This video was made for the third team assignment for Carnegie Mellon University’s Visual Story course. The assignment was to produce, shoot, and edit a 2 -3 minute VR experience that tells at least one complete story arc… i.e., a beginning, middle and end. We were challenged to deliver a complete story to your viewers using The Pixar Story Structure:
[Once] there was ___.
Every day, ___.
One day ___.
Because of that, ___.
Because of that, ___.
Until finally ___.
We struggled to find a story that we all agreed upon. We all wanted to tell a compelling story, but none ever felt like they would create a strong emotion in a VR space. I threw in the idea of domestic abuse, because of how uncomfortable and unsafe it might make the viewer. Initially, the team was weary, but our producer Calla mentioned that she would be willing to act in a scenario like that. I also mentioned that I would be comfortable with acting, and we went forward with production on one condition: make the violence as believable as possible. We completed our Story Structure as follows:
[Once] there was ___.
Every day, ___.
One day ___.
Because of that, ___.
Because of that, ___.
Until finally ___.
Storyboards
We shot the video at Max’s (our camera man) house.