Chicas Poderosas introduces 360 video in Lisbon
The Virtual Reality Lisbon event on June 16, 17 and 18 brought together VR professionals from various countries around the world to mentor young Portuguese storytellers. Participants walked around the city and shot a 360 video showing where the classic meets the innovative in Lisbon.
Three days were enough for VR beginners to learn to film and edit the first 360 video of Lisbon, developed by Chicas Poderosas.
The participants divided into teams capturing the “old” and the “new” Lisbon. A 17-year-old ballerina showed us the city’s cultural heritage and traditions, while her 81-year-old grandmother showed us the city’s innovations — and the two tours came together at the end of the shoot, near the most innovative building recently built in Lisbon: the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT).
Chicas Poderosas invited experts in 360 and VR storytelling from the United States, Germany, Spain, France and Colombia to mentor storytellers in Lisbon eager to learn this new medium. The event was attended by journalists, designers, programmers, videographers and entrepreneurs who wanted to expand their knowledge and be part of the beginning of this 360 journalism community in Portugal. It was a privileged meeting, offering a very personal learning experience, with mentors involved all the way through. The creative process started with ideation and script writing on Friday night. On Saturday the two teams shot in 360 around the city and then closed the day editing and stitching the footage. On Sunday the teams merged their individual films together, creating a unique story born out of a full collaboration among participants.
Participation in the event was free, and participants were chosen based on their backgrounds and areas of expertise. We wanted to make sure we had a diverse group of people working together to create something unique.
“Bringing names such as Zena Barakat from IDEO, Millán Berzosa from Google News Lab, Linda Rath-Wiggins, co-founder and CEO of Vragments, Thomas Seymat, who covered the French elections in VR for Euronews, photographer Daniel Rojas Roa, directly from Bogotá, and Simon Duflo, who came to show us how to build interactivity inside 360 films with Wonda VR, was a unique opportunity that places Lisbon among the cities where some of the world’s immersive technologies have already been used. The opportunity to have these people as mentors is a must.”
— Mariana Santos
Participants included media professionals from Portuguese news organizations such as Global Media Group, Público and ECO, which are ahead of the curve in 360 immersive journalism production in Portugal.
This event would not have been possible without the support of those who believe that building a community takes time and energy, and that everything starts with the early adopters seeding the ground. A big thanks to each of the following organizations: Martinhal Hotel in Chiado was the first to offer five-star hotel rooms for our honorable guest speakers — who loved their luxurious spaces, which made the overall experience even more pleasant. Samsung saw our event as a great opportunity to jumpstart immersive journalism within Lisbon; the company shared Samsung Gear VR headsets, Galaxy phones and even a big screen for editing. The conference took place at the Museum of Communications, in a partnership with IT People Innovation. Beta-i was the place where all the magic stitching, editing and story making happened. It’s an open space for startups and we had the key for the entire weekend — thank you for the trust! Other partners who inspired us by supporting our mission to bring more women to technology include CML, StartUP Portugal and Uber. Google News Lab was the differentiator whose mission of creating community around 360 journalism Chicas Poderosas embraces. Thank you, all, for helping us bring new skills to these talented women and men.
One more important detail is our partnership with Bliss Applications.
Bliss designed and implemented a social media app just for Chicas Poderosas events, and will be with us for our upcoming events across Latin America, as part of the investigative program and the New Ventures Lab — more on these soon.
