Software
360 Filming with a couple CGI animations
Company
BBC Earth
Timing
Not certain, but circa 20-30 minutes, both narration and filming
Narration
There is one narrator the entire time, who is not present in the scene. You hear the sounds of the bears as they growl and move about, but no other voice speaks to you.
Subtitles
There are no subtitles, when they roll the credits, it is in the environment, but the background is slightly blurred and the text is 2D.
Story Arch
It is a nature show and the story revolves around one bear on bear island and her struggle to survive. It is told and shot in a way similar to a nature documentary.
Cinematography
The entire film footage is a 360 Film original (made for VR), however, it is a bit of a “choose your own ending” kind of experience where in a couple cases, you choose to go upstream or downstream, deciding for the bear. At these moments, 3D elements enter the frame and spin. Another point, where there is a mother bear on the river and a cub hiding in a tree, you vaguely see the cub in the distance, but they frame the view in a closeup with a clear line that directly points to the far location, as one may do for architectural drawings. It is very clear that it is a zoomed in view and as a story, it works well.
Framing
It is all full shot, in the environment, sometimes the view switches to aerial or in the water or half water half land, but no close-ups.
Color Palette
Shot in full color, in real nature, on location.
Composition
Since it shows nature, there is no clear symmetry, but rather viewpoints which give a lot of information of the space so we can see the bear as they move. The camera always has the maximum amount of space between the objects and it, so we see as much as possible.
Point of View
Here, the user is a bystander and at times with the different views (above and below) they see more and get more visual information. However, with the choose your own ending, you “become” the bear although visually this is not the case.
Looking Around
The story happens directly in front. I rarely turned my head to see the full space. the view was optimised for that.
Storytelling
It’s a selective non-linear, you can’t change course at whim, you have two moments where you can choose to move, and the selection is very clear, but it was also hard to gauge how long the experience would be. The story was told through the space setting and a couple jump cuts to different views of the same scene. The jump cuts were not short, but long enough to look around and get your bearings.
Sound
Sound played a key role in the experience. The soundtrack music began with the opening credits and the sound effects (water, wind, kids) all helped to make it much more immersive.
EEL VR Storytelling Research 