India is one of the biggest emerging markets for tech products, particularly smartphone technology. India also has a thriving creative film industry. It’s therefore not too much of a surprise that some enterprising filmmakers have chosen to combine the two to make India’s first virtual reality (VR) horror short.
The 12-minute short is titled Crackle and the creative team believe it is the first VR short-form horror film to come out of India. Crackle was developed by Eddie Avil and Ashley Rodrigues, who spoke to Hindustan Times about their experience with creating the short film.
Avil and Rodrigues reveal in the interview that they both come from a background of sound engineering and audio production, though they had previously dabbled in creating music videos. After a client asked about immersive marketing, they did some research into VR, which is where the genesis of what eventually become Crackle was born. Avil said: “I believe VR is one of the most radical technologies that have hit our world. It has the power to blur the lines of our reality once it converges with Haptic Technology. The possibilities are endless.”
The story behind Crackle is relatively simple; Five friends at a party decide to hold a séance, and that is where things take a dark and horrific turn, with the viewer right in the middle of the experience. Speaking about the experience filming the VR short, Rodrigues said: “ You have to unlearn all you learned about film making. In regular film making the camera man guides the viewer to show what the director wants them to see. While in a 360 video the viewer decides what they want to see. So it’s tricky to guide the viewer to where the action is and it’s quite possible that you may miss an experience or two when you first watch the film. Each time you watch the film you will get another perspective.”
The release date for Crackle has not yet been confirmed, but the creators are hoping to have the short available on YouTube 360 for viewing on most mobile VR devices, such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR.
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