We’re approaching a new norm in how everyday life is shared, our collective awareness in the physical is merging with digital.

The tools to create virtual and augmented realities are now in the hands of everyday makers. How will immersive stories change our connection to others and sense of place? The following are experimental projects, testing ideas for new ways to tell non-fiction stories.

Nine Sixty is the pixel width of each quadrant in this 360° vid. I intentionally captured the locations with this composite in mind, however it’s important to note that I did not have a Galaxy S7 phone for a live preview. There was some guesswork in terms of how each frame would line up. Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, I used the Mettle SkyBox plugin to align the buildings in each frame.

This Place is an experimental 360° short documentary that captures a day-in-the-life of Edward Haik, the lone distiller of Cajun Spirits in New Orleans. Before founding the Cajun Spirits in 2010 with his brother, Gus, Ed was a teacher with no prior experience distilling. He has learned the process by doing. Save for the occasional visitor, he spends his days working alone inside a giant warehouse in a sparsely populated, industrial part of town. I have often wondered about the solitary nature of Edward’s work, and wanted to explore his process from that perspective. I’ve been exploring the limitations and possibilities that VR technology presents for documentary, and felt it would be an ideal medium through which to tell Ed’s story.

D A N C E is a proof of concept that explores the four quadrants of a 360° video experience.