Let’s be real. Virtual reality is having a moment. Headsets are shipping, people are talking and VR is popping up all over pop culture in weird, interesting ways. It feels sweepingly omnipresent all of a sudden, like there was this plan in place to make VR a part of all of our lives and now that plan is in motion. And so people ask me what it’s like to work in the virtual reality industry. This is a hard question to answer in an interesting way. It’s difficult? It’s exciting? It’s crazysexycool? Yes. But also:
Working in virtual reality is like being a first year resident on a primetime medical drama
Not that I ever watched “Grey’s Anatomy” because for sure I never did but somehow I know that the pilot episode covered the first 48 hours in the residency of Meredith Grey and friends, just like the pilot episode of “Scrubs” covered J.D. and co.’s first day. There’s a reason for this. It’s the ultimate example of being thrust into the fire. You’ve just spent the last few years huddled quietly over cadavers in university operating theatres and now suddenly there’s gunshot wounds and pregnant ladies and stroke victims coming at you! That’s virtual reality right, spring 2016. We’ve all spent the last few years huddled over our computers and now a bus has overturned on the interstate and they’re all about to stream right through the front door.
Working in virtual reality is like being in a college jazz band
If you’re playing in a college jazz band, then clearly you really like jazz and playing music in general. You’re probably naturally talented and have devoted enough of your life to it that you’re going to be pretty good. It’s likely that some of you will even go on to be professional musicians, enough at least that the band is a very serious endeavor. But at the same time, you’re also kinda there to experiment, which means it’s kinda great and a little bit encouraged that you never really know which note you’re going to play next until you actually play it.
Working in virtual reality is like that part in the heist movie where one guy has to shut off the bank’s alarm system right before the rest of the crew breaks through the door and it looks like he’s not going to make it but then, right before they hit the door, he cuts the right wire and the alarm goes down!
That’s about as good as an analogy for the current VR post-production process as any. There’s this incredibly complicated series of events that all have to happen in a very specific order at a very specific time and it all seems super shaky, technologically-speaking, and inevitably there’s this moment when the whole thing looks like it’s about to go to shit. Sometimes it does and the coppers nab you. Sometimes it doesn’t and you get away with the score of a lifetime. And by the way, if we’re riding with this analogy, than VR Playhouse is the crew in Oceans 11! Slick, sexy, never get caught.
Working in virtual reality is like being on the Steve Nash-era Phoenix Suns
Those of us diehard basketball fans know that the Phoenix Suns of the mid-’00s, when Nash was their point guard and Mike D’Antoni was their coach, were a historically fun team. Their slogan was “Seven Seconds or Less” to describe how quickly they moved the ball upcourt and their fluid, improvisational style thrilled fans and revolutionized the game. They set the stage for a new kind of play, one that the current Golden State Warriors, among others, are turning into the future of basketball.
Working in virtual reality is like that part in “Hook” when The Lost Boys sit down to eat dinner and at first Peter doesn’t get it but then he realizes that he can just imagine whatever food he wants to eat.
You’re doing it, Peter! You’re doing it!