This document discusses the history and future of virtual reality storytelling. It outlines that communication has evolved from one-way in the past to now being interactive. Virtual reality allows for experiential storytelling where people can immerse themselves in first-person experiences. The document describes the different types of VR including using phones to more advanced set-ups. It acknowledges past hype around VR that didn't pan out but argues the technology is now at a point where the potential is real. The author discusses their work using VR for news stories at USA Today and teaching VR classes to students.

1. Virtual Reality
Storytelling

2. VR in Context
1436 – 1988: CHAPTER 1:
CHAPTER 1: ONE WAY
COMMUNICATION
From Gutenberg Press to
broadcast television.

3. VR in Context
1436 – 1988:
ONE WAY COMMUNICATION
1988-1999:
CHAPTER 2: INTERACTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Words, images, audio all together.
Interact with content.

4. VR in Context
1436 – 1988:
ONE WAY COMMUNICATION
1988-TODAY:
CHAPTER 2: INTERACTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Words, images, audio all together.
Interact with content.
CHAPTER 3?
EXPERIENTIAL
VR, AR, gaming

5. What’s so new?
Beyond the technology, what we’re doing is
fundamentally different from any media before:
• People can jump inside stories to experience them
from a first-person point of view.
• They can walk around, pick things up, and truly
interact within the story.
• “3D Consciousness Transportation.”

6. Four flavors of VR
BYO phone /
“casual VR.”
Phone w/
headset
Sitdown VR
with
gamepad
Immersive
walkaround with
hands

7. Four flavors of VR
1. BYO phone, or
“casual VR.”
Google Cardboard
Mostly 360 video

8. Four flavors of VR
2. Phone with
dedicated headset
Samsung GearVR
360 and some CGI

10. Four flavors of VR
3. Sitdown VR with
Gamepad
Oculus Rift
Mostly CGI

11. Four flavors of VR
4. Immersive
Walkaround, see
your hands.
HTC Vive
CGI, photogrammetric video

12. But … could it be just more hype?
Let’s talk about that.

13. Gartner’s Hype Cycle
Trigger
Peak of inflated
expectations
Trough of
disillusionment
Pleateau of
productivity

14. Trigger:
1838, first
stereocard. Charles
Wheatstone in
Upstate New York.

15. 1968: “Sword of
Damocles” by MIT
professor Ivan
Sutherland.

16. 1995
Inflated expectations:
Nintendo Virtual Boy

17. Disillusionment
20 years, back in
research labs.

18. Enlightenment:
Oculus, Google
Cardboard

19. Is it for real this time?
Pawculus Rift joke: https://vimeo.com/123728069

20. “AR/VR to hit $150 Billion by 2020”

21. How I got into this
Nonny: “The Godmother of Virtual reality.”

22. My first big project
• Gannett Digital / USA
Today: Hired as a
consultant to help with
emerging technologies.
• They wanted to be first
among commercial news
orgs to try VR.

23. Two approaches
1. Virtually recreate the
scene of a story to use
as the primary
navigational aid.

24. 2. Transition into 360
videos of the same place.
(Partnership with Total
Cinema 360).
Two approaches

26. Impeccable attention to detail
“Transferred reality?”

30. Teaching the next wave of producers
• In third semester of virtual reality storytelling, the
first such class in a journalism program.
• Focus is on both CGI scenes using 3D models and
360 video.
• By May, over 50 students will graduate with VR
experience. Many now want to work in VR.

33. Students are now shooting in 360

36. Coming next: AR and “Mixed Reality”
Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap

38. THANKS!
DAN PACHECO
Peter A. Horvitz Chair of Journalism Innovation,
S.I. Newhouse School, Syracuse University
Principal, FutureForecast Consulting, LLC
drpachec@syr.edu | dan@futureforecast.com | 303.465.5560 | @pachecod