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In its current, popular manifestation, Virtual Reality (VR) represents the culmination of more than two centuries of screen practice aimed at creating greater immersion. VR’s optical illusions produce an expanded multisensory immersive experience that enhances the viewer’s interior position within new space. This article questions where embodiment and disembodiment lie in VR’s multisensory optical illusion and whether there is a difference produced by the digital environment versus the photographic, live-action environment? It takes into account our present moment in the history of VR during which the fantasy of total bodily engagement and transference into the “machine” has not yet occurred. In doing so, this article considers the way VR uses synesthetic modes rather than direct sensory stimuli to engage more of the senses.

This article considers how screenwriting might operate in the newly established medium of cinematic virtual reality (CVR). In Part One, we take a wide view of ways to consider screenwriting and development for CVR. Our approach theorizes CVR in the tradition of picture-making (or image-making) practices that can be traced within a broader history of the visual arts-from painting, to photography and contemporary art. In this way, we lay open the possibility for CVR to find diverse paths as it responds to narrative concerns rather than suggest it should merely repeat the consolidation of narrative that occurred with the transition of exploratory early cinema to the dominant Classical Hollywood system. In Part Two, our case study approach considers co-author, Miriam Ross', CVR practice-based research to allow a discussion of the format that can be used for delivery of the CVR screenplay. Our aims are to connect a historically based spatialization of the image with the question of the spatialization of the screenplay for CVR 360-degrees media. The agenda is to expand the conversation around CVR to reflect upon, and inspire, new ways of thinking (and seeing) the potential for the development of screen ideas in this medium. Keywords 2 2 CINEMATIC VIRTUAL REALITY VR 360 MEDIA IMMERSIVE SCREENWRITING Cinematic virtual reality Cinematic virtual reality, or 'CVR' for short, is an immersive virtual reality experience 'where individual users can look around synthetic words in 360, often with stereoscopic views, and hear spatialized audio specifically designed to reinforce the veracity of the virtual environment' (Mateer 2017: 15). This is also referred to as 'Film VR' or 'Live Action VR', with reference to its status as a lens-based cinematographic moving image practice, and contrasting 'Traditional VR' as computer generated virtual world more akin to interactive gaming engines. The head mounted display apparatus is the site of convergence for these two models, allowing viewers to accept both under the umbrella of VR. In CVR, the 'cinematic' prefix further reflects the ability to capture increasingly high-resolution images, from 2K, to 4K and now 8K, consistent with trends in digital filmmaking. The cinematic prefix also suggests the question of dramatic narrative for the emerging media. Consistent with early (celluloid) cinema over a century earlier (Gunning 1990; Turvey 2004), initial VR live-action projects have centred on documentary (actualities) and/or spectacular iterations of experience-travelling into outer space (Access Mars, 2017); living with dinosaurs (VR Dinos, 2015) or swimming with sharks (Shark Dive VR, 2016)-and have maintained a short duration of seven to ten minutes. Less clear is whether CVR will develop narrative akin to the Classical style that emerged in the United States and influenced international filmmaking (Bordwell et al. 1985) or whether it will take different paths in response to its proximity to other forms, particularly gaming.

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