immersive, which means that it is a medium whose
purpose is to disappear. This disappearing act, however, is made difficult by
the apparatus that virtual reality requires.' Bolter and Grusin 1999, p. 21-22.
The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.
Digital media, video games included, enable us ...to manipulate our ‘selves’ and multiply them indefinitely (Filiciak 2003 p.88). Ready player one is seen as a metaphor for social media and digital platforms reflecting on the issues within the digital age, which i agree with children these days are too lost within their technology compared to previously where they would be going outside to play in the field compared to nowadays where they are on their iPads. The film delves on that our real world is unliveable in and the OASIS is the freedom away from the downfall of the real world.The film takes transmedia to another level with inspiration from classic video games, movies, and popular culture.
‘John
Belton argues that 3D is an intrusive rather than immersive experience....it
violates/ruptures normative space, calling attention to itself as an attraction
(2012, 194 (Diana Stephens 2015)’.
In ready player one, the real world is overcrowded, overpopulated and is filled with unemployment and poverty. With the Oasis being peoples only freedom to escape from the real world, but having the real-world consequences inside. In the film, we see people risk their houses to gamble in to increase their chance of winning challenges to win Hallidays competition.
For
the release of Ready player one the use of transmedia allowing the public to
experience the VOID, an immersive multiplayer virtual reality physical and
virtual maze. The real-life experience allowed fans to enter the world of the movie
physically. The Ready Player Once Challenge: The Maze got visitors with tech
and actors to solve the puzzles and challenges meanwhile experiencing exclusive
Ready Player One content. Below the video explores The Maze!!
Compared to 3D, the
experiences are very immersive, intense and difficult to recreate with
commercially available VR Equipment as Ready Player One portrays. Alongside the
VOID; HTC have used convergence and teamed up with Stephen Spielberg to bring a
virtual reality (VR) app which is hoping to increase the awareness and demand
for the film. With the VIVE offer a virtual reality headset with ready player
one inspired OASIS game experiences to bring the ready player one experiences
to life. The battle for the planet Doom fighting off the waves of IOI Sixers.
The experiences of the fans of ready player one app were able to share their
experiences and leaderboard across social platforms.
This video follows how the possibilities now days that the products in ready player one are available and useable for today?
Ready player one follows on from Avatar James Cameron's work; Steven Spielberg was inspired by the use of 3D effect, which was seen as immersive for its time and wanted to improve on them in his own style. Stephen Spielberg's experience using motion capture within his films is well known for example, The Adventures of Tintin and the BFG, so it was no surprise he transferred this knowledge onto Ready player one, showing the had a strong plan on how he wanted to work with the actors in capturing their performances. James Cameron’s Avatar had many of the technology used in ready player one invented to be used to create the film such as the fusion camera system, performance capture, and Simul cam were invented for the film alone.
‘Avatar is a rare example of 3-D used in tandem with 2-D depth cues to make the 3-D experience more comfortable, and in fact thematically ties in with the true goal of immersive film technologies: that of creating and controlling a person's perception of reality, and thus, reality itself.’ Diana Stephens (2015) p. 83.
Throughout the release of Ready Player One they wanted to create a immersive excitement around the release by using more modern technology. To push the boundaries of normal conventional trailers warner brothers released a 360 degrees version of the ready player one trailer to go across social platforms allowing technology being able to link together. Facebook then used the movie as one of the first tests of a new augmented reality world of OASIS using location trackers on their site.
Spielberg used the Vicon motion capture cameras Digital Domain built the capture volume and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) combining the capture volume made up of Vicon motion capture cameras to create the SFX for the animated avatars.
Wade Watts inside the real world with the VR headset on (capture from film)
Wade Watts character Parzival inside the OASIS
Spielberg scouted out digital domain because of their different use of VR headsets. Something that was super cool for Ready Player one was that additional sets were built to allow for stunt sequences and a separate VR volume allowed Spielberg to use simul-cam allowing him to review shots, making decisions on takes there and then.
The different VR headsets helped allow to see the virtual worlds while filming motion capture, scouting sets in which Spielberg used visual virtual cameras, and even when shooting on practical sets.
To allow Stephen Spielberg to visualise every single set in the OASIS they created him an avatar to allow him to walk through the space and virtually see the set through virtual reality goggles, this helped him process the scene and figure out how he was going to shoot each sequence. Allowing him to delve into the world he created of the OASIS.
From this Spielberg got the actors to wear virtual reality headsets so they would be able to visualise and get a feeling for the virtual the set they were working on, as otherwise they were working in a bare-naked white set, but with the goggles they didn’t need to imagine just remember what the environment looked like when they went back to the motion capture volume.
On physical side when the actors needed to interact with physical props. For example, the virtual DeLorean from back to the future a simple car frame was made for the capture volume then recreated as CG car later on.
This circles back to the question of is there different potential for body, identity and relationships with the online world, with the human player getting so deep into the virtual world with their online avatar that the virtual reality becomes their real reality in their mind. From physical to social relations in the OASIS we find the lead character Parzival and Art3mis’s relationship develop through the virtual world. With Wade wearing a heat-sensitive haptics suit, that when other avatars apply pressure to another players body. When an object or other avatar touches their avatar.
Digital media, video
games included, enable us ...to manipulate our ‘selves’ and to multiply them
indefinitely (Filiciak 2003 p.88)
In ready player one
it raises the issue of is the avatar the truer self-compared to the real-life
person.
****WAIT SPOILERS*DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT SEEN THE FILM PLEASE ********************************************************************************************
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Once the High Five have ownership after the development of relationships throughout the film, meeting their friends online and finally coming together in the real world they begin to understand the need to withdraw yourself from the virtual world. They have become self-aware about the loss of
real life compared to the time invested online.
Now the High Five have ownership
over the Oasis, they decide to set in new rules, during the film a voiceover announces a few rules set into place; One being the
Oasis will be shut down on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This showing the players
self-awareness of the loss of humanity when playing within the Oasis as an
avatar.
Their one mistake
which created immersion but caused some controversy during the pre-releases of
the franchise was a selection of the posters that inserted Wade and the other
characters into one-sheets of popular 80’s movies this generated a negative
reaction as fans felt the desecrated the originals, although it was a major
theme of the movie itself.
Although “When I play, I am
more my avatar than the person sitting by the console computer” (Filiciak 2003,
p92) this is the whole reason people play games to become something they are not.
Bibliography
Bolter, J. D. ‘Remediation and
the desire for immediacy’. Convergence.
2000: 6, 62.
Bolter, J. D. and Grusin, R. Remediation:
Understanding New Media. Cambridge Massachusetts/London: MIT Press, 2000.
