MediaMonks Stockholm has created a VR film with Greenpeace as part of the wider Protect What You Love platform. The immersive four-minute VR experience is designed to raise awareness of the rapidly changing climate and promote environmental conservation.
 
The VR film has hit social media and will officially launch on July 7 at the Peace and Love-festival in Borlänge, Sweden. As Greenpeace continues testing and rolling out in more countries, it expects fundraising results to increase by more than 100% through the use of VR.
 
Shot in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, the film takes viewers on a journey to the far north. “You can’t see it, but the Arctic Ocean teems with life,” informs the voiceover as the viewer looks out from the deck of the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise. The VR film allows the viewer to experience the beautiful pristine wilderness first-hand, from walking on the sea ice and encountering a curious polar bear mother with her cub, to exploring the heart of a glacier. It’s that perspective that, through the use of VR technology, builds a genuine connection to the environment.
 
To produce the film, MediaMonks’ VR team created camera and audio 360 rigs that would deliver a seamless version of reality. Camera rigs were 3D printed in the bespoke VR Lab and the team of VR creatives then traveled together with a production unit from Greenpeace to capture the footage. MediaMonks’ postproduction team took care of all stitching, grading and audio production.
 
“With a regular film, the director can control where the audience looks. There’s an element of control over where the eye trains and what the focus should be,” said Pasi Helin, partner and CCO of MediaMonks Stockholm. “With VR, as with real life, you attract attention through visual cues.  It gives us a unique ability to immerse people in another world, wherever they happen to be. We can take people out of their lives and transport them to a place or time that connects them to a narrative in a way that no other technology can achieve. We can’t think of a more appropriate use for immersive experiential technology than building engagement with Greenpeace.”
 
“We are thrilled about the campaigning opportunity this technology give us, and working with MediaMonks ensured that we could deliver a high quality experience,” said Greenpeace project leader, Rasmus Törnqvist. “We know that whenever we get a chance to take somebody with us to the front lines of the issues we work with, they come back a changed person. The connection created by bearing witness first-hand makes action a necessity. Now we have a unique opportunity to bring thousands, if not millions, to the rapidly changing Arctic.”
 
The film is becoming available on Facebook and YouTube in 360° format, and VR headsets will be placed at various festivals throughout the world. Following the initial test in Belgium and today’s launch in Sweden, Greenpeace plans to roll out internationally across all territories where targeted fundraising with volunteers engage with the public.

Credits

Client Greenpeace International Rasmus Törnqvist, VR DP and client Production/Creative Bo Gustavsson, VR director/DP; Fredrik Broander, VR creative; Thomas Söderlund, VR technical director; Anna Adamson, executive producer; Julian Antell, editor.

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