360 IMMERSIVE JOURNALISM EXPERIMENT

I heard Nonny de la Peña speak at a VR conference a few years ago and my mind started spinning at all the possibilities of what VR could do. I really wanted to see if my team at Thomson Reuters was interested in taking advantage of this technology.  I pitched the immersive journalism idea to a few folks within the Reuters team. It was a challenge to get buy in. At the time the concerns were valid - no one knew how to use the equipment in the field and it was pricey. Luckily, The Thomson Reuters Foundation was keen to try new things and was on board to produce a short 360 video.

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The Foundation editors chose to shoot and produce a video about the Notting Hill Carnival in London. Post-production 360 stitching was done by myself and a colleague back in the states. We had about nine hours worth of footage which we narrowed down to three minutes. Learning new technology and software was a highlight for sure.

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Check out the short 360 video on YouTube. I recommend using a Google Cardboard headset and turn your sound on so you can hear the story and music!