Cinematic Virtual Reality: Towards an Optics of Eco-Screenwriting

Whilst cinematic virtual reality (CVR) has just a brief history, there are notable shifts in its trajectory. After an early wave of theorisation which centred on CVR as a lens-based medium remediated from traditional filmmaking practices, the conversation has drifted in two directions. The first is in relation to the momentum of software-driven animated VR story worlds fuelled by computer graphics software such as Unity and Unreal Engine. The second, and the focus of this chapter, is the trend in ‘Eco’ screen stories reorientated from a human, or anthropocentric, perspective towards the ecological ‘dramas’ of the Anthropocene. This chapter investigates this new optics of screenwriting by tracing the impact of the photographic lens on cinematic visualisation from screen development to production. The history of the filmic lens and its impact on screen storytelling is revealed to be one of friction annexed to the anthropocentric basis for classical screen narration. This chapter proposes that the optics of screenwriting is an important consideration in the cinematic visualisation and scripting of stories for virtual reality media and that, whilst spatialised fisheye vision may be at odds with anthropocentric storytelling it is ‘fit for purpose’ for eco-stories for the screen.