Virtual Reality Storytelling

Dan PachecoS.I. Newhouse SchoolSyracuse University

@pachecodAs delivered at 2016 International Symposium on Online Journalism

Conference

VR in Context1436 – 1988: CHAPTER 1: CHAPTER 1: ONE WAY COMMUNICATIONFrom Gutenberg Press to broadcast television.

VR in Context

1436 – 1988:ONE WAY COMMUNICATION

1988-1999:CHAPTER 2: INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATIONWords, images, audio all together. Interact with content.

VR in Context

1436 – 1988:ONE WAY COMMUNICATION

1988-TODAY:CHAPTER 2: INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATIONWords, images, audio all together. Interact with content.

CHAPTER 3?EXPERIENTIAL VR, AR, gaming

What’s so new?Beyond the technology, what we’re doing is fundamentally different from any media before:• People can jump inside stories to experience them

from a first-person point of view.• They can walk around, pick things up, and truly

interact within the story.• “3D Consciousness Transportation.”

Four flavors of VR

1. BYO phone, or “casual VR.”

Google Cardboard

Four flavors of VR

2. Phone with dedicated headset

Samsung GearVR

Four flavors of VR

3. Sitdown VR with Gamepad

Oculus Rift

Four flavors of VR

4. Immersive Walkaround, see your hands.

HTC Vive

Four flavors of VRBYO phone / “casual VR.”

Phone w/ headset

Sitdown VR with gamepad

Immersive walkaround with hands

Google Cardboard

Samsung GearVR

Oculus Rift HTC Vive

But … could it be just more hype?

Let’s talk about that.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle

Trigger

Peak of inflated expectations

Trough of disillusionment

Pleateau of productivity

Trigger: 1838, first stereocard. Charles Wheatstone in Upstate New York.

1968: “Sword of Damocles” by MIT professor Ivan Sutherland.

1995Inflated expectations:Nintendo Virtual Boy

Disillusionment20 years, back in research labs.

Enlightenment: Oculus, Google Cardboard

Is it for real this time?

Pawculus Rift joke: https://vimeo.com/123728069

“AR/VR to hit $150 Billion by 2020”

How I got into this

Nonny: “The Godmother of Virtual reality.”

My first big project• Gannett Digital / USA

Today: Hired as a consultant to help with emerging technologies.

• They wanted to be first among commercial news orgs to try VR.

Two approaches

1. Virtually recreate the scene of a story to use as the primary navigational aid.

2. Transition into 360 videos of the same place. (Partnership with Total Cinema 360).

Two approaches

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/pages/interactives/harvest-of-change/

2016 Edward R. Murrow Award Winner

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/pages/interactives/harvest-of-change/

Impeccable attention to detail

“Transferred reality?”

Teaching the next wave of producers• In third semester of virtual reality storytelling, the

first such class in a journalism program.• Focus is on both CGI scenes using 3D models and

360 video.• By May, over 50 students will graduate with VR

experience. Many now want to work in VR.

Printing 360 rigs

24 hours and 54 GoPros later …

Students are now shooting in 360Time to shoot!

Examples of best student projects can be found at http://bit.ly/vrhallfame

360 videos in progress athttp://bit.ly/360sInProgress

Coming next: AR and “Mixed Reality”Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap

Source: Magic Leap patent filing. See http://bit.ly/20N8t7W

A peek at our shared weird future

THANKS!

DAN PACHECO

Peter A. Horvitz Chair of Journalism Innovation,

S.I. Newhouse School, Syracuse University

Principal, FutureForecast Consulting, LLC

drpachec@syr.edu | dan@futureforecast.com | 303.465.5560 | @pachecod