The metaverse may seem like something that has appeared all of a sudden but it's actually not. Over the past 50 years almost all the technological advances in content consumption & creation have lead us to this point. Over the past decades our goal has been to draw the viewer closer & closer to the content and make the content experience more & more immersive. And the metaverse is the current answer to the question “What Next?”

1. What’s up with the Metaverse?!
A film school’s approach to immersive engagement
Chaitanya Chinchlikar
chaitanya.c@whistlingwoods.net
Vice President & Business Head, CTO & Head of Emerging Media

2. About Whistling Woods International…
India’s premier film, communication and creative arts institute.

3. WWI
The Hollywood Reporter has rated
Whistling Woods International amongst the
Best film schools in the world.

4. ACHIEVEMENTS
GLOBAL ACCLAIM
• Amongst the 10 best film schools in the world - The Hollywood Reporter
• A Global Institute of Influence - Forbes India
• Best Creative & Performing Arts Institute in India - FICCI
PIONEERING EDUCATION
Producing I Digital Cinematography I MBA in Media & Entertainment I Content Creation for Digital Platforms I
3D Stereoscopic Filmmaking I Cinematic VR I Virtual Production
WWI has also launched India’s first Bachelors degree programs in Filmmaking, Acting and Music and
India’s first Masters programs in Filmmaking
DEVELOPMENT LABS
Sony Media Technology Centre (2011-present), REDucation Centre (2015-present),
YouTube Space Mumbai (2015-2019), Foxconn Media Lab (2016-present),
WWI Jio VR Lab (2018-present), WWI Emerging Media Lab (2020-present)
ALUMNI
3000+ alumni successfully working in the Media & Entertainment industry

5. Technology Labs
• Sony Media Technology
Centre (2011-present)
• REducation Centre (2015-
present)
• YouTube Space Mumbai
(2015-2019)
• Foxconn Media Lab (2016-
present)
• WWI Jio VR Lab (2018-
present)
• WWI Emerging Media Lab
(2020-present)

6. Let’s get to the point…
Or the sphere… (since it’s all going to be about immersive from here on) !

7. What is the immersive industry (metaverse)?

8. How did we get here?
What started first?:
- The journey towards OTT/Streaming platforms
OR
- The journey towards the Metaverse?
Common thought would say – OTT / streaming. Right?
After all, it started waaaay back in the day, when the internet was invented… Right?

9. How did we get here?
Well, NO!
The immersive industry actually started much earlier…
While the metaverse may seem like something that has appeared recently, but it hasn’t.
Over the past 50+ years almost ALL the technological advances in content consumpBon & creaBon have
actually lead us to this point. Over the past decades our goal has been to draw the viewer closer & closer
INSIDE the content and make the content experience more & more immersive.
Eg: Screen size, Digital-isaBon, ProjecBon, Imax, Stereoscopy, Atmos, Seats that wobble, etc.

10. Content ‘Experience’
• The consumption experience is
becoming as important is the
content.
• And as expected, the market has
responded to give the consumer
what they’re seeking.
The most potent tool for delivering experiences is IMMERSION

11. What is all this talk about immersion? !

12. SENSES
How many senses do humans have?

13. SENSES
◻ How many senses do humans have?
◻ The obvious answer is five: SIGHT, HEARING, TOUCH, SMELL & TASTE.
◻ But in reality, there are 27.
◻ In addition to these 5 organ-based senses, there are:
¤ 4 Perception-based senses
¤ 18 other Organ based senses

14. Senses
Perception based senses
¤ Time
¤ Agency (control)
¤ Familiarity
¤ Sensing gravity
Organ Based Senses
¤ Balance
¤ Temperature
¤ Proprioception (Kinesthetic
sense)
¤ Pain
¤ Sexual stimulation
¤ Hunger
¤ Thirst
¤ Breathing
¤ Suffocation
¤ Intoxication
¤ Vasodilation (Blushing)
¤ Digestion
¤ Swallowing / Vomiting
¤ Gagging
¤ Urination
¤ Vasodilation caused Pain
¤ Cardioception
¤ UV Radiation Detection

