Action Units: Exploring the Use of Directorial Cues for Effective Storytelling with Swivel-chair Virtual Reality

Tong, Lingwei; Jung, Sungchul; Li, Chen; Lindeman, Robert W.; Regenbrecht, Holger

doi:10.1145/3441000.3441063

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…When 360-degree cameras became widely available, practitioners and researchers also explored and came up with guidelines for creators to capture engaging footage and effectively tell stories. Those guidelines include the principles of arranging story elements in the scene, the placement of the camera and characters, and the gestures and body language for human actors to use with the purpose of direct the viewer's attention in the immersive media without using non-diegetic objects (Pope et al, 2017;Syrett et al, 2017;Gödde et al, 2018;Bender, 2019;Tong et al, 2020). Later, as 360-degree video became more widely available and easily accessible for the general public, it was no longer a simple medium for short-term excitement.…”

Section: Interactive Cinematic Virtual Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the Structure Guidelines, we looked at structures summarized by researchers from other immersive media, such as video games and VR games, and migrated them to narrative CVRs with proper modifications. The Content Creation Guidelines were distilled from previous projects and assembled them from verified film techniques, including the Mise-en-scène, camera manipulation, and guidance techniques such as the Action Units (Tong et al, 2020), to cover the preparation and capturing stage. For Assembly Guidelines and interaction design, we evaluate and choose interactive methods for each of the structures and see which one fits.…”

Section: Foundation Of the Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adaptive Playback Control: A Framework for Cinematic VR Creators to Embrace Viewer Interaction

Tong¹,

Lindeman²,

Regenbrecht³

2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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Content creators have been trying to produce engaging and enjoyable Cinematic Virtual Reality (CVR) experiences using immersive media such as 360-degree videos. However, a complete and flexible framework, like the filmmaking grammar toolbox for film directors, is missing for creators working on CVR, especially those working on CVR storytelling with viewer interactions. Researchers and creators widely acknowledge that a viewer-centered story design and a viewer’s intention to interact are two intrinsic characteristics of CVR storytelling. In this paper, we stand on that common ground and propose Adaptive Playback Control (APC) as a set of guidelines to assist content creators in making design decisions about the story structure and viewer interaction implementation during production. Instead of looking at everything CVR covers, we set constraints to focus only at cultural heritage oriented content using a guided-tour style. We further choose two vital elements for interactive CVR: the narrative progression (director vs. viewer control) and visibility of viewer interaction (implicit vs. explicit) as the main topics at this stage. We conducted a user study to evaluate four variants by combining these two elements, and measured the levels of engagement, enjoyment, usability, and memory performance. One of our findings is that there were no differences in the objective results. Combining objective data with observations of the participants’ behavior we provide guidelines as a starting point for the application of the APC framework. Creators need to choose if the viewer will have control over narrative progression and the visibility of interaction based on whether the purpose of a piece is to invoke emotional resonance or promote efficient transfer of knowledge. Also, creators need to consider the viewer’s natural tendency to explore and provide extra incentives to invoke exploratory behaviors in viewers when adding interactive elements. We recommend more viewer control for projects aiming at viewer’s participation and agency, but more director control for projects focusing on education and training. Explicit (vs. implicit) control will also yield higher levels of engagement and enjoyment if the viewer’s uncertainty of interaction consequences can be relieved.

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Section: Interactive Cinematic Virtual Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Foundation Of the Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Playback Control: A Framework for Cinematic VR Creators to Embrace Viewer Interaction

Tong¹,

Lindeman²,

Regenbrecht³

2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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“…They point out that when seated (the most common way to view CVR), viewers spent a larger amount of time looking towards the front and showed less exploratory behavior. Tong et al [15] also explored the preferred user scenario for 360-degree videos, and coined the term "Swivel-chair VR" to specify the preferred way to consume 360-degree video content (seated, instead of standing). Swivel-chair VR describes a scenario where the viewer watches a 360-degree video while sitting in a swivel chair, wearing a VR headset.…”

Section: Choosing the Viewer's Rolementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most common and easily accessible form of CVR is 360-degree video. Like traditional filmmaking, the viewer takes a seated or standing pose, watching a 360-degree video with either a flat-screen device or wearing an HMD [15]. In both cases, the only user input is to choose in which direction to look at any given time.…”

Section: Zero Interactivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the viewing experience of swivel-chair CVR is quite different from traditional cinema. Firstly, although both are normally experienced while seated, a CVR viewer is able to turn her head or chair to look around [15,16]. This freedom of head rotation means the viewer now controls where to look in the scene, changing the viewer's perception of their role, extending their interactivity and agency [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Viewer’s Role and Viewer Interaction in Cinematic Virtual Reality

2021

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Cinematic Virtual Reality (CVR) is a form of immersive storytelling widely used to create engaging and enjoyable experiences. However, issues related to the Narrative Paradox and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) can negatively affect the user experience. In this paper, we review the literature about designing CVR content with the consideration of the viewer’s role in the story, the target scenario, and the level of viewer interaction, all aimed to resolve these issues. Based on our explorations, we propose a “Continuum of Interactivity” to explore appropriate spaces for creating CVR experiences to archive high levels of engagement and immersion. We also discuss two properties to consider when enabling interaction in CVR, the depth of impact and the visibility. We then propose the concept framework Adaptive Playback Control (APC), a machine-mediated narrative system with implicit user interaction and backstage authorial control. We focus on “swivel-chair” 360-degree video CVR with the aim of providing a framework of mediated CVR storytelling with interactivity. We target content creators who develop engaging CVR experiences for education, entertainment, and other applications without requiring professional knowledge in VR and immersive systems design.

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