By Olga Medved: This year, MIFF Listapad left the flat screens again. Each viewer had his personal screen in the form of glasses, working on the basis of a smartphone or a virtual reality headset. To achieve the maximum effect of full immersion, movie fans were sat in chairs with a 360-degree spin.
For the first time this technology was tested at last year's Listapad. The program has 17 shorts from Germany, France, Spain, Belarus, India, Poland, the UK, and Russia. All of them are in the original, and the timing does not exceed 10 minutes.
Pavel Firsov, a co-organizer of the VR Day at MIFF Listapad: "We have films that participate in other major festivals of the world. We asked their directors, their rights holders, and invited them to our festival and the majority agreed, so they are here now – both films and their directors."
Alexandre Perez, the director of classical and VR films (France): "VR films are interesting to shoot. It's like a puzzle for the crew. If we set the light, the viewer should not see it later, and I, as the director, and our cameraman should properly disguise it. As for the actors, it’s as if they live in a theatrical production, I can not fix them on a certain mark on the floor, because it will also be visible in the frame."
The industrial platform of MIFF Listapad 2017 has become a panel for discussions for about a dozen foreign filmmakers and producers working with the new format. Professionals shared their experience and discussed the features, advantages and prospects of immersive cinema.












