Legendary film director Steven Spielberg thinks that virtual reality technology could very well spell the doom for traditional film makers and the traditional motion picture as we have known it for the last 100 years. Despite the fact that Spielberg is working on a virtual reality project, he still warns of the coming virtual reality disruption.
The three time Academy Award winning director believes that virtual reality may stifle a certain amount of creative control that a director might have over a picture. Spielberg commented that, “I think we’re moving into a dangerous medium with virtual reality. The only reason I say it is dangerous is because it gives the viewer a lot of latitude not to take direction from the storytellers but make their own choices of where to look. I just hope it doesn’t forget the story when it starts enveloping us in a world that we can see all around us and make our own choices to look at.”
Spielberg has committed to a project at The Virtual Reality Company which, last year, raised close to $25 million for production projects and studio facilities. Spielberg is both an investor and an advisor to the young virtual reality company.
There are other directors, however, who tend to disagree with Spielberg. Milica Zec, director of the virtual reality film, Giant, has said that, “You have to think that now you have 360 degrees that you have to cover. When you have a regular standard film, the screen is in front of you but here it feels like you’re inside of the screen as a viewer.”
Eric Darnell, director of Madagascar, believes that VR just may be a new way to look at things as he commented that, “It’s not in my mind just an extension of cinema, it is its own thing and we have to discover so much about what are the tools in our toolbox. It really is just a brand new language.”
PHOTO CREDITS: The Associated Press
