As demand for VR content picks up, a host of exciting new companies have formed to answer the call. One of the companies I’ve got my eyes on is Fever Content, a new joint venture between VR guru Elia Petridis and VR music video and advertising specialist Craig Bernard. Members of the VR community will recognize both Elia and Craig as VR gurus (I was lucky enough to see the former speak at a Comic Con 2016 VR panel) who have been working with the medium for years. I caught up with Craig and Elia to discuss their thoughts on VR’s current status in pop culture, their history in working with VR, and what’s in store for the Fever set to spread around the world.
What draws you to VR? Did you have an “a-ha!” moment in which you saw the potential of the medium?
Elia: Three things draw me to VR. The medium itself and the awesome challenges, that have as yet, not been neither truly identified nor properly embraced. Agency, inclusion, proximity, immersion, etc.. all the buzz words the VR echo chamber keeps bouncing around. As an artist I’m delighted this has come about in my lifetime and I’m just transfixed in terms of how to express myself through this medium.
It’s context. VR in relation to other mediums. How it will influence the way stories are told in flatties. And what flatties have to offer VR. I truly believe them to be relatives, to be family, specifically for storytelling which is my why. Third, beyond the art of storytelling, the art of emotional medicine. The art of space and it’s marriage to how space can intentionally breed an emotion within you. Now it’s getting interesting.
Craig: Great question. The thing that drew me to VR was it’s complete lack of rules. It’s all new, and most of the technical ways we told stories before, just don’t work in this medium. So it’s the age-old idea of brand new lands, new horizons to explore that draws the explorer in me to Virtual Reality.
The ‘a-ha’ came early on in the medium, I think the Paul McCartney concert Chris Milk did allowed me to really see the potential, and where VR was at. It was like seeing the Lumiere Bros’ L’Arrivée d’un Train en Gare de la Ciotat
Your company is very new! Do you have any favorite projects you’ve worked on prior to teaming up for Fever Content?
Elia: Eye for an Eye brought me here, brought me to Craig. I’m very proud of Eye For An Eye because it does in VR what great stories are supposed to do while allowing you freedom that you’re not allowed in flatties. It makes you pose the question throughout the experience, “Damn! What’s going to happen next?” And when you’ve got a question, the experience is a step ahead of you with the answer, meanwhile, you can look anywhere you like. We’re about to upgrade Eye for an Eye with a focus trigger to motivate you to revisit the space. It’s exciting to think we could continue to feed an immersive space so you’d keep coming back.
Craig: The Eden ‘Drugs’ Experience I did prior to coming onboard at Fever, allowed me to really dig in and creatively flex in the medium. It was post-intensive, and I’m pretty confidant in that area, but we were all learning every day. Even the software companies were trying to help us figure out how to get it done, and were supplying us with beta programs to see what would work. It was in Stereo 3D as well as 360/VR. But for a music experience like Eden ‘Drugs’ to truly work, the audio needs to be just as immersive, and fortunately it was.
Elia, can you tell me more about your experience with VR narratives? How do you approach VR versus traditional film?
Elia: The snooze factor is the same. If it makes you snooze in a flattie, it’ll make you snooze in VR. I went to film school many moons ago, VR came about, the same questions apply. The medium is not an excuse for bad storytellers to jump on the bandwagon because they can block actors in a 360 space and claim themselves pioneers. You want to pioneer? Learn how to light evocatively over a stitch line. As in film school, the same questions remain: Does it have to be VR? Why? And are you holding our attention? Are you the captain of the tension in the piece? Is it as tight as it can be? But I want to be free and look around you might claim. But I’ve got to motivate you just as I have to motivate any other character in my story now.
What current tech are you guys working with? Do you have a go-to set-up?
Elia: We’re pure creative because we have hands in all sorts of tech. Tech serves us. We dream something up and then look up what tech can pull it off. If there isn’t one we simply ask, “Is that a no? Or is that an “It hasn’t been done yet.” We love our vendors and they love us because we push them.
Craig: I’m pretty tech obsessed, so part of what I do at Fever is build an ever evolving list of tech innovators and experiences that hold creative possibility. VR takes a village to make a project these days, it’s definitely not suited to be a singular, auteur driven experience; and so we’re big on teams, and collective approaches for this stage of the evolution.
In your opinion, what things need to happen for VR to be widely adopted by consumers?
Elia: We need to stop coveting it and get to work. And creative needs to sit at the top of its food chain. We need to nip bad habits in the bud. We have this amazing opportunity for a clean start in a brand new medium, we mustn’t bring our baggage with us. To that effect I’m a massive fan of Women in VR and SWITCH.
Craig: In my opinion, it’s purely about the creative. if you can make that special something that transcends barriers, pulls in people from all walks, that is the needed element for technology adoptions like VR to achieve their tipping point.
I also think VR/AR is a new and bountiful world for music artists and narrative brands to build on, and more importantly something fans can embrace.
Craig, what’s your creative philosophy when approaching a new music video project in VR?
Craig: My creative philosophy is always about taking what we’ve proven, what we’ve collectively learned to date in the medium we’re working, and using base that as our starting points for pushing into new ideation. I’m not a big believer in rewriting the rules every time, but contributing a new destination on our collective explorations. I’m lucky to have done that fairly consistently in my career.
Do you have anything exciting planned for the future for Fever Content that you can share?
Elia: Fever Content is the Radiohead of VR. I read an awesome Trent Reznor interview lately where he praised radiohead for not saturating the market. Mystique is important to us. Look forward to what’s coming, talk amongst yourselves, we promise we will not disappoint.
Craig: We’re out there right now — beyond any current mapped points of VR/AR and it’s exhilarating. There’s also a lot to be said about keeping things mysterious, allowing them their own space, but we’re so excited!
