360° VR Documentary
School for Life
An early 360° documentary that transported 600 fundraiser guests from a ballroom into schools in remote Uganda.
- Year
- 2017
- Client
- School for Life Foundation
- Production
- Filmday, Director Michael Gray
- Location
- Uganda
My role
- 360° Cinematographer (with Phil Sullivan)
- Camera Operator
- VR Technician
- Editor / Assistant Editor
- 360° Stitching & Cleanup
- Custom Dolly Design & Build
The project
Instead of another fundraiser video, School for Life wanted guests to experience its work spatially. In 2017 that meant taking a fragile six-camera 360° system into remote locations and preparing backups for the backups.
The approach
Phil Sullivan and I operated the camera system and worked through the technical post-production. For a thirty-metre moving shot, we designed and built a lightweight remote dolly nicknamed Wanda #1. The final stitching and cleanup continued in After Effects when early VR software reached its limits.
What remained
Six hundred guests experienced the schools through headsets at the fundraiser, joining technical experimentation to a clear human purpose.
Visual gallery
Inside the world
Next project
Curiious Originals