Oculus, the virtual reality company owned by Facebook, has created its first VR movie with the help of production studios Felix & Paul Studios and Funny Or Die, and on Thursday the company released the trailer.
Watch the slightly bizarre trailer for Oculus’ first ‘full-length VR film’
You, the viewer, are a character in the film.
Oculus financed the film, but isn’t saying how much it paid. It’s also billing the production, which is under 40 minutes long, as its first “full-length VR film.” That’s not exactly a Hollywood movie-length production, but it does feature real actors and has an actual script. Even if 40 minutes isn’t your traditional blockbuster length, we can confirm that it’s a looooong time to wear a VR headset if you aren’t used to wearing one.
For comparison, the VR film Oculus created with President Barack Obama in January was just eight minutes long.
The “full-length film” Oculus is showing off today is called “Miyubi,” and is about a top-of-the-line home robot from Japan and its life with an American family in 1982. What makes the film kinda freaky as a viewer is that you see the movie from the robot’s perspective. So that means actors are, at times, looking directly at you and talking very close to your face. Which is ... different.
“I don’t think that the model for Miyubi, where you are a literal character inside of the story, I don’t think it has to be that,” said Felix Lajeunesse, co-founder of Felix and Paul Studios. “It works for [this] specific concept. ... I think that one of the challenges but also one of the beauties of virtual reality as a storytelling medium is especially that fundamental question of, ‘how do you integrate the viewer into the story?’”
The film is available beginning today on Oculus. You can watch the trailer below.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
