Abstract
Whilst cinematic virtual reality (CVR) has just a brief history, there are notable shifts in its trajectory. After an early wave of theorisation which centred on CVR as a lens-based medium remediated from traditional filmmaking practices, the conversation has drifted in two directions. The first is in relation to the momentum of software-driven animated VR story worlds fuelled by computer graphics software such as Unity and Unreal Engine. The second, and the focus of this chapter, is the trend in ‘Eco’ screen stories reorientated from a human, or anthropocentric, perspective towards the ecological ‘dramas’ of the Anthropocene. This chapter investigates this new optics of screenwriting by tracing the impact of the photographic lens on cinematic visualisation from screen development to production. The history of the filmic lens and its impact on screen storytelling is revealed to be one of friction annexed to the anthropocentric basis for classical screen narration. This chapter proposes that the optics of screenwriting is an important consideration in the cinematic visualisation and scripting of stories for virtual reality media and that, whilst spatialised fisheye vision may be at odds with anthropocentric storytelling it is ‘fit for purpose’ for eco-stories for the screen.
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Notes
- 1.
The case studies presented in this chapter are in the context of physical production as opposed to the virtual cameras (and lenses) of animated, software-driven virtual reality media experiences.
- 2.
See Botticelli’s Madonna of the Magnificat (c.1481).
- 3.
See Caravaggio’s Martha and Mary Magdalene (c.1598) in which Mary Magdalene holds a Venetian mirror that reflects the spatial distortion of a rectilinear window opposite.
- 4.
For example, the Penrith All Sky Camera at work, https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/observatorypenrith/penrith_observatory/all_sky_camera
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Munt, A. (2024). Cinematic Virtual Reality: Towards an Optics of Eco-Screenwriting. In: Dooley, K., Munt, A. (eds) Screenwriting for Virtual Reality . Palgrave Studies in Screenwriting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54100-1_3
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