Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2019 - 54

Pre-Production Planning
Joyner setting up the VR
camera. Photo by Gustavo
Raskosky.

Students in the Baylor University
VirtuOSO a capella group perform
in front of the VR camera. Photo by
Gustavo Raskosky.

has worked well for singular powerhouse disrupters like Tesla, the VR/AR
market was instead flooded with players, big and small, looking to capitalize
on the intense public interest of the moment. Many VR products have failed to
live up to their own publicity. As a result,
early predictions of VR's mass-market
adoption have consistently proven to
be overly optimistic. In June 2018, CCS
Insight predicted VR/AR devices sold
would reach 22 million in 2018, up from
2.2 million in 2015. Yet actual sales of
VR devices in 2018 totaled 8 million
units. A study published in April 2018 by

54 |

THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

FALL 2019

Greenlight Insights found that direct VR
experience was highest among respondents of Generation Z, with 55 percent
indicating they had tried it. Data for respondents above the age of 55 showed a
19 percent direct trial rate.
While research and development in
VR/AR tools continue, those companies
sticking it out are narrowing their focus
to select markets where consumer data
shows healthier profits, such as gaming,
training, and manufacturing. Theatre
practitioners must be content to adapt
and build upon the foundations afforded
by other industries.

Baylor University's typical workflow for
VR capture and distribution provides
an overview of processes and decisionmaking structures other theatre professionals are likely to experience. Baylor's
Department of Theatre Arts recently
partnered with the Film and Digital Media department on a VR experience that
would serve as a both the central project
for a semester-long production course,
as well as a useful recruitment and fundraising piece. During the pre-production
process for this theatrical reimagining
of Adele's Water under the Bridge, performed by Baylor's a capella group, the
team decided that high-quality immersion should be key to the experience.
The narrative of the piece would transport the viewer center stage while the
performers, and their harmonies, swirl
around them.
In a practical sense, this decision
meant that the viewers needed to be
wearing VR headsets as opposed to
watching via a desktop browser. Conveying realistic depth was integral to making the viewers "feel" as though they are
onstage, so stereoscopic depth capture
was required. Additionally, because the
team wanted the performers' choreography to surround the viewer in a dynamically changing harmonic landscape,
spatial audio reproduction was planned
into the post-production editing process.
The final piece was loaded onto Oculus
Go headsets with built-in headphones
and experienced by 100+ potential donors at a large capital fundraising event.
Before embarking on a VR project,
it's important to consider what makes
VR best suited for the particular project.
What tangible outcomes should result
from this VR piece and its associated
production process? Whether VR is being used to create content for student
recruitment, box office marketing, donor
engagement, or simply for the pedagogical merit of leading students through the
VR production process, the motivation
behind the creation of the piece should
have a foundational impact on the piece
itself. The established outcomes should
then meaningfully inform decisions to be
made about the user's experience as well
as the distribution method.
Essentially, decide what the audience needs to hear, see, and do in the experience being created, and from there,

Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2019