Each Olympics event is an opportunity for the host country to showcase itself — its culture, its people, its food — to the world. In 2018, South Korea stood center stage as home to the PyeongChang Winter Games.
In the spirit of exploring opportunities in virtual reality (VR) storytelling for public diplomacy, JOVRNALISM partnered with the USC Center on Public Diplomacy to send an immersive storytelling team to South Korea during this unique time for the country’s world presence.
Funded by a grant from the Korea Foundation, the students Jordan Winter and Billy Bjork, accompanied by translator Edwin Kim, CPD staffer Lisa Rau and JOVRNALISM creator Prof. Robert Hernandez, went throughout Seoul, PyeongChang and Gangneung, conducting interviews with local residents and capturing their hometowns and workplaces — including the DMZ — in 360-degree views.
Together we produced a short documentary exploring sports diplomacy, plus five immersive postcards from icon sites found in the picturesque country.
In one interview, a South Korean attendee of the 2018 Winter Games notes, “Most South Koreans wish peace, not only on the Korean Peninsula, but also in the world. I hope this region can serve as a bedrock for world peace.”
This was an impressive project with the team – with no credentials or access – was able to successfully produce diverse, immersive experiences and get them published nationally. The team produced a sort 360 piece for NPR (nearly 130,000), a postcard for USA Today (nearly 75,000 views) and the pieces also ran on NBC sites in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.
This marks the first time JOVRNALISM – as a special project – traveled internationally for a production.
Here is the immersive documentary exporting Sports Diplomacy:
Here are the five immersive postcards:
- Inside the DMZ: https://vimeo.com/262560031
- A Taste of Korean Food: https://vimeo.com/262561452
- Travel to Jumunjin Port: https://vimeo.com/262562670
- Exploring Bukchon Hanok Village: https://vimeo.com/262564352
- Tour Gyeongbokgung Palace: https://vimeo.com/262565236
We used one Z Cam S1, Samsung Gear 360 camera (original), Insta360 ONE, TASCAM audio recorder, Triad tripod stand, Nodal Ninja monopod, Razer Blade Pro laptop and SGO’s Mistika VR stitching software. We editing the videos in Adobe Premiere, using the Mettle Skybox plug in.
USC wrote about the trip, plus other Annenberg + Winter Games projects prior to the trip here.
Check out our making of/behind the scenes videos and photos: https://www.jovrnalism.io/2018/03/30/jovrnalism-in-south-korea-behind-the-scenes/
