The star in VR

ABSTRACT

Since the mid-2010s there has been sustained investment in Virtual Reality (VR) media and technology, aiming to target a mass consumer market; however the industry is far from stable and challenges of adoption for the mass consumer entertainment market remain. This article examines how film stardom is being employed as a means of facilitating VR, aiding negotiation and engagement with new technologies, texts, audiences and markets. It considers the potential cultural, textual and economic significance of the film star to this emergent media technology by identifying three independent-but-interrelated ways that stardom operates in VR. Firstly, as a discursive site where film stardom connotes quality and economic viability in the promotion of the VR platform. Secondly, as a textual structure that embodies the immersive nature of the VR text, reflecting VR’s own dichotomies of perception and presence. Thirdly, as a transmedia system, connecting global markets and enabling capital investment in both film and VR forms. Throughout all arenas, film star significance is located in continuing perceptions of their ability to act as bridging forces, and as images of quality and depth. This further reflects the parallels between stardom and VR, whereby both rely on the promise of immersive, expansive, connected experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual reality
• Hollywood
• promotion
• immersion
• film stardom
• distribution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Thomas

Sarah Thomas is Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Liverpool, UK. She is the author of the monographs James Mason (BFI Film Stars, 2018) and Peter Lorre – Face Maker: Stardom and Performance between Hollywood and Europe (Berghahn, 2012), and co-editor with Kate Egan of Cult Film Stardom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).