The role of the Embodiment Director in virtual reality film production

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Virtual reality
• embodiment
• virtual reality filmmaking
• crew roles
• autoethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.