Company
The Farm 51
Software
Unreal Engine and 360 film
Timing
1-2 hours of content
Narration
The main narration is a man with a Russian accent. He explains the places and areas you explore. Sometimes we see videos of witnesses and people telling their experience. These people are filmed and speak either on location (360 film) or to a camera on a film which is placed in the CGI environment.
Subtitles
Most of the story is spoken, only the names and description of the people are next to the people as they speak. The names are in slight 3d and are not so easy to read because the background may be too bright for the red and white letters.
Story Arch
You explore different locations, places in Chernobyl and either listen to the interviews in 360 frames (which is a bit boring since the setting is not so engaging and nothing is happening in the environment. The most interesting exploration is the exploring the places which are done in VR with great graphics. You can move in space and when you are close to an item that opens up, a graphic appears that you can click and experience or hear more about it. I found the most engaging when you could click and item and instead of going to a fixed 360 view (which cut off interactivity), it would just explain more about the room or the story which you could continue to hear as you looked around, like one would do with an audioguide in a museum (most people don’t stand in front of the painting the entire time they hear the content, but walk and hear the story)
Cinematography
A combination of CGI environments and 360 films. The CGI environments were done very well so the 360 films felt dull in comparison (since it would just be a person speaking in the space and you couldn’t explore it). The controls were transformed into props of detectors which helped with the immersion. The use of light and shaders to convey the destroyed status of the building was also very effective.
Framing
They were all very full shots, you saw the locations both CGI and real video footage. Each time you explored an icon further, a loading image appeared. These were slightly glitchy and were a bit annoying. In the beginning you saw some images and films in a 3d dark space, it was a bit claustrophobic because they were just floating randomly in space, it would have been nicer to integrate them into a virtual scenography to set the stage for the experience.
Color Palette
Full colour.
Composition
It was mostly full scenography, in particular with the CGI locations, many props and visuals added to the authenticity and desolation of the place.
Point of View
The user is a bystander or explorer in the space.
Looking Around
The user can deeply interact with the scene moving in a real space to explore all the parts of the scene and watch the story from different point of views. In the 260 video bits, you only look around, which gets a bit boring. The CGI exploration is nice, where instead of moving in space, you hop from one location to the next, very much like Google Maps. Only thing that was slightly annoying was that in each room there may or may not be something to explore in depth (this was highlighted by a large hovering icon). You didn’t see these icons unless you were close to the objects, so you could potentially miss a lot of the story without exploring every nook and cranny, even though from a further distance you could perceive what was there.
Storytelling
It’s a non-linear story and you explore and see things you want to, in the order you want. It’s nice for the freedom and also easy to leave a scene if you are bored by the content.
Sound
Sound is recording from the interviews and gives a great sense of the emotional part of the story.
EEL VR Storytelling Research 