Samsung's VR thriller series shows how virtual reality can add a new dimension to film

Samsung has been talking up the benefits of virtual reality lately. It brought us the story of how virtual reality training can help people overcome their fear of public speaking and heights. Now it's proving that VR has a role to play in filmmaking as well. Samsung introduced a VR mystery-thriller called Gone at SXSW, the series is about a girl who goes missing and the subsequent search effort to find her.

Since the film has been shot in 360 degrees viewers are not limited to just one angle. The scene opens to a children's playground and while the kids play their mothers are engrossed in conversation on a bench. Viewers can decide to stay focused on the women and listen to them talk or look around the playground to see where the children are playing. Viewers can thus explore an entire scene in the series to look for hints related to the abduction. They can also try and find “hot spots” which allow them to zoom in and take a closer look at an object from a different vantage point. The idea here is to enable maximum re-watchability for viewers so that they can watch the film again and again to discover all of the different views and uncover part of the story that they might have previously missed.

Gone, produced by the creators of The Walking Dead, is available through Samsung's Milk VR app.

Adnan Farooqui - Executive Editor

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First Samsung device: SGH-E900

Adnan Farooqui is a long-term writer at SamMobile. Based in Pakistan, his interests include technology, finance, Swiss watches and Formula 1. His tendency to write long posts betrays his inclination to being a man of few words.

Via Virtual Reality Milk VR