Understanding Virtual Reality

The Virtual Reality Cinema (VRC) written by professor Eric Williams, cinematographer and project manager Matt Love, and filmmaker Carrie Love now has its very own virtual reality series. The three different series (For the Love of God, "Moving In, Moving On, and He Loves Me Not) work in tandem with the textbook to exemplify the educational aspects of virtual reality. 

For the Love of God

The VR project showcases and teaches users how to effectively make VR videos and the different techniques necessary in VR creation. For the Love of God (FLG) focuses on creating smooth transitions from environment to environment in virtual reality that makes for a better viewing experience. "[FLG teaches] how to transition between using one environment and into another one seamlessly without having motion sickness or jumpy cuts," says Sammy Lahiri, cinematographer on the project. 

For the Love of God was accepted into six national and international film festivals and won two awards.

Moving In, Moving On

This part of the series delves into blocking and creating frames inside a 360 environment. In this fictional 360 environment, users watch a happy couple moving into their new home. As the couple begins to unpack, their relationship begins to dwindle and users learn the importance of actor placement, frame creation to tell a well-rounded story through VR, and how to naturally combine and edit frames in 360 VR. Lahiri was the cinematographer on this project as well and explains its significance, "[VRC] wants to teach us how to create frames naturally in a 360 [experience] without it looking out of place and [how to] use those frames to tell a story effectively."

Moving In, Moving On was accepted in two national film festivals.

He Loves Me Not

This part of the series teaches users how to tell a seamless multi-locational story using split-screen virtual reality. The plot intertwines multiple perspectives of a sabotaged love triangle into one split-screen VR experience. “[He Loves Me Not] was showing how to use editing and split-screen to show two different environments and [how to] connect the story seamlessly,” says Lahiri, editor on this project.

He Loves Me Not was accepted into three national film festivals.