What does it take to curate VR sections of film festivals?

Joe Hunting, co-curator of Raindance Immersive, explores themes and trends he has noticed this year.

Have you been showing VRChat performances?

This is the first year we are programming short films and music videos made in VRChat, but we have been showcasing VRChat worlds and live performances since 2020.

What general themes have you seen in VRChat as the curator of these film and music videos?

I wanted to celebrate the diversity of the VRChat community, and I intend for it to represent a diverse array of genres and themes. The programme has a lot of different genres - mysteries, documentaries, music videos - and I would like to think the themes are complex across the board.

Some consistent themes I have seen, which a lot of VRChat media fulfils, are the openness to gender fluidity and basing stories around the experience of social VR. These themes are expressed across a lot of the work, and shared by talented VRChat filmmakers who are expressing this art within such a freeing platform/context. I want to show complex stories from people we rarely see across film festivals.

What are the unique aspects of filmmaking inside VR from a technical perspective?

There are particular processes that are unique to VR. When it comes to blocking a scene, you're not limited by gravity or physical restraints; you can throw people around and really play with space in an abstract way. The virtual production cameras available inside VRChat allow for extreme movements giving low-budget indies the ability to create magical sequences that transcend limits, however there is an interesting balance of retaining elements of cinematic realism to allow audiences to relate easier.

Another unique aspect of production design is that you can create your own worlds and avatars in VRChat, for use as original film sets and characters. You will see filmmakers taking advantage of that in the Raindance programme, using cohesive art elements to build a great production design. That really excites me as I feel cohesive art direction is important to holding a film together, and you can take designs to an extreme in VRChat, for example linking avatars to react a particular way to the music of a world in real-time without rendering.