John Bucher - Storytelling for Virtual Reality: Methods and Principles for Crafting Immersive Narratives

Ted Schilowitz

My editors and the staff at Routledge, Emily McCloskey, Simon Jacobs, and John Makowski for all their help and guidance and for believing in this project. Thanks also to Jack Stenner at University of Florida, Michael Smith at Pepperdine University, and Eric R. Williams at Ohio University for deep insights about the organization, structure, and content of this book.

The LA Film Studies Center and extended alums and friendsJeremy Casper, Chris Krebsbach, Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran, Paul Yoder, Nathan White, Alex Swickard, Kris Young, and Sarah Duff.

My friends at The Alliance for giving me my first opportunity to tell storiesPeter Burgo, Bob and Joan Sanford, Miles Reese, Rob McCleland, and Heather Arment helped me greatly. Thanks to John Stumbo, Jordan Christopher, Pam Fogel, and Deb Gregory as well.

My familyKatie, John K. Bucher, Cathie Bucher, Josh Bucher, Matt Bucher, Jordan Bucher, Henry Bucher, Arlo Bucher, Tony Reyes, Luanne Reyes, Aaron Reyes, Alicia Reyes, Caleb Reyes.

Dr. Kim Walker, Dave Anderson, Jim and Ashley Krueger, and all my friends at Pacifica.

Special thanks to those who gave of their time to participate in the book

Chris Milk, Tye Sheridan, Nikola Todorovic, Chris Edwards, Ted Schilowitz, Angela Haddad, Rob Bredow at LucasFilm, Noah Nelson and the No Proscenium Podcast, Annie Lesser, Keight Leighn, Mark Cordell Holmes, Larry Rosenthal, Liz Markman, Jonathan Krusell and Brian Rose at Google, Paul Debevec, Jessica Brillhart, Jess Shamash and Pete Billington at Oculus, Paul Meyhoefer and Kevin Cruz at JK Imaging Ltd., Sarah Hill at StoryUp, Heather Brenners, Matt Celia, Robert Watts, Steve Peters, Adam Orr, Brian Allgeier, Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira, Doug Liman, Melissa Wallack, Matt Thompson, Robyn Tong Gray, Tai Crosby at SilVR Thread, and the entire crew at Jaunt VR.

I am a child of the theme-park world. I grew up in central Florida right around the time Disney World opened. I remember going on the Haunted Mansion ride, and though I couldnt have articulated it at the time, I recognized that when you move people through space while telling them a story, it creates the feeling of traveling on a journey and gives the experience meaning. I was lucky enough to find ways later in life to apply my love of spatial storytelling to the world of technology. Ive always innately lived in that world, but this storys not about me, its about how the recent rise of immersive media will affect our future.

We can reflect on every medium that has been created to tell stories and see that people eventually settle on certain elements that they like, and those elements then become the mainstream definition of what that medium is. Novels, movies, video games, plays, and television shows all have mainstream definitions based on the elements of those mediums that have been successful and lasted. As a medium continues to grow and explore new territory, you have departures and divergent paths off the original idea and methods of that medium. The cinematic language of VR is still developing. But it will only move forward and become more advanced through experimentation and by increasing the volume of stories being told in its space.

Many people have referred to VR as a new medium, or at least a new way to tell stories. I would be a contrarian to that idea. I would say that there is nothing fundamentally new about Virtual Reality. Its a new way to experience what I refer to as spatially oriented entertainmentmuch like that Haunted Mansion ride I rode as a kid. The world of theme parks has been doing this for number of generations now. The world of theater has been doing it even longer. We have plenty to learn from these disciplines and plenty others.