15. Senses
Perception based senses
¤ Time
¤ Agency (control)
¤ Familiarity
¤ Sensing gravity
¤ IMMERSION
Organ Based Senses
¤ Balance
¤ Temperature
¤ Proprioception (Kinesthetic
sense)
¤ Pain
¤ Sexual stimulation
¤ Hunger
¤ Thirst
¤ Breathing
¤ Suffocation
¤ Intoxication
¤ Vasodilation (Blushing)
¤ Digestion
¤ Swallowing / Vomiting
¤ Gagging
¤ Urination
¤ Vasodilation caused Pain
¤ Cardioception
¤ UV Radiation Detection

16. IMMERSION
◻ IMMERSION
The impact of immersion on other senses (the ability of activating the sense gating
mechanism of the brain) has caused science to treat immersion as a sense.
◻ Two types of Immersion:
¤ Physical / Technical Immersion
¤ Cognitive Immersion:
• SpaBal Immersion
• Temporal Immersion
• Spacio-Temporal Immersion
• EmoBonal Immersion

17. Where are we right now with the immersive world?

18. The Dunning-Kruger Curve
Cinematic VR
Metaverse
Augmented Reality
Virtual Production

19. Is the immersive platform unique?
YES!

20. Content & Platforms
Cinema TV Digital/OTT
Birth Late 1800s 1930s Late 1990s
Narrative
Influence
High Medium Very High
Visual
Influence
Very High Medium Medium – to – High
Audio
Influence
Very High Low Low – to – Medium
Immersion
Impact
Mid – to – High Low Very Low
WHAT ELSE?

21. Content & Platforms
Cinema TV Digital/OTT Immersive
Birth Late 1800s 1930s Late 1990s ?
Narrative
Influence
High Medium Very High Medium
Visual
Influence
Very High Medium Medium – to – High Very High
Audio
Influence
Very High Low Low – to – Medium Very High
Immersion
Impact
Mid – to – High Low Very Low Very High

22. So, what do we do inside this immersive world? !
We ENRICH ourselves with ‘experiences’
And we LIVE our lives…
And we use some of its tools to make content…

23. Experiential – Functional – Production
Functional
¤ Going to ‘work’ /
running a business
¤ Shopping
¤ Education
¤ Social experiences
¤ and more…
◻ Experiences
¤ Cinematic VR
¤ Live VR (Concerts,
Sports, etc)
¤ Gaming
¤ Tourism?
¤ and more…
Production
¤ Photogrammetry
¤ Volumetric Capture
¤ Various types of
Virtual Production
¤ and more…
Today we will talk more about Experiences and less about the other two.

24. That’s a lot!

25. What is our approach to teaching content creators
about the immersive world?

26. How do we approach this?
• Understand the unique production / narrative / experiential needs of each experience
• Teach students idea-to-consumption pipelines for these experiences
• Understand what experience the functional metaverse needs to provide to make it attractive.
Also, teach students this:
• Don’t bore people – experience without engagement is pointless
• Don’t confuse people – immersive content is not a treasure hunt
• Don’t give people whiplash – contextually 360deg but content-wise between 160-210deg
• Don’t give people a headache / nausea

27. Understand the ‘experience levers’
AGENCY /
CONTROL
LIVE

28. What has Whistling Woods done so far in Immersive?
• Multiple Fiction VR Shorts
• Multiple ‘13th episode’ content pieces for OTT shows (still ongoing)
• Shot the largest gathering of humanity on earth – the Kumbh Mela 2019 – where over 220
million people congregated over 51 days, in a specially created city in northern India.
• Currently documenting the making / construction of India’s largest & longest underground
Metro line.
• Worked on a short film – ‘Golden Jubilee’. Undertook Volumetric Capture, Photogrammetry
and CG-only virtual production shots. The film has been to over a dozen festivals now.

