by Lenny Martinez

You can see DINNER at this link: https://youtu.be/m0fLvTi9V-I

You can read the original pitch here: http://www.vrstorytelling.org/assignment-02-vr-video-pitch-lenny-martinez/

What changed?

So after taking up the project, we scoped the project down to something we could better manage with the time and resources we had available. Our biggest changes were:

1. We changed the perspective of the viewer from being a person in the scene to being an object (in this case, pita chips on a plate).
2. We scrapped the family dinner and instead arrived at a roommate interview scenario by trying to avoid scarring any possible children we would have recruited for this.
3. We maximized the creepiness factor that I wanted initially in ways I hadn’t thought of.
4. There were more swears than I had initially anticipated. (I think it plays well).

If I were to summarize the video without you having watched it: A college student responding to an advertisement for a sublease in a house gets murdered by two cannibals.

What did I learn that helped make a good video?

Since the pitch was mine, I served as the producer for the video. I tried my best to guide the team to create something that was both faithful to the emotion I wanted to elicit with my original pitch, and also allowed for the rest of the team (Tony Yao, Ronojoy Sinha, and Geoffrey Cook) to add to the piece.

Coming in, I had the idea that the every aspect of the scene had to be perfectly planned to make use of the 360 video format and it was true. As a team, we met to discuss everything from the camera perspective, how to angle the camera to minimize crossing the stitch lines, to how long each interaction should go and how to make it better before we got to recording the video. In the end we spent so much time planning the video that I worried the video project became a camel (After all, a camel is a horse designed by committee). But it did not! The planning we did ensured that we could record the three scenes smoothly and with only a few takes. I’m really happy with the end product.

So plan every detail for a 360 video.

What should be avoided in the future?

The power of 360 is, like with all immersive media, with rewarding exploration. Everything should be tailored and scripted and planned so that no matter where the viewer starts and how they wander, they reach the same conclusion. That said, a lack of interaction with the environment in 360 videos can bore the viewer if the action in the scene is not fast paced enough. In terms of DINNER, the pacing of the introduction may have been to slow, which could cause the viewer to disengage with the content and make the video unsuccessful. Luckily, after the murder, the pace quickens. The two ways I could address this would be by: 1) having a pre-written script. We improvised the specifics of the dialogue and rambled as a result; 2) Use multiple cameras and something like Pano-tour to allow the viewer to switch points of view during the viewing. This would also allow us to up the creepiness factor by having different objects hidden or in view depending on where the viewer is (plate of chips, on top of the fridge, behind a cabinet door).

If I had two more weeks

If I had two more weeks, I'd go an write a script to make sure the action is fast enough. I'd also ask someone to compose music to fit the scenes and the climax of the story. I'd implement the multi-perspective viewpoint. I'd also mess with the lighting more to have more intentionality.