It’s been a bit of time since my last update, but I’ve been making (I think) steady progress. Most recently, I did a third tech prototype for my 360 video experience. Clareese was kind enough to sit down with me over the weekend and act as a parent speaking to her child about how to protect themselves in the world.

While I have a pretty good idea of how the Theta works by this point, I wanted to quickly address some of the feedback I’ve gotten from previous user tests. In this video, I asked Clareese to speak directly to the camera, as if she was speaking to her child. To attempt to mimic the viewpoint of a child, I placed the camera directly in front of her, and lowered it quite a bit.

I’m not quite satisfied with the camera placement. If you’re looking at the video on the website, there’s too much distance between the parent and child. In the viewer, it’s a little bit better, but its still clear that I’ve got more tweaking to do with the camera placement.

I’m also considering using a different camera. While the Theta works, and is easy to use, it’s not giving me the clear picture that I want. I’ve had the Go Pro Fusion suggested to me, so I’ll check one out of the ER after spring break, and do a trial run with it. From my understanding, I’ll probably need a rig, so I’ll have to check about that as well.

I’m also in the process of reaching out to experts in film and storytelling, to best figure out how I want to approach the experience’s narrative. This week, I’ll begin asking friends and family for stories about the conversation they had (or didn’t have) with the people in their lives, as well as about their experiences growing up Black in America. Or if they didn’t grow up here, about the experiences they had when they first came here.

I’m feeling relatively happy with my midterm presentation, though that’ll be a separate post.

Link to most recent technical prototype on the web, can be found here.
QR codes to download app to your mobile device are below.