VR: The Movie -Virtual Reality History Documentary
VR: The Movie is the first documentary film that covers entirely on the virtual reality, discussing and covering every aspect of the virtual reality history, an industry that is about to explode and expand beyond our wildest imagination.
VR: The Movie Fundraising & Sponsorship
VR: The Movie is currently raising funds and inviting sponsorship, to show your support to the project, you can purchase rewards at this page. You can also support the project by making a tax-deductable donation at this page.
Financial analysts predicts that augmented and virtual reality market will exceed 150 billion by 2020. Here is another good article from Techcrunch discussing the 7 driving forces. It is safe to assume that virtual reality is going to fundamentally transform the way we live, work, communicate, and be entertained in the next 5-10 years.
VR: The Movie Crew documenting interviews
An industry with such great future potential is rare, the World Wide Web and smartphone are two perfect examples. Virtual Reality is not a new industry, with earliest trace dated back 1950’s, when Stanley G. Weinbaum explores Virtual Reality in his work of science fiction “Pygmalion’s Spectacles.”
Virtual Reality historical news article from 1994 ( Image Source: Pawel Surgiel Twitter )
Virtual Reality Equipment & Devices From 90’s
Atari’s research lab for Virtual Reality founded in the 80’s, Mattel & Nintendo’s Power Glove that sold for $75 USD, and Nintendo’s Virtual Boy released in 1995 all proved that virtual reality is an existed industry, however, an industry with endless potential, that’d faded and never reached the mass consumer market. Here are three videos about Virtual Reality in the big 80’s and early 90’s:
Virtual Reality went under the radar for years, until a small company named Oculus came to the scene with their Oculus DK1 VR headset that’s designed to be affordable. As we all know that the new start-up was acquired by Facebook for 2 billion dollars just a few months after its debut, and the rest is history!
Since then nearly all major hi-tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, and HTC had joined the race to share a piece of that 150 billion pie. The VR as a whole is picking up enormous momentum, with several consumer VR headsets planned release date set in 2016. But as of now, no one can say for sure who will prevail in the consumer market.
VR: The Movie crew is digging it deep into the VR scene and its entire history, interviewing VR pioneers, scientists, developers and visionaries; people who are in the core of the industry. The film project intend to provide a comprehensive overview of the virtual reality’s past and present, the entire history, laying out the endless possibilities of the future of virtual reality.
Meet VR: TheMovie Team
Daniel and Zach Jankovic have shared a passion for films and filmmaking from their childhood. Their ambitions have always been to utilize their talent for maximum positive impact, and have thus focused on producing cause-driven short films for numerous nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurs. While story is key, their emphasis upon presentation through modern, cinematic aesthetics has held primary importance in the style of films they have crafted.
Zach Jankovic ( on the Left )
After receiving a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder Film School, Zach worked as an editor and producer for video production companies in Boulder, Aspen, and Los Angeles. In 2011, Zach moved to Houston to start Cut To Create, a full service media production company. Since inception Cut To Create has produced a wide variety of engaging content and is the production company behind the video for the successful Kickstarter campaign for the Virtuix Omni. Zach produced, directed, and edited the award winning short documentaries: “Tourette Syndrome: Up Close” and “The Astronaut’s Secret”.
Daniel Jankovic
Daniel Jankovic is the founder and CEO of Jankovic Productions , a Los Angeles based video production company that produces corporate and cause-driven videos. Since graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2002, Daniel’s award winning videos have been seen in a variety of fund- raising events including galas for American Diabetes Association, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Jewish Family Service, and Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. When Daniel is not producing videos, he enjoys document- ing his three children, running half marathons, and playing guitar in a small band.
Future Plan For Film Distribution & Showcasing
VR: The Movie crew is looking forward to showcase the film at Sundance 2017, and other multi-media film festivals such as SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and The International Documentary Festival. A public screening will be hosted via Tugg. To support the Jankovic brothers, check this page.
VR: The Movie Q&A Interview With Virtual Reality Reporter
VR: The Movie Team: ZACH JANKOVIC & DANIEL JANKOVIC
Virtual Reality Reporter Team: ALBERT HO & JAY NELSON YANG
Q ( Virtual Reality Reporter ): You guys are from film and cinematic art background, what inspired you to start this documentary project about virtual reality?