30. What have we learnt?

31. Cinematic VR
• A VR 'film' is an 'experience' of which the Story, Visuals, Sound, Immersion & Interactivity are
all parts. Work on all of them during the ‘writing’.
• Cinematic grammar needs to be re-written for frameless / immersive content.
– Develop a spatial visual view – a 360 mindset
– A deeper study of Immersion as a sense is needed by all filmmakers.
– Directing Attention is the new craft to be learnt by the filmmaker.
– The viewers eyes are your viewfinder & your frame
– Solving people’s FOMO is the big challenge.
• Intuitive Filmmaking is needed - Think of why & how you would look at something.
• Every VR shot is a VFX shot.

32. Cinematic VR
Film / Theatrical TV Digital/OTT Cinematic VR
Nature of
Viewing
Captive Community viewing
Non-captive Family
viewing
Non-captive Individual
viewing
Captive Individual viewing
Platform
Viewing Details
Fixed frame, large screen,
2D & 3D
Fixed frame, small screen,
2D
Fixed frame, mini screen,
2D
FRAMELESS, 2D & 3D,
Duration &
Structure
110-180 mins
60-100 scenes
1-8 shots / scene
22–44 mins
8-10 scenes
1-20 shots / scene
3–60 mins
2-20 scenes
1-4 shots / scene
60secs - 60mins
Fiction Content
Structure
Primarily stand-alone,
marginally serial
Primarily serial, marginally
stand-alone
Equal amount of stand-
alone & serial content
Equal amount of stand-
alone & serial content
USP
Larger Than Life,
Audio-visual narrative
spectacle
Appointment Viewing,
Story & Character
development
Individuality,
High concept, less
formulaic, writing-focused,
pace is critical
Immersive & interactive

33. Live Sports Production
• Don’t conflate production for broadcast with production for immersive
• Go back to first principles of:
– Information
– Experience
And produce for them, given the pros / cons of the immersive production pipeline
• Don’t shun the existing content feeds. Build on them.
• Use the frameless medium appropriately to do more than is possible on broadcast

34. Application of Virtual Production?
• The biggest mistake that the industry makes is to assume that ALL content should be produced
using this pipeline.
• Virtual Production is not meant only for BIG productions like Mandalorian or Blade Runner
2049, etc. Virtual Production has a specific function, a specific use and that is what it should be
used for, and for that ONLY. Right use of it even for just one or 2 shots can add huge value.
• It definitely has a place in the film production ecosystem and producers / directors / technicians
need to make specific decisions whether to deploy VP for certain shots.

35. Virtual Production Pipeline reimagined
Gaming Engine
(Virtual Production
enabled)
Action Assets
- Live Action actors
- Physical Props
- Volumetric Captured assets
- CG created Animated Models
- CG created MoCap assets
- CG created photogrammetry
assets
The World
- Real Set
- Blended Set – Real + Virtual
- Virtual Set (Green Screen/LED)
- Photogrammetry Set
- 360 photograph
- Pre-shot video / photo
- Game-engine created world
360 VR video (3DoF)
Camera, Motion &
Object tracking
Flatscreen video 2D / 3D 6DoF volumetric experience
Output Format
+

36. Are there any problems?

37. Problems… a plenty…
• Biological safety about the wearable headset
• Privacy – biohacking – iris tracking / pupil dilation tracking
• Business Model is linked to cryptos / tokens
• DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) vs Investors
• The Virtual Production pipeline is still too scattered with very few standardisation
• Judicious use of Virtual Production

38. Is there money at the end of these troubles?

39. VR – Industry / Revenue / Units
The number of VR devices shipped was
13.48 million units in 2020, expected to
reach 112.62 mn units by 2026, with a
CAGR of 33.85% between 2021-26.
The global VR content market is
expected to reach US$ 84.09bn by 2028,
exhibiting a CAGR of 44.8% between
2021-2028.
As of January 2020
As of January 2022

40. Some more good news…

41. There is consumer interest in immersive experiences

42. Headsets are becoming sleeker

43. We have decent competition in VR
Headset image
not found !‍‍‍

44. In Summary…
The journey must be made…
We need to learn from our mistakes and move on…

45. The Dunning-Kruger Curve
Cinematic VR
Metaverse
Augmented Reality
Virtual Production

46. THANK YOU
Chaitanya Chinchlikar
Vice President & Business Head
Chief Technology Officer & Head of Emerging Media
chaitanya.c@whistlingwoods.net