Is Virtual Reality the Future?
When USC film student Cosmo Scharf first proposed a meetup group for Angelenos interested in Virtual Reality (or VR), he was picturing something casual — like some guys sitting around on folding chairs. But then Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg plunked down $2 billion for fledgling goggle-maker Oculus VR.
So when Virtual Reality LA finally held its first gathering, it wasn’t in the back room at a dive bar, but on a high-tech sound stage at visual effects house Digital Domain. And it wasn’t just video game developers and fan boys lining up to strap clunky black goggles onto their faces. High profile movie and TV producers were there, looking to answer a couple of big questions.
Is VR’s future in the goggles being developed by Oculus, Sony and others, that you’ll use at home? Or is immersive entertainment the thing that will finally lure people out of their houses and back into movie theaters?
This story aired in 2014 on KCRW program Which Way, L.A.?
