An interactive documentary in 360-degree format from the heart of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant
The team of young professionals from Ukraine bring to Kickstarter a high-tech project devoted to the 30th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster. Chornobyl360 is the Ukrainian interactive documentary about the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and nearby Exclusion Zone filmed by a 360-degree video camera. The movie will be available for Virtual Reality (VR) headsets such as Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VRs, Google Cardboards etc. There will also be a version for tablets, smartphones and desktops.
Simple Guide on How To Watch and Interact W/ YouTube 360 Degree Video
From computer
YouTube supports playback of 360 videos from the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera browsers. Safari is not supported.
From mobile and tablets
To watch and interact with YouTube 360 videos, be sure to you have updated your device with the latest version of the app. For viewing YouTube videos, you will want to copy the video title name below:
Chernobyl VR Project 360 trailer
Then open the YouTube app, and paste into the search box.
For an immersive experience, you can watch 360 degree videos with Cardboard via the YouTube app. Once the 360 video is launched, simply click the Cardboard icon on the lower right corner and insert phone into the Cardboard.
Latest technology gives users an opportunity to plunge into the breathtaking atmosphere through the various scenes from the unique locations of the catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred at the Chornobyl NPP in Ukraine (then officially the Ukrainian SSR). They will have an immersive experience of moving through the ghost city of Pripyat and the Exclusion Zone, and have the opportunity to take part in the construction process of the new sarcophagus.
Users will also interact with living witnesses of that tragic events. NPP workers, liquidators of the disaster, engineers and locals, who have managed to return to live in the polluted area, will share their memories about the tragedy.
The project is created by using innovative technologies, which give the viewer a way to dive as deep as possible in what is happening in the 30 km Exclusion Zone. The plot is built on multiple paths through the stories that can be watched selectively or sequentially. But in order to see the culmination and to get inside the Chornobyl unique objects, which are usually accessible only to selected employees of the zone, you will have to pass all the levels of the project.
Viewer’s abilities to move through the plot depend on the selected story of the characters, which are opening the way to the plant. They will be also able to see exclusive interactive inserts of locations and people from 1986, which are recreated by the team of Chornobyl360.The main idea of the plot is to show past, present and future abilities of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.
In this documentary 360-degree live video from drones, CGI graphics, and 3D sound are used. The viewer will also have interactive navigation through the whole plot. The team are also working on photogrammetry 3D scenes, one of them is reactor control room.
“The aim of the project is to attract attention to the consequences of human activity on the planet Earth using an amazing world of Virtual Reality,” project author and producer Kirill Pokutnyy said.
Kirill Pokutnyy was born in 1986, the year when the Chornobyl disaster happened. His father had been working on the Chornobyl’s NPP for more than 15 years, so he knows the story of the Exclusion Zone directly from a witness.
Chornobyl 360 Launching On Kickstarter On Febuary 8, 2016
The team has been working with virtual reality for more than 2 years, developing some unique skills in spherical shooting, 360-degree video production and virtual reality applications development.
On the February 8, they are launching the project on Kickstarter, aiming to raise $30,000 — a minimum amount that will help to complete the documentary. The team have already spent months on research, 10 days on shooting on some unique locations and completed the demo version of the documentary. Now it is time for some further filming, editing, color correction, sound and motion design, coding and many other little tricks to present a truly outstanding documentary about the most secretive and mysterious site of the Soviet era.
Please, share a few words about the project during the Kickstarter campaign and you might be among the first ones in the world to dive into the historic site of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster and to observe it like never before just from the comfort of your home.