Facebook and Semi-Permanent are in the middle of a project “to celebrate the power of storytelling in mobile,” in which each of five creatives is asked to craft a story that will emotionally move people using the same photograph, Photobooth (below), by Dan Winters as their start point.
The creatives are writers, directors, photographers and an artist – all of whom stand on the top tiers of their craft. Their tools are Facebook Video, Facebook Carousel, Facebook Canvas, Facebook 360 Video Facebooks and Instagram.
Will O’Rourke director, Alex Smith, has directed the third piece, Server Room Symphony, using Facebook 360 Video. Smith has directed documentaries, commercials, short films and more than 90 music videos for artists including Kylie Minogue and Coldplay and Olympia. But he had never directed in 360. Until this project.
He told Semi-Permanent in an interview, “Essentially this was like directing theatre, in that there’s nowhere to hide behind the camera. There’s no sense in having quick edits, or cutaways. It’s difficult to light, most of it has to be practical lighting. Also, the lens we used was 10mm, which is so wide that you have to get right up close to people to see their expressions. You can’t control where viewers look, so you have to make visual and audio ‘suggestions’ to guide people towards moments you want to draw attention to. But even then, it better be interesting. Performance timing is critical. You have to mindful of people’s attention spans, and the novelty of the format vs the quality of the content. It was very interesting, and really turned things on their head for me.”
Read the full interview here. “360 video is not about just about creating a scene, it’s about conceiving one that is worth you being in the middle of,” Rebecca Carrasco, head of Creative Shop Facebook ANZ, explained in Facebook’s blog. “That’s the challenge and the opportunity. And that’s what I think Server Room Symphony does so well.”
Credits:
Head of Facebook Creative Shop, ANZ: Rebecca Carruso
Head of marketing: Leah Tennant
Events and marketing, Facebook: Briony Campbell
Founder, Semi Permanent: Murray Bell
Account management: Cassandra Kevin & Jessie Gilbert @ Albert Agency
Production company: Revolver/Will O’Rourke
Director & editor: Alex Smith
Managing director & executive producer: Michael Ritchie
Executive producer/head of projects: Josh Mullens
Producer:Phoebe Marks
Project consultant: Leo Faber
DoP:Stefan Duscio
360 camera operator/video stitching: Pixelcase
Grade & Online: Fin Design & Pixelcase
Music: SPOD