2,000 Pigeons in Virtual Reality

I started exploring 360º video as a medium for storytelling in 2015. Its journalistic potential was exciting, but it was difficult to reach people who didn't own a VR headset. When Google Cardboard launched, I knew we had an opportunity. I started evangelizing within WSJ and convinced a group of designers, engineers, and newsroom leaders, to let me build 360º video into WSJ's main mobile news app. It made the WSJ app one of the biggest install bases for 360º video in the world and the first major news app to support the format natively.

​

Within a year, I produced more than a dozen 360º video stories for WSJ, building camera arrays, filming, stitching, and editing. The one above is among my favorites. It followed the artist Duke Riley as he constructed an ambitious piece of public art. When I heard the concept for the work — a constellation of illuminated birds swirling through the New York night sky — I knew 360º video would be the perfect medium.