Things to watch (and read) to better understand immersive media.
An award-winning 360 video created by AJ Contrast, a media lab of the Al Jazeera news agency in 2018. The story is narrated by three young people in Yemen where their cities have been bombed thousands of times by a Saudi-led coalition that was attacking rebel forces in Yemen.
Another video from AJ Contrast, this 360 video takes the viewer into rainforests of Malaysia that are being cut down to make way for farming oil palm trees. The video and audio puts viewers into the forest and experience is immersive.
The multimedia producer Joi Lee, formerly of Ryot and currently with AJ Contrast, talks about new media technology and the future. This was presented at the 2016 Frank Conference at the University of Florida.
This 2016 project from the team at The Verge documents a White House interview with then first lady Michelle O'Bama. The interview was approved at the last minute and the 360 video team jumped at the chance to add on to the overall production. The interview is a traditional interviewer in one chair and person being interviewed in another. The Verge had high-level skills in animated graphics and that helps keep the interview interesting.
The team at The Verge describe how they took advantage of the opportunity to record the Michelle O'Bama interview in 360 video.
One of the more intense "being there" experiences, climbing some of the tallest trees in the Pacific Northwest. Not for those with a fear of heights.
Created in 2017 in advance of a presidential election in France, this traditional interview is recorded in 360, using the audio from the interview conducted in French in the background with an English translation as a voice-over. The video uses multiple camera locations in the person's home to allow for editing that provides visual variety. The video was produced by Euronews and "powered by" Google News Lab.
This playlist has a good variety of journalism stories in 306 video. The experiential stories put viewers in action, such as a bobsled run or experiencing a color excludes at the funky Carhenge art installation. They also have narratives such as an art program in a prison and exploring cuisine in South Korea. This list for more than 125 videos can keep you in your head mounted device for a long time.
In 2017, The New York Times posted a 360 video each day for a year, sponsored in part by Samsung. The project is over, but the videos are filed on this landing page. Since this was an experiment, some of the videos are outstanding and others are interesting attempts.
This is one of the most recent immersive, 360 project from The New York Times and it launched in 2019. Combing 360 video from drones, archive interviews and AR effect graphic overlays, the video explores the town and what remains of the locations central to the lynching of Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old boy in Mississippi.
Matt Meozinski of KING-TV in Seattle created this 360 video telling the story of a photographer who documents the city's homeless community.
From 360 Labs, a video documenting thousands of nude or barely clothed bikers riding across a part of Portland at the internationally celebrated World Naked Bike Ride. Yes, there are a lot of naked people in this non-sensual video.
Robert Padavick, Gannett’s lead producer for virtual reality, 360 video and emerging media, speaks in 2017 during a conference at Ohio University's Scripps College of Communication.
This is a trailer for a 360 feature on Walter Cole, who performs as Darcelle XV. He is the oldest performing drag queen in the longest running drag show on the West Coast. Great environments for each scene from dressing rooms to his eclectic homes.
This is a virtual visit to a dance studio to see 79-year-old Solomons in rehearsal and to hear his voice-over narration about his life in dance. The camera placement doesn't move and there are no cuts in the two-minute video, but Solomons' dance and his narration are captivating. As the NYT story said, "The bravest thing a dancer can do is grow old." Video by photographer/artist Erik Madigan Heck.
This video puts the viewer on a boat with fisherman as they harvest oysters. Made in 2016, you can see the difference in quality using earlier technology. The video is lower resolution a the nadir point at the bottom of the viewing field is exceptionally large compared to what is possible today. But, it does show how early on, journalists understood the importance of sense of place. Presented by Capital News Service.
Created environments
This project by Emblematic was commissioned by the World Economic Forum and created at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. The environment in Aleppo district of Syria was digitally recreated and used real audio from a street bombing. This video was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival in 2014 and is mentioned as the breakthrough project for immersive journalism. Nonny de la Peña, the founder of Emblematic, is sometimes called the godmother of 360 journalism because of this project. (This video link is a recording of the interactive video. You will not be able to control the interactive viewing yourself.)
The create of "Project Syria" talks about that story and her role in developing the idea of immersive journalism. The video also shows how the technology worked at the time, requiring a display space to be built and for the viewers to be able to use the head mounted devices.
A 360 documentary about a fatal fire in the Grenfell Tower, a residential high-rise in England. Former residents talk about their experiences. The images of their interviews are projected onto recreated backgrounds that show what their apartments looked like before the fire. Produced by Channel 4, a public broadcasting network in England.
This documentary shows what it is like to live in solitary confinement inside the Maine State Prison and how it affected one prisoner. The recreated environments in the 360 video were created using photogrammetry, a process of taking multiple images from multiple points of view that are interpreted in a postproduction process. Published by Frontline on PBS and created by Emblematic.
Four British fashion icons talk about their careers. The interviews were conducted on green screen and the fashion background added in postproduction. Each person has a "space" within the 360 environment so a viewer turns to find each one as they have their time speaking in the video.
This video is not journalism but is mind-expanding inspiration in terms of how 360 video can be used. Produced for the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., this video is a 360 video fly-through into the Dali painting "Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet's 'Angelus.'" The surrealist landscape is explored around, inside and behind, bringing the two-dimensional painting into a rounded environment.
Good Reads
A global network of storytellers accelerating the understanding and production of immersive journalism. They help news organizations, journalists, technologists, content creators and journalism educators experiment with all forms of immersive storytelling.
After a year's worth of 360 videos in 2017, the NYT folks had some thoughts about the medium.
This is a link to download a report from 2017 on emerging media in journalism, produced by Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford.
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