Everything must change? Challenges for animated storytelling in VR

Abstract

VR enables the viewer to freely choose the point of view: Instead of being bound to a predefined screen format, he/she “becomes” the camera. This poses a huge challenge for communicating a narrative, because essential storytelling tools like framing and editing are not available to the filmmaker anymore, or must be radically rethought. On the basis of the author's current animation project ShakesVRare (a collaboration with the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon), the essay at hand explains the reasons and challenges for creating a linear narrative in VR and demonstrates possible solutions.