This past week, YouTube launched “Project Witness”, aimed at raising awareness on the conditions incarcerated children face and the subsequent impact on their lives. It’s a harrowing experience but a significant one nonetheless. What makes this unique is that YouTube have incorporated VR to carry across their message.
Apart from the strong message this video showcases, YouTube’s utilization of VR shows that brands could look to it as an immersive storytelling tool, especially from different perspectives. For the longest time, books and movies have been the best window into the perspective of another person, but now Virtual Reality has added a new dimension to it.
YouTube’s comment on this project and the use of VR read: “The VR film anchors the viewer in the experience of an incarcerated child. You’re able to see and hear the experience of being in solitary confinement from the viewpoint of a child in an adult prison. YouTube is a powerful platform for so much more than entertainment – from advocacy to education and awareness – that is open and accessible by everyone. VR is a unique format to pull the viewer into the story.”
