Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Nonfiction cinematic VR productions (CVR) are considered here as social situations performed by filmed subject and spectator alike. Drawing on theories of performativity in nonfiction, the filmed subject is considered as enacting their identities on a stage determined in part by the constraints of filming: In CVR it is the 360° VR camera around which they perform. The VR camera positions and constructs the spectator in a manner similar to conventional film-viewing but with additional bodily agency that comes with omnidirectional perspective. The perceptual realism achieved by cinematic VR (as a photographic-immersive form) fosters a level of presence and identification between the spectator and the filmed subject that prompts a co-performance of sorts where meaning emerges in a manner specific to CVR as the subject and spectator negotiate its stage. As a study of an immersive filmic form, multimodal discourse analysis (MMDA) allows for the combining of existing methods of discourse analysis developed for the film image with diverse analytical tools apt in examining the body in space (architecture and proxemics for example). The sociological component is addressed through the dramaturgical theories of Erving Goffman whose ideas centre on meaning as emerging as engagements between participants in micro-social situations. By analysing CVR as a series of perceived micro-engagements between the spectator and the filmed subject on the CVR stage, a picture emerges of how meaning is constructed in the CVR text.