The Rio 2016 Olympics is officially in the history books, but there are more than just the achievements of Olympians Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and Usain Bolt to reminisce about. HuffPost RYOT set up a pop-up shop in Brazil through a partnership with Samsung during the Olympics to develop original 360-degree content at the Rio Creator’s Lab.
That content, which covers topics ranging from the rainforest to the political climate in the country, is available on Samsung’s Gear VR headset as well as on Facebook 360, YouTube 360 and the RYOT and HuffPost apps and websites.
“Olympic coverage has leaned to the extremes, either glossing over the issues of poverty and infrastructure whole or exaggerating safety issues,” Molly Swenson, chief marketing officer of HuffPost RYOT, told [a]listdaily. “We sought out to find the truer character of this city that lies somewhere in between. Using 360 allows us to share that narrative.”
In this collaboration, Swenson said Samsung enabled the creators and the content rather than sponsoring or branding the content directly. Swenson said the filmmakers relied primarily on the Samsung Gear360, the GoPro 7-camera 360Hero rig and the Google Jump camera in capturing content in Rio.
The Lab released six 360 films during the Olympics and will have 10-to-15 more coming out afterward. Swenson said there will be dozens more pieces of ancillary content, as well.
“We chose stories based upon their potential to stimulate our audience visually, intellectually and culturally,” Swenson said. “We reached out to the most interesting journalists, artists, and researchers in Rio and asked them what stories were essential and not being covered. It’s less about positive stories versus negative stories, and more about stories told from the perspective of the actual people who live in the city, and will keep living there long after the games have ended.”
Swenson said Brazil is a country in the midst of political turmoil, and the citizens are overcome by insecurity and restlessness. They rely on their common bond as Brasileiros, as Cariocas, to find that sense of strength and community through their cultural traditions.
“The government has built walls to hide the less-fortunate from Olympic attendees,” Swenson said. “We hope these stories break down those very walls, educating the viewer of both the problem they represent and the beautiful things happening behind them.”
When they did focus on the Summer Games, the angles the 360-degree content took were much different than the Samsung-produced 360 Olympics coverage.
“Rio is one of the most geographically stunning places in the world, so much of our outdoor coverage features those aspects,” Swenson said. “We are more focused on the community than the competitors. For instance, our film that featured the Congolese refugee judo fighter focuses on the Caritas Refugee Center and the celebration of other Congolese expats in Rio.”
Swenson said partnering with Samsung in Rio allowed for 360-degree stories to be shared during the event, as well as after.
“Speed is a currency in both the humanitarianism and journalism which is at our roots,” Swenson said. “Your ability to be effective in these spaces depends in part on how fast you can act, so we are trying to crack quick-turnaround VR content, as in 24 hours or less. We’ve done this throughout the presidential primaries, the RNC/DNC and now at the Olympics.”
RYOT launched in 2012 as an “immersive media company linking content to action” and it was acquired by Verizon’s The Huffington Post in April 2016. Swenson said the acquisition has given RYOT the opportunity to achieve impact at scale in a completely new and dynamic way.
