PRODUCT
The 2015 Notting Hill Carnival documentary was the first Virtual Reality experiment by the Thomson Reuters Innovation Labs and Foundation. We chose virtual reality as a modem for enhanced storytelling on the history of the carnival and the challenges of Caribbean immigrants in London.
Design Highlights
Identifying technical equipment (gear and software)
Defining filming instructions
Editing of raw film and audio
Stitching and design of the documentary
Publishing to YouTube 360 viewable on Google cardboard and Samsung Gear
Virtual Reality production and design best practices
VR demo
Production and publishing credits: Jennifer Lee 2015
We Were New to VR and Had a Small Budget
The Carnival is about turning established order upside down. It was brought to London by Caribbean immigrants in the 1960ies, and since unravelled ups and downs with the police and the community. My team in partnership with Thomson Reuters Foundation, believed that producing a documentary of the Carnival into virtual reality would transport people into the festival and the lives of the Caribbean immigrants within a Western world that contrasts so deeply with their culture of feathers, colors and steel drums. In 2015, VR was all the buzz but the technology was still young. We were new to it and had a very small budget of $2500 to make the film.
Discovery: Deep Dive Into VR Technology
Our first step was a full discovery of the medium, its hardware, software and best practices.
Understanding the technology and how it works
The differences between 360° vs VR
VR headsets
VR video cameras
Shooting equipment
Stitching software
Best practices
Choosing the Right Equipment
Below were the equipment and prices of the time. We chose Google Cardboard for its low entry price and ease of use, and the Freedom GoPro 360,a . rig of 6 GoPros for a better video quality output than the Theta, and the ability to publish on YouTube 360. We also got a monopod to hold the camera rig and a microphone for audio quality.
And the Right Software
To stitch the footage, we chose VideoStitch (renamed Orah) for its fast rendering - or we thought. To edit the final film, we used After Effects (a personal choice).
Storytelling
Together with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, we wrote the script of the story we wanted to share, defined the scenes and key messages, as well as the narrative. The impact of the story was to foster social inclusion and healthier communities by raising awareness on the challenges of the Caribbean immigrants integrating to the Western lifestyle in London. Through music, colors and entertainment, we hoped to energize the viewer and develop an appreciation for the Caribbean culture.
Viewing, Stitching & Editing
60 files of footage were sent to us: 10 scenes filmed 6 times by the 6 GoPros! After endless hours of viewing and selecting good scenes, we came down to 30 scenes, and finally 3!
The stitching was dreadful: VideoStitch was buggy, crashed often, and had graphics card compatibility issues. Many hours lost but it finally did the job.
Last Step, Last Obstacle: Publishing to YouTube!
We exported the final video to After Effects and found that all VR metadata was lost! But Google had an app that injected that metadata back into the file.
Virtual Reality Design Best Practices
Jen Lee, on the team, published best practices based on our learnings from the documentary. Here is a sample:
Keep the camera movement slow and steady. The viewer controls the movement. This will also minimize VR sickness.
The camera should be placed thoughtfully and carefully. Think about the subject(s) in the scene that you are trying to create.
With a screen only inches away, the viewer can see every pixel. Resolutions are held at a different standard with VR.
Like camera movement, keep the editing steady and smooth.
Type is magnified in VR. It must be kept small, centered, and short so the viewer can read it comfortably.