Call them 'Virtual reality experiences,' because that's what the cool kids say

PARK CITY, Utah -- If you strapped on a VR headset to watch a story of some kind, you've just had a "virtual reality experience."

Don't call them VR "movies" or "narratives" or "stories" -- the word shall be "experience," and "experience" shall be the word. For the time being, anyway.

As VR has gained a strong foothold at film festivals around the world, a whole host of clunky terms have been used to describe what filmmakers and other pioneering artists have been cooking up for us to watch in headsets. But at this year's Sundance Film Festival, it's clear that the VR creators' community is ready to coin it.

"It really bothers me when people are trying to make this into 'cinema,'" Rose Troche, lead artist on If Not Love, a first-person experience about an avoidable mass shooting, told Mashable at Sundance. "And I really want some amazing journalist to come up with titles, new words for this -- for what it is."

Well, we didn't really have to -- because the top creators are a step ahead of us with "experience."

"We're using that term, and we think that's good term," said Colum Slevin, whose very title is "head of experiences" at Oculus Studios. The VR originals creator this week unveiled Dear Angelica -- the best VR experience we've yet to see. "'Narrative' is too narrow," he continued. "Right now, we feel like 'experiences' is a good, global term."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

They're also using the word over at the Canadian VR workshop of Felix & Paul Studios, which created the excellent 40-minute scripted comedy VR experience Miyubi.

"The word 'experience' is more accurate -- you're not just watching it, so you do get an emotional reaction you don't just get on the screen," agreed Cindy Philippe, who ran Mashable's demo of Miyubi. "So yes, we're sticking with 'experience' now."

Not that it's necessarily going to stick around forever. Storytelling in VR is evolving rapidly, as creators experiment with techniques and equipment -- and the very ideas about what should and should not be done.

"A year ago there was a lot of talk at conferences and film festivals about the 'rules' of VR -- everyone was talking about 'five golden rules,'" Slevin said. "In the last year, pretty much every meaningful experience we've seen has broken one of those rules."

That includes cutting and moving the camera, considered big no-nos a short time ago, but very much in use for the best of the 2017 fest.

"We finally had rules we could break!" Story Studio lead and Dear Angelica writer/director Saschka Unseld told Mashable, laughing. "We needed to make them first so we could break them!"

Though rule-breaking has been a theme for VR creators in the past year, the nomenclature is settling down a bit.

"'Narrative' is just somewhat limiting because it speaks to a beginning, middle and end," Slevin said. "The thing I like a lot about ['experiences'] is, it's a familiar, non-wonky/tech word for the world, and we really want VR to be a daily experience for people."