Speaker 1: Reinventing the movie night with virtual reality. What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm rich Demiro. This is rich On Tech. A company
Speaker 1: named Dreamscape wants to reinvent the movie night with the
Speaker 1: magic of virtual reality. Yes, I know you've heard about
Speaker 1: virtual reality before, but this is one of the better
Speaker 1: applications of it, perhaps maybe the best. Dreamscape just opened
Speaker 1: their first permanent location at Westfield Century City. This is
Speaker 1: a beautiful outdoor mall that was just remodeled in West
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. But back to Dreamscape Immersive. This is a
Speaker 1: new company backed by Hollywood studios including twenty first Century Fox, WarnerMedia, Viacom,
Speaker 1: and there's also legendary creators on board like Steven Spielberg
Speaker 1: and Hans Zimmer.
Speaker 2: Our backgrounds come from Disney imagineering and motion pictures, and
Speaker 2: I think that at our heart, it's trying to blend
Speaker 2: the visceral excitement of a great Disney theme park ride
Speaker 2: with the emotional satisfaction of a Hollywood movie, all being
Speaker 2: presented through this extraordinary new technology.
Speaker 1: That's Walter Parks, one of the co founders and a
Speaker 1: big time Hollywood producer himself. He's done a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: including co writing the movie war games. He also produced
Speaker 1: the Men in Black series and lots of other Hollywood hits.
Speaker 2: It's both daunting and maybe the most exciting thing I've
Speaker 2: ever been involved in, because you're right, it's a new form,
Speaker 2: it's a new technology, it's a new business model. It's
Speaker 2: everything about this is new. Plus it's not just that
Speaker 2: we're making these things. We're sort of creating the technology
Speaker 2: and we're creating these these centers. So I guess at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, it all comes down to
Speaker 2: that wonderful line from a Field of Dreams. If you
Speaker 2: build it, they will come. I think that we believe
Speaker 2: that if we create these extraordinary, you know, welcoming, very
Speaker 2: non tech sorts of environments and create emotionally satisfying and
Speaker 2: exciting adventures for people to do, they will come.
Speaker 1: So what is dreamscape? Well, think movie, but you are
Speaker 1: part of the action. The setup when you walk in
Speaker 1: is reminiscent of an old timey movie theater. It invokes
Speaker 1: a sense of mystery and wonder. You purchase tickets for
Speaker 1: a show from an iPad, or you can do it
Speaker 1: ahead of time online. Currently there are three an alien
Speaker 1: themed zoo called Alien Zoo, an underwater adventure and another
Speaker 1: where you step into the action of an Indiana Jones
Speaker 1: style movie. So I've done the Alien Zoo and the
Speaker 1: Magic Projector one, which is the Indiana Jones style one,
Speaker 1: and they are both seriously cool.
Speaker 2: Technically, I guess you'd say that we are a new
Speaker 2: VR platform that offers a really extraordinary technology that actually,
Speaker 2: unlike most VR, renders you as a character inside a
Speaker 2: CG universe, so you literally enter the movie. It's something
Speaker 2: you do with your friends. We do it six people
Speaker 2: at the time. You're in complete touch with all of
Speaker 2: your senses, without any leg or latency, and it's really
Speaker 2: an extent of yourself into an imagined world.
Speaker 1: Parks believes this is the future of entertainment, what we
Speaker 1: would do on a Friday night movie style entertainment. But
Speaker 1: there's really no spectators. Everyone that attends is actually part
Speaker 1: of the action. And it's way better than VR in
Speaker 1: your living room because they've built a special place where
Speaker 1: you experience this. So the floors rumble, there's wind, they
Speaker 1: have sense that they pipe into this room, all these
Speaker 1: different physical effects that add to the immersion and put
Speaker 1: you inside the experience. But before you do that, you
Speaker 1: have to put on a bunch of VR equipment, including
Speaker 1: motion trackers on your hands and feet, a VR headset,
Speaker 1: plus a backpack to power at all.
Speaker 3: Unlike other VR experiences where which are much more vrcade,
Speaker 3: we are evoking the sense of traveling. So this almost
Speaker 3: feels a bit like a train station.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: We know people are in a mall, They're gonna have packages.
Speaker 3: We have places to put things, you know, and feel comfortable.
Speaker 3: We also went from a standing up model that we
Speaker 3: used to do to sitting down. In fact that you
Speaker 3: can take a seat right now if you want. This
Speaker 3: allows people to be much more comfortable. It also levels
Speaker 3: out where the backpack is and I think really evokes
Speaker 3: a sense of a premium experience. And again it's sort
Speaker 3: of cozy, and I think it's giving this people a
Speaker 3: sense of reassurance and a sense of going on the journey.
