Virtual Reality headsets are changing the game when it comes to how people view the digital world. These new VR options allow people to see video and gaming in 360-degree views and immerse the viewer into a new world. South Africans have filmed a 360-video of the great wildebeest migration in Kenya.
Virtual Reality is popping up everywhere and for the first time ever a group of South Africans have filmed the world’s first narrated VR wildlife documentary. The team at Deep VR ventured to the Maasai Mara in Kenya to capture the great wildebeest migration in full VR. It is called “Exodus: The Great Migration”.
Their adventure was filled with troubles and for seven full days, they failed to capture any usable footage. The team was sadly abandoned by their guide, a crew member was nearly gored by a wildebeest and the team picked up dysentery which confined them to their beds.
“That was terrifying, thinking we had invested so much time and money and now would have to return and tell people our mission had failed,” – Ulrico Grech-Cumbo, Deep VR CEO
On the very last day, everything fell into place. All cameras were rolling as thousands of wildebeest rushed headlong down the riverbank and crashed into the water for the epic crossing.
“You could see the relief on everyone’s faces, we were all ecstatic,”
The documentary’s local debut took place at the Circa art gallery in Rosebank, Johannesburg, and entailed a pop-up cinema with specialised VR goggles, vibrating floor, and scents of the African bush for an out-of-this-world viewing experience.
Deep VR has worked hard to innovate the first ever narrated virtual reality wildlife documentary and have brilliantly succeeded in their efforts.
“We decided that we couldn’t just wait for the future to happen, we have to become co-creators of it. We asked ourselves, how can we use this technology to foster appreciation, education and conservation for Mother Nature in a way no technology has ever allowed before? In a crazed leap of faith, we set out on the ultimate creative challenge for our first original piece: film the greatest mammal migration on the plains of the Maasai Mara, in VR.”
“Having to self-fund this passion project was a humbling experience. We went to the US to pitch Exodus to a well-known wildlife broadcaster, but got turned down. We experimented with a crowdfunding campaign and managed to raise enough capital for a few plane tickets to Kenya. That was just enough for us to decide, to heck with it, let’s commit,
Watch the VR documentary below.
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