The Experience: Crouse Bell Tower at Sunset

I purpose to create a 360° video from the top of the Crouse College bell tower. From the research I have done, I can tell that there is a section of the tower with the bells that ring and a section where the person who is playing them stands and to hit the levers. Eventually, I think putting these two scenes together would make a great experience. However, for the time being, I would like to create a 360° video of what it would be like to stand next to the bells as they were ringing (not next to the person playing the bells). This scene would consist of a small area, however the windows that are in the tower expand over the horizon. I would like to film during the sunset, for there is a beautiful view from Crouse College. This would also add a lot of depth and emotion to the 360 video experience.

The camera would need to be at the height of an average person, as I am trying to simulate what it would be like to stand next to all the bells as they are being played. I would like to put the rig by the window so the viewer could turn around and watch the sunset as they listen to the bells. The rig could easily be put on a tripod and set in-between the bells and the window. This would be a standing up experience then, and there would be no other person in the scene.

Audio would be separately recorded on a task cam. It would need to be placed by the cameras so it can sound like the viewer is closer to some bells and farther from others. Since that room in the tower is going to be very loud, we might need to experiment with the audio and see where to place the recording device.

Safety wise, I think this is a very secure location to put the camera on a stable tripod because you need special access to get up there and there isn’t anywhere for someone to take it and run. We would easily be able to move being a beam or even down the stairs out of the way and then set the camera off while remaining confident that our equipment is safe.

The Story

I believe this would make a really interesting VR experience because the bell tower is such an iconic part of SU life but you never get to experience it directly. We have all walked down University Ave, listening to the bells, looking at the sky, but what is it like to experience that from all the way up the tower? This is a first person non-fiction experience where the viewer would start off looking out the tower window looking at same sunset we see all the time at Cuse, but from a much higher vantage point. The story would move forward via the sound of the bells starting. This would trigger the viewer to turn around and see the bells that are being played and eventually put two and two together, discovering they are in the Crouse Tower. Ambient outdoor sounds can also be put in the begging to draw the attention of the viewer to the outside. Those sounds can fade out as the bells start playing so people start looking around. I think this is more of a cool experience embedded in SU culture instead of something empathetic. I just find the tower such an iconic aspect of Syracuse culture that this would make a 360 degree experience a lot of students would want to see.

The only problem I can see arising with this project would be issues stitching all the clips together if the camera is very close to the bells while they move. This make distort the video, however if there is enough room up there then it could potentially be amazing! Either way, I am up for the challenge and would love to work on this project.

This pitch was selected and the team working on it is: Cassandra Couwenberg, Stephen Armstrong, Jackie Prager, Shirley Jin and Sharon Shi

First Stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAxV7rj_6t4&feature=youtu.be