Process

Richard Lourie

Grandma's Birthday by Richard Lourie. Everybody likes their grandma, and nobody wants to miss their birthday. Two boys rush to buy a present for their grandma and get home in time for the party. I allow the viewer to immerse themselves in this thrilling narrative using virtual reality technology. My precedent is A Virtual Tour Of France, I like this video because the camera is in the center of everything and there are interesting things all around it. I also like how this video has someone talking the whole time, similar to mine. In the original storyboard, I am hanging around Harvard SQ when I get a text asking to pick something up. After I pick it up I get a text telling me to go home. This storyboard was very barebones but it has a very similar plot to my final. This is a still from my first version of my film, I ended up having to reshoot the entire things to correct a lot of my mistakes. This is the same part of the movie just my second take. In my final story, Jakob and I are playing at the playground when we realize it's my grandma's birthday. We rush to buy her a present and get home in time for the party, but on the way home we leave the present on the train. The process of getting this video was very complicated, first we took the video, then we use a program to make the file editable by premiere, after were done editing we have to inject data into it to make it compatible with YouTube. This first still is from when we are buying the candle, I chose this still because I thought it was a cool camera position. The next still is of us on the bus, I like this shot because it shows the whole bus. The final still is of us getting on a train, this was a very difficult shot to take because we had to get on the train and then run out and grab the camera before we left. 

Brief

Richard Lourie

Two boys rush to buy a present for their grandma and get home in time for the party. I allow the viewer to immerse themselves in this thrilling narrative using virtual reality technology.

The video starts with two boys spending time in Central SQ, when they realize that it is their grandma's birthday. They have to buy a present and rush home. After they make the long trip home on the train and the bus, they leave the present on the train. The story is very It was filmed around Cambridge and on the MBTA. This is an interesting project, because it follows a strong narrative which is relatively uncommon in VR videos.

I tried to take advantage of the VR technology, by having interesting things all around the camera.  I also had many creative camera placements. The VR makes this video much more interesting because there is more of an opportunity for the viewer to explore their environment. One of the challenges we faced is that our camera had no playback feature so we couldn't see the footage when we were out shooting.  We used a Samsung Camera to film this and we also recorded some extra audio on a zoom sound recorder. We used premiere to edit all the video and make it compatible with YouTube. 

Grandma's Birthday Video

Richard Lourie