Virtual Reality (VR) is still not much popular in the movie industry unlike 3D. But, perhaps, now it’s going to make its name with Eric Darnell’s own VR film, Crow: The Legend, which was shown at the Venice Film Festival this week.
Darnell, who co-wrote and directed the Madagascar movies, has created a one of a kind VR film in which the viewer is immersed in the story of a mythical bird that has to fly to the sun to bring back warmth to the earth.
“I don’t expect it’s going to be today or six months even. The technology has to get better, headsets have to get cheaper, the content has to get better and that’s at least as important as anything else you can make all the great headsets you can but if there’s not great content … what’s the point?” Darnell commented on when VR might go mainstream. (according to The Daily Star)
In Crow: The Legend, which is based on a native American legend, the viewer wears a VR helmet and hand-controllers to join the bird on its adventure, using the hands to send waves of virtual energy to help it on its way.
Darnell added that he was attracted to VR after becoming tired of making regular animation. “When I put a VR headset on, it just blew me away and it reminded me of the first time I saw computer animation back in the early ’80s…[That] launched a whole career for me and so when I put that headset on it reminded me of what I felt like back then.”
The movie has a stellar voice cast that includes Oprah Winfrey, John Legend and Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu. Crow: The Legend is hardly an amateur movie but Darnell’s Baobab Studios has decided to give it away rather than selling it, as a way to generate interest in the medium.
“I think the way we are really going to get there is by putting the viewer inside the story. Not just playing a story for them, putting them inside the story so that other characters recognise that the viewer is there and that it means something to them, that you are in their world,” Darnell noted.