The media organizations’ interest in virtual reality has grown explosively. The Stanford News Group established the best practice and ideal program for narrating this technology in the first Stanford University immersive journalism class held in January this year.
Then, the Stanford News Group conducted a summary analysis and published a VR news narrative guide, hoping to help reporters understand a basic question: Why use virtual reality technology to narrate? The following is the compilation of the guide, the answer may not be you Imagine it.
The immersive news industry is currently in its infancy, but it is growing rapidly. Some initial suggestions and observations include this aspect of narrative. The Stanford News Group found that the application of traditional news video technology to virtual reality is ethically and narratically impracticable, so the media may need a new set of guidelines.
The following are technical tips for reporters who are just touching spherical cameras and mosaic scenes.
Immersive news industry potential
VR enhances narratives by providing experiences and environments that most people cannot reach, such as living in refugee camps, exploring distant planets, entering Ebola patients' wards after disinfection, walking on wilds and bison on the Great Plains, or boarding the World Trade Center. The spire.
Even with these refreshing cases, the reality is that the vast majority of news stories are not suitable for VR. And at least for the foreseeable future, the Stanford News Group believes that most VR news can only be used as a supplement to other forms and it is not possible to replace them. However, the way it affects readers is unmatched by other news media. The potential of VR news is huge.
When to use virtual reality technology in the news industry
Virtual reality technology (in this article Stanford News Group refers to 360-degree spherical video technology) is actually very limited in the "home run" application of the news industry, Stanford News Group's main collaborators in this experiment class, Stanford virtual human interaction experiment Room founder Jeremy Bailenson said. Most news stories are not suitable for VR. It should be applied to a narrative that can take advantage of its core strengths, that is, immersing the audience.
The Stanford News Group recommends that reporters consider using VR technology only in the following narratives:
Places that are difficult to get involved or where people are not willing to go.
Some places that have been visited more easily than stories, photos, and videos.
The most important thing is to follow the previous one: you must turn both sides of the head.
Virtual Reality and Narration - Methods, Questions, and Concerns
The audience will feel tired and boring when wearing the headset for a long time. News should not be longer than 4 or 5 minutes. The shorter the time, the better the experience.
Virtual reality is not always an independent news item. It is best to use it as a way to increase the value of other forms of reporting.
A complete narrative that attempts to replicate traditional record videos can cause viewers to lose focus and easily lead them to miss the most exciting clips in the scene.
The advantage of using VR to shoot current events is that it allows viewers to rediscover new elements that may have been missed before. In the future, people may take historical events for better analysis.
Adaptation technology
Almost none of the guidelines in the news industry or the production industry can be applied to the VR narrative.
For example, the "six rules" proposed by editor Walter Murch, who won three Oscars for Best Editing Award, need to be re-expanded to apply to the VR video viewer experience. Part of your job is to anticipate the future. Part of it is to control the thinking process of the audience.
However, there are still many problems. How to seek balance between the needs of journalists in creating narratives and the spectator's exploration of VR space? In this medium, the most relevant aspect of film production is no longer the shooting of a picture, but the placement of camera equipment. Early VR developers thought that moving the camera would cause discomfort to the audience. But GoPro's 360 panorama shots and applications make people have to doubt the above assertion.
Watch 360 video with or without a headset
Although the VR technology industry has a huge investment, the current application of the technology in the news industry is limited to large media organizations that have established or purchased their own platforms.
Facebook 360 and YouTube 360 ​​have a great mobile experience and can be immersed without the use of a cardboard. Compared to platforms that require head-mounted devices, these platforms have gained millions of page views and a large audience. Price-friendly 360 cameras and streaming devices make creating VR content cheaper and simpler.
Camera challenges
However, even the lowest quality spherical video is difficult to produce. Ricoh Theta S is a relatively simple solution that uses plug-and-play software, but its resolution is not high enough compared to high-definition video. The low-end series of quality content on Facebook and YouTube has won many audiences, but it is a long way to go before the New York Times' VR app is profitable.
There is no doubt that cameras and software will be better, cheaper and faster. However, science and technology still need to make some progress. Journalists can withstand the pressure of shooting a spherical video. In the current technical situation, it is difficult for people to place the camera at a suitable time and not be captured by the screen. And before you reach this step, there are already the following complicated setups and workflows:
Each camera, memory card, and file must be numbered in order to facilitate troubleshooting.
The settings of each camera in the multi-camera must be the same. With the increase in the number of touches, the possibility of accidentally changing the settings will increase.
The battery life is limited (you need an external battery, dedicated cable, and backup battery to extend the shooting time).
Multi-corner GoPro's remote control is not reliable, and WIFI will reduce battery life (see above).
For each shot, the best practice is to synchronize the sound and action at the beginning and end so that there is more opportunity to choose the right splice point (see below for details).
After successfully setting up multi-camera cameras, reporters often leave scenes that they wish to record and avoid leaving confusing characters in the scene. However, this “blinds†the reporter’s eyes. The reporter is not sure exactly what was shot until he is aware of the post-production splicing and auditing. For high-end VR filmmakers, they can monitor 360 video capture and electric camera movement in real time, but they are expensive. For reporters, it is impossible to monitor recordings and move cameras in real time. The reporters urgently needed low-cost real-time monitoring systems, as well as mechanical camera stands to move the camera set to the right place so that the cameraman no longer appeared in the picture. The reporters also face security issues. They must leave the field of view of the camera group so that the camera is left unattended.
The splicing required computing power means that you can only review videos after a few hours of processing, usually at the end of the day. And if you miss it, it's like Joni Mitchell sings in "Big Yellow Taxi": "Until you lose it, you know what you have."
Stitching - post-production pain
Post-production splicing takes a lot of time and effort, and often crashes. The slowest step in the spherical video workflow is to stitch together files from multiple camera groups, usually with 6 to 16 GoPros.
Several software (Kolor and VideoStitch) can handle this process automatically, but there are still some issues that need to be solved:
Stitching software runs slowly and often crashes – reducing the number of cameras increases stitching speed.
The smaller the number of cameras, the wider the lens and the more distorted, especially the objects close to the camera.
Vertical alignment will make the splicing gap shorter, but this problem is easy to correct.
With the declining cost of technology and the improvement of professional skills, the Stanford News Group will see a leap in content quality in the future. Only time and investment know the speed of the news industry in the new media field. Leaders in this field are doing great pioneering work.
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