Abitibi360: An example of the evolution of writing for 360-degree films

Abstract

While virtual reality technologies have been developing since the 1960s in North America, they became broadly accessible for the public in 2016, with the launch of affordable virtual reality headsets in the global market. Amongst recent virtual reality works, 360-degree films are particularly popular. With this article, I study the evolution of writing for 360-degree films from 2016 to 2020 through the analysis of the 360-degree documentary series Abitibi360 created by Canadian filmmaker Serge Bordeleau, of which Season 1 was produced in 2017 and Season 2 followed in 2020. My goal is to determine how his writing processes changed over this time period and to highlight the various factors that influenced this change. To conduct this research, I present an analysis of creative documents produced by Bordeleau for the two seasons. This work will demonstrate how the author evolved to use virtual reality technologies to develop his own language, even though he continued to be influenced by his original medium: cinematographic documentary films. Bordeleau became more creative as he mastered the techniques of virtual reality production. In particular, he learned to guide the viewer’s attention to chosen points of interest within the 360-degree image by using several techniques, such as light, movement, colour and noise.