I first tried virtual reality in 1994 during a trip to San Francisco, when I was looking at colleges.

VR was in its infancy, with polygons and all, and felt a bit disappointing. I had expected an infinite, immersive world, like those in the film Lawnmower Man. No dice.

Much has changed.

At Advertising Week’s tenth gathering in New York City (#AWX), I had the opportunity to meet and talk with two of the most cutting edge filmmakers alive.

The Value of Being at Advertising Week

I loved the #AWX panel sessions. There’s one I’ll mention in a minute. But there was a lot more going on at the gathering, which I’d like to tell you about.

I happened to meet the filmmakers when I went to get coffee on the lower level of the TimesCenter building. If you were not there, you aren’t as aware of these two people as you really should be.

I listened to CEOs, COOs, VPs, EVPs, and heads of TV networks. And that was very inspiring, sometimes over my head. When I met the filmmakers, however, I just felt their entrepreneurial spirit, enthusiasm, and technical savvy. I just knew: these guys are going to make it, big time, and everyone will know their names.

Adrian Vasquez de Velasco and Craig Gilbert, co-founders of New York-based production company TotalCinema360, have a vision of making the world’s first 360 degree feature film.

How Does 360 Video Work?

It starts with a special camera that uses multiple sensors and lenses to record in all directions at the same time. (Think of Google Street at 24 frames per second.) The footage is stitched all around a fixed point, representing the viewer, surrounding him or her in the recorded space.  There are many ways to view the footage. The viewer controls their point of view by using either their mouse, keyboard controls, or phone or tablet via the built-in accelerometer or touch screen of these devices.

But my favorite way, and the one that Adrian and Craig will uniquely use, is via head-mounted display (HMD), such as the Oculus Rift. That HMD is a VR headset that will be released soon.

The viewer, wearing the VR headset, gets to decide where he or she wants to look simply by turning his or her head naturally.

Advertising and Creative Potential of VR

The duo likes it when participants see the action as it happens in real time and in real space.

Actors are never off screen, per se. It just depends on which direction you are looking. Another freedom is that 360-degree footage doesn’t need to comprise only one space. You could allow for, say, a view on the left of Don Draper having a lunch martini with Roger Sterling, and a view on the right of Peggy writing brilliant copy at the office.

Right now, 360 video is already being used in online advertising, mapping, and live events. The duo believes the advertising potential is substantial because 360 video necessitates engagements, which lead to conversion.

“There’s a lot of creative application, such as product placement. It takes on a whole new dimension when you can place the product anywhere within the sphere. It allows for more subtle integration that is less likely to detract from the main entertainment,” they say.

Average conversion rates range from 18% to 22% on calls to action, according to the 360 video company Immersive Media, which boasts the stats on its rate card. Moreover, Immersive Media says social media traction for VR is six times that of traditional video, and that view rates average four to six times per clip.

If these numbers bear out in independent studies, it will be very hard for advertisers and other communicators to ignore the appeal.

The Backstory

The two arrived at VR independently. “We were both making movies in New York, we met up, and we had a mutual understanding,” Craig said by video call. “Don’t go to film school. It’s extortion,” he laughed. We started talking about cinema.

When I think about “good cinema” I tend to think of films like The Third Man, with its Dutch angles and extensive consideration of light and shadow. I think of Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen (heavily influenced by Bergman), Roman Polanski, and the like. I don’t know much about contemporary cinema, but Craig suggests looking at what’s coming out of Romania.

Prospects, Promise for a VR Film

A feature length film shot in the 360 format for first-person viewing via Oculus Rift virtual reality gear would be a whole other universe.

When you put on the goggles and earphones, you’re gone. You are immersed in another world. The only thing that makes it just shy of The Matrix is that you know you’re doing it.

I had also seen the panel session “Digital Storytelling,” which featured Jon Kamen, the CEO of @Radical.media, as well as Eileen Naughton, a VP of Global Accounts and Agencies at Google.

One of the main takeaways from the session was that there’s no need to qualify “digital” storytelling. That is, you’re just telling stories. (Speakers at the most recent Advertising Week Europe made a similar point, citing myth as the root of stories.)

Learning on Film, Going Digital

In talks with Adrian and Craig, after Advertising Week had ended, a similar question arose. Is the story within a movie different when it is shot on film, digitally, in 3-D, in 360 VR?

“You can’t have 360 video on film. I think that a 35 millimeter print is the best looking print that you can have. I’d still rather have the continuity of space and time recorded by 360 video. This is a unique advantage,” Craig said.

A friend offered me a similar sentiment about why he shoots photographs on film. “There’s something often missing that I have found in film. Part of it without any doubt is that I (and you) are of the last generation really schooled on film before we were taught digital.”

Is it really true? The last generation?

I believe that learning with low-technology methods cultivates a sensitivity that allows for stronger outcomes when using high technology. DJs like Funkmaster Flex (who entertained us at Advertising Week) learned how to scratch on Grandma’s lousy turntables, before switching to Vestax or Technics; it’s the same thing.

In the fine arts as well, there are expressions that exist only in the digital domain. They have never been “digitized” because they always were digital. This is where I make the distinction.

See, for example, Pipilotti Rist, “Ever Is Over All 1997.”

Why Limit the Scope of ‘Second Screens’?

“When we listened to the panels, we heard a lot about second screens,” Adrian said, “About the need for immersion, engagement. But nobody seemed to be even aware of 360-degree video, let alone virtual reality storytelling, which is the perfect application to solve those problems.”

The Aspect of Choice

I asked the duo about those old Choose Your Own Adventure books.

“The element of choice, or agency, is primarily what defines a video game (as distinct from a movie),” they said. And they are planning for the technology’s use in video game applications.

What about going to a movie and identifying with a character? Don’t we already lose ourselves into a film when we watch it at the theater?

“You really start to consider [characters] as real people, not just characters who we passively project ourselves onto. Film is the primary way we can share experiences we haven’t had. 360 video lets us push that level of empathy even further.”

The exciting thing about this is that people can start telling new stories or old stories, in a way that is more faithful to the reality we all experience.

“You can step onto a battlefield and see the carnage all around you. You can get lost in the jungle, never relying on the camera to point you in the right direction. You can speak your vows to the person you love as your family watches on behind you,” the duo said.

These are new and unique feelings, relationships, and worlds that you can experience for the first time with this technology.

“This constitutes nothing less than the birth of a new medium, and we’re excited to be a part of it.”