A ( VR: The Movie Team ): It all started with the Virtuix Omni Kickstarter. Before that I really didn’t know much about VR. I did not grow up a VR enthusiast. During the course of filming the kickstarter campaign I had the opportunity to try out the Rift and the Omni and immediately realized the huge potential of VR. You could say that was my baptism into the world of VR.
Q: How did you first get involved with VR? What were some of your first VR experiences?
A: My first VR experience was the Oculus demo of the Italian Villa. I remember walking up the stairs, going up to a balcony and looking over the edge. I had a feeling of vertigo! I remember thinking “This is completely fake but I feel like I’m there!”
Q: Where and how do you see virtual reality evolve into in the next 5-10 years?
A: I think VR still has a long road ahead. Outside of the obvious markets of gaming and entertainment, I think the potential for sports viewing and journalism will be a huge market in the next few years. Social interactions will be an ever growing market, especially with Facebook being so heavily invested. The market that I hope receives a great amount of development is Education.
Q: Why did you pick virtual reality as your top, other than augmented reality?
A: The history of VR is more intriguing to me.
Q: Why and what do you think were the reasons that virtual reality hype sort of faded, die-out, and failed to pick up momentum and reach the mass consumer market in the 80’s and 90’s?
A: There were a myriad of factors. The Media and Movies like Lawnmower Man really over sold the capabilities of VR at the time. Back then when people saw the movie or a news story and then would seek out a VR experience and it just didn’t meet expectations.
The tracking did not meet expectations, the graphics were primitive, and the headsets were heavy and uncomfortable. Additionally a VR set up was really expensive and if it was cheap it simply sucked (ie Virtual Boy). There were also some research papers that came out towards the late 90s that showcased some of the negative impacts of prolonged exposure to VR.
A lot of major companies saw these research papers and pulled out of the market because they were scared of being sued. So many things led to the first downfall of VR. We just need to be careful this time around that the same thing doesn’t happen.
Q: Is the documentary going to convince everyone that virtual reality is going to change our lives and the world?
A: Yes and no. Our goal is to showcase how VR survived to this point and how it could be used for good in the future. We will also showcase why VR failed in the 90s and why we should still be cautious this time around. In the end, our goal is to be as objective as possible and use this as a means to learn from the past and how we can use VR to benefit us in the future.
Q: I noticed the people you’d interviewed were primarily men? How do you see women fit into the progression of virtual reality, and the VR industry in general?
A: We have a significant amount of women we plan on interviewing. Carolina Cruz Neira (creator of the Cave), Jacki Morie (co-founder of USC’s ICT), Dr. Kay Stanney (VR researcher) and more. We also hope to focus on the work that took place and is taking place across the pond in Europe and Asia.
Q: As film makers and content producers, what are your thoughts on using virtual reality as a new medium of storytelling or film production?
A: I am extremely excited about the potential for VR filmmaking. I think the potential within Verite production will be huge. Instead of watching you can witness. You can be there! I am already working on a short documentary concept that I would like to produce for VR. The difficult thing will be to develop new ways of filming interviews.
Q: Which virtual reality technology or equipment excites you the most and why?
A: It doesn’t really exist yet but I am excited for the day when we have live streaming on a 360 degree camera. Imagine being able to patch in to someone’s POV and see what they are seeing. It going to be a whole new way to connect with the world.
Q: Are you planning to use virtual reality technology in your future film project?
A: The feature documentary will be put out in a traditional flat screen format. However, we do hope to create an interactive version of the film that will allow views to fly through a fully immersive version of VR history.
Q: Besides gamers, what kind of people do you think would be virtual reality’s first generation of pro-consumers?
A: I think educators will find many uses for VR.
Q: Besides being all positive and optimistic about the future of virtual reality, do you see any negative sides, effects or danger in virtual reality?
A: There are many potential negative effects of VR but with anything so immersive of course there are going to be people that overdue it. I can see addiction being an issue as well as flashbacks. I’m not too concerned about simulator sickness but I think we need to do more research on the effects of prolonged exposure (spending several hours in VR).
Q: People are talking about social virtual reality and metaverse, do you see it happening anytime soon?
A: I think it will take time but I think we will get to a point when we prefer VR social interactions.
