VR Watch: How Brands Are Testing Virtual Reality
http://www.brandchannel.com/2016/07/27/vr-watch-072716/
I came across this article because I am very interested into looking at how the evolutions of Virtual Reality (VR) technology has come along over the year and is now a very prominent figure in marketing tactics and promotional use for a variety of media based platforms. I found it extremely interesting looking at the percentages of companies that a partnering and branching out to use and promote brands and products with VR technology ….
“52% of people want to be associated with brands that have a VR focus, 53% would buy goods or services from companies actively engaged in VR, and 71% of people consider brands working with VR to be forward-thinking and modern.”
VR being used in this transmedia style of marketing seems to be working with the current trend in media and advertising. This is evident with the use of VR being used to create 360 short films or advertisements for various companies e.g. Airlines (Etihad, United). Furthermore we see this sort of marketing of VR and 360 film being used to target audience investment and interactive experience for their media consumption. Promoting television series and transmedia platforms for existing franchises, films and its characters. ( As example from DreamWorks and Comic Con)
(Re)defining the Gendered Body in Cyberspace: The Virtual Reality Film
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2013.866597
Whilst this article doesn’t relate to 360 degree VR films exactly, I wanted to look more on how VR technology could play a larger role in the movie going experience for audience and the story telling experience in which the audience can connect to in a deeper and more meaningful way through the possibility of VR technology and the use of 360 degree film. This article looks at how we as individuals and as human beings are growing and our perceptions of gender and equality are changing, it looks after further representation and understanding of these characters through a virtual world and the understanding to these factors being discovered and learnt through story and these virtual reality worlds.
We look at film examples in this article such as The Matrix 1999 . which display virtualized characters that defy reality laws, whilst still based in a “reality centered world”, but being represented differently because of the virtual or cyber space.
“As I have attempted to demonstrate, gender is a notoriously contested concept in the virtual reality film, where the rigid categories of femininity and masculinity proposed by Western patriarchal cultures find a space for reconfiguration and/or re-articulation. “
Whilst this article focuses more on gender and the ideas of changing the understanding and the very concept of there roles, I think it plays an important part of using agency within out 360 degree VR film experience we are studying. By giving you audience a unique viewing and interactive story experience, they are able to connect and understand on a different level. They themselves are interjected into the story and experience everything first hand, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, race etc… they experience the same story in a personal an individual way, and I believe this is an important factor into understanding and correctly utilizing technology in such a completely new cinematic experience.
Bibliography
http://www.brandchannel.com/2016/07/27/vr-watch-072716/
http://www.cmo.com.au/article/604334/australia-zoo-joins-vr-experience-throng/