The Daily 360

The New York Times describes The Daily 360:

Times journalists around the world bring you a new 360 video every day.

I’ve watched a few of these and they are pretty cool.

I found this via Dan Kimbrough who adds:

The New York Times is doing a lot of cool things with 360 storytelling. 360 is a newfound passion of mine and it’s nice to see it used in a way that’s immersive and helps to tell a story, not just a gimmick.

I agree with Dan. 360 video shouldn’t be used for just any video. It is a new medium. Just like square-crop photos in Instagram, tweets, Stories, VR — all of these are different mediums with which we can tell a story. For me the main disconnect I’ve had with 360-degree video has been focus… where should I look? When a "normal" video is simply shot in 360 it is very tough to follow along. The New York Times is helping with this by adding their visual cues to two different areas in the video at a time. So if you spin around the text or caption is behind you as well. As Dan stated, this medium is supposed to be immersive. Its entire raison d’être is to put someone into a situation. And that seems to be how it is being used on The Daily 360.

I’ll be following along.