BBC is one of the entities, like The New York Times and National Geographic, to really embrace virtual reality in 2016. From telling stories like the hardships of a single mother trafficked from Mexico to Nicaragua in Trafficked, to The Turning Forest, a fairy tale whose sound was recorded by 20 microphones on-location in a forest, the BBC has been utilizing VR to tell a variety of new tales. At times, even merely using the technology to complement already existing projects. Their project We Wait, a collaborative effort between BBC Connected Studio and Aardman (the animation studio behind Wallace and Gromit), is the first to be released on the Oculus platform.
We Wait originally premiered at the Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2016. Its Oculus release comes over half a year later. The short film transports the viewer into a dramatized retelling of the migration of a refugee Syrian family, as they cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Greece from Turkey. The film was orchestrated through real migrant accounts collected by BBC News’ reporting.
We Wait is available on the Oculus Store for free.
