FILM MASKERADE MOVIE

This makes it possible to communicate with others during the show, which is an interesting thing to observe, since it goes against all social norms of appropriate audience behavior. The headphones are open-back, meaning that the audio from the “real reality” can mix with the audio from the virtual reality. I like to show that film because I think virtual reality is at a similar moment where people take what they are experiencing as real, as if it is actually happening to them, and the responses are great.After this introduction, everyone is seated in swivel chairs and they don their headsets and headphones. It is a single shot of a train moving toward the camera on choppy, silent, black-and-white film, but when it first came out in 1896, it sent people screaming from the theater.

FILM MASKERADE MOVIE

When people enter the theater, I greet them with the first movie ever made, “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat ,” which is a French film. To my knowledge, Maskerade is the only virtual reality theater in the world that offers a social, synchronized experience. In my opinion that is more like a virtual reality café than anything else. However, no one is watching the same thing at the same time. There is a cinema in Amsterdam where you can experience virtual reality with other people in the room.

Is Maskerade really the “world’s first virtual reality theater”?Ībsolutely. Mixed reality is the merging of real and virtual worlds to create a new environment.Ĭlubb recently discussed his work on the Maskerade concept. Clubb will close the experimental theater before he returns to MIT Sloan this fall, where he will work on his next endeavor-a mixed reality theater startup. “By the end of the semester, our focus had shifted toward solving the ‘social’ problem of virtual reality, to designing new physical environments where people can have a premium virtual reality experience that they can’t find at home,” Clubb said.Ībout 200 viewers have visited Maskerade Walla Walla since it opened July 1. Wearing synchronized Samsung Gear VR headsets and headphones, viewers pay between $8 and $12 to be whisked away on a trip around the world, explore a haunted house, or travel to Burning Man festival, all while they scream, laugh, and chat with one another in a shared theater experience.Ĭlubb created Maskerade in senior lecturer Bill Aulet’s New Enterprises class last year, where he also worked with fellow MBA students Jennifer Lee and Eileen Parra on developing a business plan for a virtual reality production and distribution company that would focus on performing arts and live theater. Clubb opened Maskerade, a 12-seat pop-up theater in Walla Walla, Washington, that resembles more of an art gallery than a movie theater. Today, most people experience virtual reality alone, but Riley Clubb, MBA ’17, has created a virtual reality theater that gives viewers a social, synchronized experience.

Film maskerade