The Environment Is A Character
Something that isn’t common in traditional video production and filmmaking is including the environment as one of the characters. Now, this might not make sense but hear us out.
We all have that special place in our heads, that makes us feel alive or brings up some happy memories. This could either be a street, a shop, or even a local park where we used to play as kids.
These places are not only locations, they embody emotions, which makes them characters in our worlds. Something not many people are aware of is that we create our own realities, so by transferring that into the content we create and the way we view it, we are able to say that the environment we’re in is a character.
With a 360° video, we’re able to bring those feelings and emotions to life. The places that bring these emotions don’t have to be actual places on our planet, they could be something we imagined, something we saw in a video game or a movie, it can be any place that makes us feel something. From the dusty planes of Mars to the wild Amazon rainforest, even the maps of Crash Bandicoot or other video games we used to or still play to this game.
How We “Think Outside The Box”
What does “thinking outside the box” represent for us? Let’s be honest, we’re all living in our own little boxes, they’re our realities and the way we see things. One box is in another box, which is in another box, and so on. This doesn’t have to represent anything bad, but the way we see it is untapped potential when it comes to creating engaging content. With a 360° video you’re not necessarily forced to look and think outside the box, but it does give you that option as an immersive video. This leads us to say this is a misleading term, so for us, thinking and seeing outside the box is replicating an experience and changing our point of view.
Our CEO mentioned a story from his early childhood that would be an excellent example of this. He used to have a friend he played with LEGOs with, and they always wondered why the LEGO figures could only move their hands back and forth – it’s not realistic, they didn’t like that kind of limitation even as children. His friend asked his dad to drill two more holes and give the figures two more hands, and in doing so, even as kids, they were thinking outside the box. To make it even cooler, they were inspired by Goro from Mortal Combat – they simply couldn’t imagine the limitations similar to what we’re seeing today in video content.
We’re not saying we should all just drill holes into LEGO figures, but this is a wonderful example of how something we did as children affected the way we think as adults.
We’re innovating viewership, we’re thinking outside the box and we’re bringing it all in fully immersive 360° videos.