World Bank VR

To create this series, we travelled across the East Asia Pacific, from the Solomon Islands to nearby Bougainville (Papua New Guinea), Myanmar, and finally Mindanao in the Philippines. In each virtual reality documentary, the goal was to put viewers in the shoes of those featured, so that they could experience the world and lives of people in developing nations. By relating to these communities on an intimate, human level, we hoped to inspire individuals, governments and organisations to establish a vision towards building lasting peace.

In order to capture the intimate experiences of real people living in the aftermath of conflict across the Asia-Pacific, we adopted an intensive live-action filming process. This process saw us spend weeks in each region documenting the culture, community, and personal stories of conflict. With the help of World Bank representatives, we were introduced to many interesting characters including ex-militants and other locals that were victims of the civil war.

Filming in 360° presents a unique challenge – and opportunity – when it comes to creating a documentary experience. Capturing every angle of the environment, and making it accessible to the audience, forced us to remove ourselves from the film more completely than in any other creative endeavour. Not only could we not be in the shot, we couldn’t even be near the camera.

Limited directorial presence in such an expansive landscape is a powerful thing. In each of the films, the viewer eventually finds themselves face to face with a character in an otherwise empty landscape. There is a deliberate awkwardness to the space we afford these interactions. It creates a human connection between story and audience. The result is a powerful sense of intimacy and empathy as viewers discover the very human impact of conflict.

Telling a story in 360° virtual reality presents an interesting challenge. On the one hand, being surrounded on all sides transports audiences to another place like no other medium. On the other, the viewer has the freedom to look wherever they want. Understanding the importance of agency to creating a personal experience, we made sure to give viewers time to look around, take in their surroundings, before drawing them to where the story is unfolding.

Released at World Bank events around the world, The Price of Conflict, The Prospect of Peace has helped to raise much needed interest and funds in support of ending conflict across the East Asia Pacific region. The series has also garnered significant media coverage, and been featured on a range of virtual reality services including Create NSW’s leading 360 Vision.

We also had the privilege of returning with the finished films to the communities in which they were filmed. This was a hugely important part of the project, as it allowed the people we’d worked with to see their stories as global audiences would see them. They were also able to see, first hand, their impact on not just their communities, but the world beyond them.