Speaker 1: Bruce Vaughan is CEO of Dreamscape Immersive. His background is
Speaker 1: Disney Imagineering. See where this is all going. I'm with
Speaker 1: him in the room where you suit up before your adventure.
Speaker 1: This is the part where things kind of get real.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit intimidating. Actually, if you've never done
Speaker 1: VR before, you start to wonder, am I going to
Speaker 1: get sick? Is this going to be fun? Is this
Speaker 1: going to be scary? Think of that part of the
Speaker 1: theme park ride where you wait in line, but here
Speaker 1: you're getting prepped for real.
Speaker 3: Putting on the equipment. You could look at it as
Speaker 3: something that would be disconcerting, maybe a bit of a
Speaker 3: time consumption thing. Operationally, we've actually embraced it, like going
Speaker 3: on any adventure, whether it be ziplining or diving, you
Speaker 3: put on scooby gear, you put on a harness, and
Speaker 3: there's a bit of a sense of commitment to the
Speaker 3: overall looks experience and a sense of adventure that gets
Speaker 3: heightened by that. So we're not playing it right now,
Speaker 3: but we have background music in here that was actually
Speaker 3: created by Hans Zimmer's group, you know, all for this
Speaker 3: kind of experience. We do lighting changes throughout the experience.
Speaker 3: So we really are looking at this as the final
Speaker 3: ritual in the physical world before you step into the
Speaker 3: virtual world.
Speaker 1: And of course, since I'm a germophobe, I had to
Speaker 1: ask the obvious question about the ickiness factor. After all,
Speaker 1: lots of random people are wearing the same VR equipment
Speaker 1: you are all day long.
Speaker 3: After every show, or before every show, or however you
Speaker 3: want to look at it, we have a one of
Speaker 3: our cast members comes in and cleans all everything that
Speaker 3: touches you. All of the materials have been chosen to
Speaker 3: be you know, hyperilergenic, cleanable, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: We're very serious about that.
Speaker 1: Next to you head into that specially outfitted VR room
Speaker 1: and the best part is when they sort of turn
Speaker 1: on the experience, when it all starts. Suddenly you see
Speaker 1: an avatar like virtual version of yourself and the other
Speaker 1: people in your group around you. It's really tough to
Speaker 1: explain this moment, but the first time it ever happened
Speaker 1: to me, it was so seriously cool. Now, the experience
Speaker 1: starts out like a typical movie, but then you're on
Speaker 1: your way picking up tools and physically walking through the adventure.
Speaker 1: At one point you might be touching a creature that
Speaker 1: you can actually feel, and it might even have a
Speaker 1: wet nose. You're carrying a flashlight perhaps, or walking through
Speaker 1: a maze. Now you're not moving very much. It's all
Speaker 1: around this small room, but because of VR, it feels
Speaker 1: very epic. The best way I can describe it is
Speaker 1: sort of a ride slash adventure taking place in a
Speaker 1: make believe world. The experience inside the room probably lasts
Speaker 1: less than twenty minutes, but the entire experience you could
Speaker 1: probably spend maybe an hour there by the time you
Speaker 1: buy your tickets, wait and get suited up, and then
Speaker 1: talk about it afterwards.
Speaker 2: If you have expectations about VR based on what you've done,
Speaker 2: put them aside, because this is a very different experience
Speaker 2: and come and be, as we say in one of
Speaker 2: our experiences, can be the hero of your own story.
Speaker 2: This is all about something we've learned as we're learning.
Speaker 2: This is creating experiences in which you're not seeing other
Speaker 2: characters reveal a story, but it is your own part
Speaker 2: in the story which is essential, and so far people
Speaker 2: have found it very satisfying.
Speaker 1: The movie chain AMC is an investor in Dreamscape makes Sense.
Speaker 1: The company is working with them to open new locations
Speaker 1: at malls across America. The next locations are all in malls.
Speaker 1: They're going to be in Dallas, Paramus, New Jersey, Garden State, Yes,
Speaker 1: my home state, Long Island, and Columbus, Ohio. Tickets for
Speaker 1: the experience, at least at Century City are twenty dollars
Speaker 1: if you haven't tried VR, this is the one to
Speaker 1: make your first, all right. If you want more information
Speaker 1: on Dreamscape, you can go to my website, rich on
Speaker 1: tech dot Tv. There you can watch the TV segment
Speaker 1: I did on it for KTLA, or you can check
Speaker 1: the show notes for a link. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: listening to the show, and thanks to everyone who has
Speaker 1: purchased my book one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips
Speaker 1: for the iPhone. I would love it if you'd leave
Speaker 1: a review on Amazon. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you real soon.