For charity Terre des Hommes we created a groundbreaking 360 degree virtual reality (VR) film, making the harsh story of a 12-year old Kenyan girl a powerful reality. Pushing the boundaries of storytelling and VR as never before, her story is brought to life in one of the first ever stereoscopic 3D film.

Created with a tailor-made 3D-printed camera rig, 14 cameras and a hands-on team, the ambitious campaign from the international human rights charity invites the viewer to experience a day in the life of Amani – a young Kenyan girl whose daily struggles include child labour, physical violence and sexual abuse.

The striking campaign the charity’s first high-profile activity since producing multi award-winning, Cannes Grand Prix winner Sweetie. It aims to shed light on everyday child abuse which is often invisible to the outside world. In order to make the hidden visible and communicate a powerful message in an engaging way, the team had to push the boundaries of existing techniques. By offering the audience a 3D experience in a 360-degree environment, the campaign redefines cinematic storytelling for a new medium where the user takes a passive role at the heart of the action.

This has been an immensely exciting project for Revolver. With the Oculus Rift and other VR headsets, we finally have brand new tools to provide an immersive and emotional experience for the viewer, something that is able to be both familiar and totally new.

Our director Joris Weerts and director Eelko Ferwerda had to redefine their approach to cinematic storytelling, basically to start from scratch and rethink how an audience experiences a story that is spilled out across their entire field of view. For this specific campaign the VR view added substantial value, the viewer can really feel and experience the story of the young girl, it creates a very strong extra emotional layer we probably would not have triggered with a regular film.”

Together with our partner Ambassadors Lab we designed, prototyped and printed a camera rig that holds 14 individual cameras that not only record 360-degrees around you, but also captures the entire scene in 3D. In order to record sound in 3D as well, we fitted the camera with 5 additional microphones. The sound was then mixed in surround sound to immerse the viewer into an even richer environment. Combining these tools with a cinematic approach, you create an emotional experience new to any audience.

The virtual experience, launched at a Dutch Liberation day Festival in The Hague, can also be downloaded as an app for people to view on their mobile devices. The four-minute film will also be available online, to view in both 2D and 3D.

Link 360 Youtube film
Link making of vimeo

Link iOS App store
Link Android Playstore

Press:
FastCompany
Lürzer’s Archive
Creativity Online
Shots
LBB Online

Revolver Amsterdam would like to thank all of our creative partners for their input and vision in delivering this exciting technology and an amazing charity project.