Back in May 2016, Oculus announced its VR for Good initiative, a six week programme for students. One of the areas covered was 360-degree filmmaking and today Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has released the ninth project to be made, Step to the Line.
As Zuckerberg explains in his posting: “One of the most powerful side effects of VR is empathy — the ability to understand other people better when you feel like you’re actually with them.”
“When I was in Alabama two months ago as part of my “Year of Travel” challenge, one of the most powerful experiences for me was meeting Anthony Ray Hinton, a man who was exonerated and released after 30 years on death row. There’s nothing like meeting someone like Anthony in person, but VR can get you pretty close. It’s a reminder of how much work we have to do to guarantee equal justice for all.”
So the filmmakers decided to create a short documentary about the US prison system and the stories of the inmates. Step to the Line was created by Ricardo Laganaro in collaboration with Defy Ventures with mentors Christie Marchese and Picture Motion.
Viewers will be able to see first-hand the stories of real inmates, learning what’s it’s like to be a part of the modern criminal justice system and how release from incarceration can be just as jarring as the intake.
Step to the Line can be viewed below as a 360-degree video, for a more immersive experience head to Oculus Video on Gear VR.
If you want to see move content like this head to the VR for Good website, which details more of the films from 2016 due to be released and what’s going to ahppen over 2017.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Oculus’ VR for Good, reporting back with the latest announcements.