Dreamscape Reinvents the Movie Night with VR

Reinventing the movie night with virtual reality. What's going on? I'm rich Demiro. This is rich On Tech. A company named Dreamscape wants to reinvent the movie night with the magic of virtual reality. Yes, I know you've heard about virtual reality before, but this is one of the better applications of it, perhaps maybe the best. Dreamscape just opened their first permanent location at Westfield Century City. This is a beautiful outdoor mall that was just remodeled in West

Our backgrounds come from Disney imagineering and motion pictures, and I think that at our heart, it's trying to blend the visceral excitement of a great Disney theme park ride with the emotional satisfaction of a Hollywood movie, all being presented through this extraordinary new technology.

That's Walter Parks, one of the co founders and a big time Hollywood producer himself. He's done a lot of stuff, including co writing the movie war games. He also produced the Men in Black series and lots of other Hollywood hits.

It's both daunting and maybe the most exciting thing I've ever been involved in, because you're right, it's a new form, it's a new technology, it's a new business model. It's everything about this is new. Plus it's not just that we're making these things. We're sort of creating the technology and we're creating these these centers. So I guess at the end of the day, it all comes down to that wonderful line from a Field of Dreams. If you

So what is dreamscape? Well, think movie, but you are part of the action. The setup when you walk in is reminiscent of an old timey movie theater. It invokes a sense of mystery and wonder. You purchase tickets for a show from an iPad, or you can do it ahead of time online. Currently there are three an alien themed zoo called Alien Zoo, an underwater adventure and another where you step into the action of an Indiana Jones

Technically, I guess you'd say that we are a new VR platform that offers a really extraordinary technology that actually, unlike most VR, renders you as a character inside a CG universe, so you literally enter the movie. It's something you do with your friends. We do it six people at the time. You're in complete touch with all of your senses, without any leg or latency, and it's really an extent of yourself into an imagined world.

Parks believes this is the future of entertainment, what we would do on a Friday night movie style entertainment. But there's really no spectators. Everyone that attends is actually part of the action. And it's way better than VR in your living room because they've built a special place where you experience this. So the floors rumble, there's wind, they have sense that they pipe into this room, all these different physical effects that add to the immersion and put

Unlike other VR experiences where which are much more vrcade, we are evoking the sense of traveling. So this almost feels a bit like a train station.

You know.

We know people are in a mall, They're gonna have packages. We have places to put things, you know, and feel comfortable. We also went from a standing up model that we used to do to sitting down. In fact that you can take a seat right now if you want. This allows people to be much more comfortable. It also levels out where the backpack is and I think really evokes

Bruce Vaughan is CEO of Dreamscape Immersive. His background is Disney Imagineering. See where this is all going. I'm with him in the room where you suit up before your adventure. This is the part where things kind of get real. It's a little bit intimidating. Actually, if you've never done VR before, you start to wonder, am I going to get sick? Is this going to be fun? Is this

Putting on the equipment. You could look at it as something that would be disconcerting, maybe a bit of a time consumption thing. Operationally, we've actually embraced it, like going on any adventure, whether it be ziplining or diving, you put on scooby gear, you put on a harness, and there's a bit of a sense of commitment to the overall looks experience and a sense of adventure that gets

And of course, since I'm a germophobe, I had to ask the obvious question about the ickiness factor. After all, lots of random people are wearing the same VR equipment you are all day long.

After every show, or before every show, or however you want to look at it, we have a one of our cast members comes in and cleans all everything that touches you. All of the materials have been chosen to be you know, hyperilergenic, cleanable, all that kind of stuff. We're very serious about that.

Next to you head into that specially outfitted VR room and the best part is when they sort of turn on the experience, when it all starts. Suddenly you see an avatar like virtual version of yourself and the other people in your group around you. It's really tough to explain this moment, but the first time it ever happened to me, it was so seriously cool. Now, the experience starts out like a typical movie, but then you're on your way picking up tools and physically walking through the adventure.

If you have expectations about VR based on what you've done, put them aside, because this is a very different experience and come and be, as we say in one of our experiences, can be the hero of your own story. This is all about something we've learned as we're learning. This is creating experiences in which you're not seeing other characters reveal a story, but it is your own part in the story which is essential, and so far people have found it very satisfying.

The movie chain AMC is an investor in Dreamscape makes Sense. The company is working with them to open new locations at malls across America. The next locations are all in malls. They're going to be in Dallas, Paramus, New Jersey, Garden State, Yes, my home state, Long Island, and Columbus, Ohio. Tickets for the experience, at least at Century City are twenty dollars if you haven't tried VR, this is the one to