Heidi Blog 9

     VR is an extremely interesting way to tell stories. Chris Milk, creator of Clouds Over Sidra, describes VR as an "empathy machine," and I would completely agree. VR has many similarities to video storytelling, but one key difference is the real feel that VR has over the more pristine and edited feel that video storytelling has. In Clouds Over Sidra, I felt as if I was following the story myself and not just watching something. I think that feeling combined with her actual story was really interesting to see, and also very effective for the type of story it was. I personally think being able to create empathy in this type of story is very important. It overall helps the reader/viewer to connect and be able to feel something, rather than just reading it. 

    Bashir's Dream was also very interesting, yet extremely sad. The VR storytelling here was very effective, and the way they used visual effects was also interesting to see. These two stories, overall, invoke emotions of extreme sadness in the viewer. I think the use of VR for both of them was the right way to go. By combining the effectiveness of video storytelling and making it interactive and immersive, they were able to help people connect to stories they probably would have never heard otherwise. Overall though, I think VR as a storytelling device is on the up. It is usually not seen in huge, mainstream companies, but one I can think of is Vox (They have some video stories that are very immersive). Immersive storytelling is a very effective way to invoke empathy in an audience.