While virtual reality games and 360-degree videos continue to be released, it's only a matter of time before movie and TV studios take advantage of the tech. We love to head over to theaters to watch the biggest blockbusters in 3D, so why not be able to allow moviegoers to feel like they are in the scenes themselves in a fully immersive viewing experience?
Samsung is taking the first steps of bringing VR to the small screen in a new collaboration with Skybound Entertainment, the entertainment company that is behind the fan favorite TV series The Walking Dead.
Titled Gone, the new series follows the story of a nine-year-old girl named Emilia Clover, who goes missing while out in broad daylight. Directed and written by JT Petty, the thriller is broken into 11 parts, as the girl's mother goes on a mission to find her missing daughter.
However, viewers get to experience this thriller like never before by being fully immersed into the world as they feel like they are helping to solve the mystery.
In order to allow the viewer to enter to world, Samsung and Skybound partnered with the VR startup Wevr, shooting Gone using a custom-built VR camera that captures video in 360 degrees. Each episode is broken down into five- to six-minute segments so that viewers can turn their heads to take in all that is going on around them and look for clues.
During each episode, there are also glowing hotspots that allow the viewer to zoom in and focus on details in the story and alternate to different points of view in that very same scene, such as getting a closer look at a suspicious van or having the view of the mother sitting looking at her daughter and vice-versa.
These hotspots only last for a limited amount of time so that viewers can replay scenes over again from different perspectives to find more clues. Viewers don't need to view the hotspots in order to understand the story.
Gone is exclusively produced for Samsung's Gear VR headset (as Samsung developed the app at the same time the series was being film), and will be available for free on Samsung's Milk VR service.
The first episode of Gone will be released on Dec. 8.
Source: Variety
