Armed with 12 Samsung Gear 360 cameras (10 on loan), different monopods and selfie sticks, seven USC Annenberg students headed to DC to capture the inauguration of President Trump and the Women’s March that followed.

It was an adventure with highs and lows, long days, no sleep and little food.

It was also extremely productive.

For the presidential inauguration, we formed a collaborative agreement with The New York Times’ Daily 360 team. The Times and this 360 team are leaders in the emerging immersive journalism industry and I knew working alongside them would teach us a lot.

The night before the event, we had a team meeting where we finalized positions and assignments, focusing on shots The Times needed but balanced with capturing moments for us to produce our JOVRNALISM piece. (We also spent the night MacGyvering monopod alternatives, since tripods and selfie sticks were banned.)

There was no guarantee that the students’ work would be used by The Times, although I figured we’d get at least one moment in there.

Out of seven scenes that make the final piece, we shot three. Here’s the fantastic piece:

Direct link: https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000004867486/a-nation-divided-at-inauguration.html

As I’d hoped, the students and I learned a ton that day, often the hard way. But, more importantly, we learned how to make better shots after looking at the moments captured by Kassie Bracken and others on The Times team.

I can honestly say their work directly influenced our approach the following day as we covered the Women’s March on Washington. (We’ll post more about practical shooting tips soon, but here are two: 1- Get close. Real close. 2- Hold steady. Real steady.)

For this event, I had a loose agreement with NPR, which unlike The Times, had never publish 360 video. We were a “what do we have to lose” scenario for a news organization that has had a cautious eye on VR and 360 journalism.

After a completely different experience at the Women’s March compared to the inauguration, the students returned with footage and we began finding our shots.

We then spoke to NPR, showing our scenes and began to negotiate the final piece. It evolved from different forms and we eventually settled on producing two, what I am calling, 360-video postcards. Significant moments that captured each day.

Again, there was no guarantee that they’d publish any of our work.

But they did.

We became NPR’s first (and second) 360 news video they’ve published, and based on the numbers, it was a success.

As of this moment, the combined views for the two pieces have reached nearly 800,000 views on Facebook, which is where they published.

Inauguration 360-video postcard: https://www.facebook.com/NPR/videos/10155217559116756/

Women’s March 360-video postcard: https://www.facebook.com/NPR/videos/10155217564866756/

But we weren’t done.

While we were working with these national news organizations, we were also producing our own pieces.

Our own Inauguration 360 piece:
NOTE: The best way to experience these experiences is via our iOS / Android app.

Our own Women’s March, which includes a photo gallery dome:

You can see them on the JOVRNALISM Facebook page too.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: The best video quality and experience to see our pieces is through our JOVRNALISM app available to download at the Apple App Store (iOS) and the Android Play store. Our app even offers a headset (aka Google Cardboard) viewing option.

I could not be more proud of this ambitious team:
Karl Baumann, Sarah Collins, Melody Jiang, Kate Lonczak, Sean Myers, Cameron Quon and Disha Raychaudhuri.

And we could not have done it without the support of Adam Clayton Powell III and Felicia Pratt, who offered up the USC DC office, which became our newsroom.

Thanks to Samsung for loaning us 10 cameras and not getting upset for one being destroyed during the inauguration protest chaos. And to Mettle that provided their Skybox software for us to produce in 360 video.

There were others who supported us through money or even letting us stay hours past check out time or when the building was suppose to close down. A sincere thank you to each of you.

As I wrote in a prior post, “regardless of what side of history someone may find themselves on, a journalist’s job is to capture that history. And with 360 cameras, we’ll be capturing all sides.”

I believe we succeeded.

JOVRNALISM, a registered trademark, is a project out of USC Annenberg where students produce immersive/VR journalism stories, often in partnership with news organizations. Led by Prof. Robert Hernandez, the class has worked with ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, CIR/Reveal News, The Desert Sun and others.