3 tips for screenwriting in 360
What historical reenactments taught us about the future of screenplays
Canada: The Story of Us, premiering on March 26 on CBC TV, explores our country’s rich heritage from many unique perspectives. Secret Location teamed up with CBC to create a trio of complimentary 360 videos that drop viewers inside of specific moments in Canadian history.
Our live-action videos explore pivotal moments from the lives of Chief Maquinna, Laura Secord, and W.C. Wilkinson and Richard Rettie (two previously unknown Canadian scientists who decoded the original Nazi Smart Bomb). Each personal history helped to shape Canada into the country it is today.
Although there is considerable overlap between writing for 16x9 (traditional film) and writing for live-action scripted 360, we stumbled upon a number of interesting and unique challenges throughout the process.
Here are three lessons we learned while writing for 360:
1. Scene selection is heavily influenced by environments and locations
In any video project, the environment needs to be integral to the action, meaning it should be intimately linked to the character’s movements and motivations. Where 360 video differs from traditional film is that the action isn’t “framed,” so the environment needs to communicate interesting and relevant details in all directions. This understanding shaped our scene selection during the scriptwriting process.
In Laura Secord’s opening scene, we wanted to convey a feeling of being enclosed and confined. She tip-toes around an American soldier who is passed out at her kitchen table, and his presence reconfigures the space — once safe and familiar, her home has become dangerous and unpredictable. Following the scene in the house, we wanted to drop viewers into a wide open space, but still carry the tension over. The crossroads in the forest communicates the immensity of her journey and the peril of her physical surroundings.
The voiceover and the dialogue help to communicate tension, but the environment needs to embody it. When it comes to scripting a 360 video, you need to choose the right scenes and set them in the right locations to ensure that your writing moves the user toward active immersion instead of passive observation.
2. Research is key to ensuring authentic experiences
Accuracy is always important, but when you’re filming historical re-enactments in 360, accurate information and representation are a must. In 360 videos, cheap props and set pieces show their true colours, and you don’t have the option of quick cuts and b-roll to “fake it” in post. If an element of the set isn’t right, it’s noticeable.
Intensive research ensured Chief Maquinna’s story got the attention and respect that it deserves. We leaned heavily on CBC’s researcher Aidan Denison for background, and reached out to the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation for consultation and fact checking. On set, historian Peter Twist made sure our details (from Chief Maquinna’s ciapuxas [hat] to Captain James Cook’s ships) were on point.
The research process heavily influenced the script and made us feel confident that our representation of the Mowachaht’s first contact with the Europeans was as honest and accurate as possible.
3. Audience autonomy can actually enhance a linear narrative
A tricky aspect of crafting effective 360 videos is allowing for maximum user autonomy, while still communicating all of the information required to tell a story. In 360, viewers can look anywhere, at any time, meaning it’s possible for them to miss important visual cues. Some content creators see this user freedom as a problem to overcome, but we try to view it as a storytelling opportunity and a chance to discover creative ways to guide the user’s focus.
The most obvious example of this can be seen in the 360 video set in WWII, the first of the three 360 videos to be released. On the battleship, the actors look and point in specific directions, guiding user focus to the approaching bombs, our ambisonic soundscape allows the user to hear action before they see it, and the bombs’ smoke trails encourage the viewer to follow their flight paths to the point of impact.
They key takeaway here is that, in 360 video, vital narrative information needs to be delivered in a manner that will reach the viewer regardless of their focus. Whether it be through dialogue, voiceover, sound design, captions, or keeping the majority of the action within a narrower field of view (i.e. 180 degrees), there are many techniques to tell the story without limiting audience autonomy.
Canada: The Story of Us 360 videos were produced by Secret Location, produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 2016 with the participation of the Bell Fund and Bristol Global Media Inc.
Do you have any 360 writing trials and tribulations to share? Tweet them to us over @secretlocation.
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