Rudy Carpio

This article presents a comprehensive account of the development of Gala, an interactive virtual reality film. This accessible approach involves a single designer working within the constraints of a limited budget while utilising the game engine Unity, the Zoom video conferencing platform, an iPhone, and the software Reallusion. The significance of Gala lies in its capacity to serve as an exemplar of accessible technologies, underlining its pragmatic use of 3D assets, avatars, and real-world data, all of which collectively emphasise innovation, making it not only accessible but also a relevant example of contemporary technological advancements driving new forms of expression. The article examines how these techniques might be used to create new forms of interactive and immersive storytelling and to create a new cinematic language within VR filmmaking. There is evidence that virtual film production is expanding as digital production equipment becomes more widely available, accelerating the development of virtual production tools and workflows. This study is significant for the traditional film production industry as it transitions to digital production technology.

Abstract Significant advances in virtual reality (VR) technology have called into question the traditional methods of cinema storytelling and dissemination. New VR devices, such as the Meta (Oculus) Quest, have expanded the possibilities for viewing movies. The purpose of this study is to compare the emotional and cognitive impacts of VR and traditional 2D movies. In this study, sixty volunteers were divided into two groups and presented a movie (Gala) in 2D or VR format. We employed a multimodal method to assess the cognitive and emotional effects of the film both during and after watching. Our technique combined self-reports, interviews, questionnaires, and objective heart rate and EEG brain activity data. After quantitative and qualitative evaluation, it was discovered, that regardless of media, there was a substantial influence of the movie on the emotional state of the participant’s mood. Moreover, compared to the traditional 2D-movie, the VR movie led to more consistent and robust positive effect on all aspects of self-rated affect. The difference in self-reported mood was corroborated by reduced EEG amplitudes in the beta frequency band, indicating higher levels of positive affectivity, which was only observed for the VR movie. Lastly, the VR movie also leads to overall higher self-rated immersion and engagement than the 2D version. Our results highlight the potential of VR movies to engage and emotionally affect audiences beyond traditional cinema. Moreover, our study highlights the value of using a multidisciplinary method for analysing audience impacts.

Filmmakers now have access to new cinematic pipelines that combine Virtual Reality (VR), allowing them to develop new immersive media for narrative and audience interaction. Traditional filmmaking approaches are limited when it comes to investigating the embodiment of VR and the underlying interaction between the user and the story in Embodied Virtual Reality (EVR) films. This study analyses four award-winning EVR films (Bonfire, The Line, The Key, and Wolves in the Walls) as case studies and proposes a set of heuristics to guide the production of new EVR films. The findings will be especially useful for independent filmmakers transitioning into EVR production, as well as the larger VR cinema community, in comprehending emergent VR storytelling.

This paper proposes the role of an emerging job role within the virtual reality (VR) film production crew. This role we call the Embodiment Director, involves assisting the VR Film Director in the accomplishment of true immersive film experiences through the use of game engines and VR peripherals. The Embodiment Director will manage the inception of haptics and stimuli technologies that allow for the embodiment of humans within a virtual environment, and they must guarantee precise synchronicity between physical and virtual counterparts, while overseeing the safety use of software and hardware during the entire production process of the VR film experiences. This paper offers a contemporary review of the key creative roles within traditional and virtual film production, in order to generate a concise and valid argument for the role of the Embodiment Director supported by autoethnography.

Under Fire is a 360-degree cinematic virtual reality film exploring the lived experience of conflict. The project investigates how embodied and immersive filmmaking techniques can convey the psychological and physical reality of being under fire, and how viewers experience presence, agency and empathy in conflict-themed VR. My contribution covers the creative research underpinning the production: a literature review of embodied VR and conflict representation, a creative research summary informing the directing approach, and a verified source base for the production team.

This project develops a framework for AI-mediated filmmaking, examining how generative and assistive AI tools are reshaping the creative roles, workflows and authorship of screen production. Drawing on practice-led research and case study analysis, it proposes a model for integrating AI into directing, previsualisation and post-production while preserving creative intent. A journal article for the Creative Industries Journal is in preparation.

Building on the heuristics for embodied VR films published in the Creative Industries Journal (2025), this project applies case study analysis to the Explosive Media corpus to test and extend directing heuristics for interactive and embodied virtual reality. It examines how the embodiment director role, viewer agency and narrative structure interact in practice, with the aim of producing a validated set of guidelines for immersive screen production and immersive brand experience design. A second journal article is in preparation.