Framestore's Mike McGee on the power of virtual reality to invigorate storytelling
In the latest in a series of interviews exploring pure creativity, and how it is conceived, nurtured and grown, we talk to Mike McGee, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Oscar-winning visual effects company Framestore.
Taking place at What is Creativity partner Millennial Media’s recent IAB Digital Upfronts 2015 event, the interview, carried out by Millennial Media VP Global Marketing Stephen Jenkins, explores the power of virtual reality and how it will soon enable anyone to have tea with Audrey Hepburn.
FrameStore is a world leader in visual effects, giving us Dobby in the Harry Potter series, Paddington in his latest film outing, Gravity, the BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs, and bringing Audrey Hepburn back to the ‘life’ in the Galaxy TV ad campaign.
FrameStore is a preeminent player in virtual reality and McGee believes it holds huge potential for brands in the ability to emotionally engage with consumers.
“I love virtual reality because it creates these incredible emotional experiences,” he says. “It’s a whole new way of telling stories. Or you could even have tea with Audrey Hepburn. With voice recognition creating real time animation for the web you can talk to these sort of icons in real time. It’s just waiting for processing power to catch up.”
The interview covers McGee’s views on storytelling across multiple digital platforms, the need for talent such as physicists to work alongside creatives in delivering today’s entertainment experiences, and his pride in directing the BBC’s circling hippos.
The entire What is Creativity series is available on the What is Creativity hub. The hub features all the interviews from the series so far including broadcaster Jonathan Ross, actor Robert Llewellyn, most widely known as Red Dwarf’s Kryten; singer and composer David McAlmont, music producer and Asian/R’n’B fusion pioneer Rishi Rich; and Shoreditch House and the Mondrian hotel designer Tom Dixon OBE.