Perhaps the most important element of the language of cinema is montage. When a filmmaker creates a cut, and the camera suddenly moves from one point of view to another, the viewer is effectively being taken inside the mind of either the storyteller or a character in the movie.
We don’t respond so much to what happens in any one shot, but rather to the relationship between shots. Cutting to an actor’s face at a key moment can create a profound identification between the audience and the character the actor is playing.
But what will happen when shared cinematic experiences become completely immersive? When we can simply walk into the world of a narrative, will montage even be necessary?
It’s exciting to be working on completely immersive storytelling media at a time when the answers to such questions are not yet clear. These are early days, and the language of immersive media has not yet been worked out.
Perhaps we, like Méliès and Eisenstein before us, will get to create a new language for visual storytelling. Exciting times!