vr journalism - aejmc
TRANSCRIPT
Virtual Reality Storytelling
Dan PachecoS.I. Newhouse SchoolSyracuse University
@pachecod
A little about me• Today: Professor and Chair of Journalism Innovation,
S.I. Newhouse School, Syracuse• 2010: CEO of startup Bookbrewer.• 2007: Knight Foundation News Challenge winner • 2004: Senior Manager of Digital Products, The
Bakersfield Californian Newspaper. • 1998: Principal Product Manager, AOL.• 1994: Producer, Washingtonpost.com.
Virtual Reality… the next new thing, but also not new
Science fiction and Second Life predicted all of this.
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 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.”
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
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!
Coming next: AR and “Mixed Reality”Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap
THANKS!
DAN PACHECO
Peter A. Horvitz Chair of Journalism Innovation,
S.I. Newhouse School, Syracuse University
Principal, FutureForecast Consulting, LLC
[email protected] | [email protected] | 303.465.5560 | @pachecod