War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds

This panorama, or rather panoramic story is a first attempt at storytelling in VR. How do you tell a story to a new type of audience using modern VR technology? Literally everything needs figuring out since it's such a young and undeveloped medium. It is not my intention to 'VR' the entire story though I do want to add to this first bit as it's not a rounded whole just yet. This is a joint effort between me and Aldo Hoeben, me being the visual artist, him being the technical genius. Both thinking about storytelling and narrative. Me from a traditional animator's point of view, him from an 'interactive' background.

My geeky husband has been a synthesizer music fan ever since I met him. So of course I've seen Jean Michel Jarre live (in Paris) and visited a live performance of Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds. When we were thinking about telling a story in VR War of the Worlds seemed the obvious choice. Jeff Wayne wrote an excellent adaptation of H.G. Wells original story. Condensing and updating text, making the story stage ready, and adding brilliant cinematic music. Jeff managed to leave the original setting and charm intact. I much prefer his version over Orson Welles 1938 radio show.

Additional credits:
Background music: Moby, Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep.
Text: Jeff Wayne / H.G. Wells
Voice: Richard Burton

Inspiration: 

Jeff Wayne's modern and captivating interpretation of H.G. Wells 'War of the Worlds'.