Filmmaker Magazine’s readers have a broad spectrum of film interest from the super indie films to big budget to new media, so it makes sense that journalist Lauren Wissot and I had a lot to chat about. In her article “‘We Have Only Scratched the Surface of What is Possible in Erotic VR Media’: Jennifer Lyon Bell on her Fantasy Film Workshop and Creating Erotic VR,” we covered a lot. This has been one of my favorite interviews.
Fantasy To Film workshop & Virtual Reality empathy
She was right that I have been teaching my Fantasy Film (also known as “From Fantasy To Film”) workshop for several years now, so it was cool that she inspired me to think about how my workshop participants have changed over time.
I also very much enjoyed talking about the relationship between VR and empathy. Most of the articles written about VR these days assume that forcing the viewer into a first-person literal visual/audio “perspective” is sufficient to create empathy with that character. Though there’s some power in that, there are also limits. I was genuinely pleased to be able to discuss it. She mentions that our new virtual reality 360° film Second Date recently had its Continental European premiere at CPH:DOX Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, and seeing all the amazing VR documentaries there give me chance to talk with guests about my own perspective on how empathy works in a VR environment.
Full Filmmaker Magazine article here:
