Over one billion people experience some form of disability globally. So when we talk about making things accessible, it’s usually in relation to the physical world, like public spaces, transport and homes. But how do the visually and hearing impaired navigate the web? The internet, which is a basic human right according to the United Nations, has become an indispensable part of our lives when communicating with others, obtaining information, and working. Yet, almost 97% of the top one million home pages detected Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) failures, according to the US-based non-profit organization WebAIM.

Web accessibility also referred to as “a11y,” means that “websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them,” according to the Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C). That being said, different countries follow specific guidelines based on their local regulations. These are meant to establish a set of technical and design-related rules that, if followed correctly, ensure that a website can be accessed by users with a wide range of disabilities, such as visual, auditory, motor and cognitive, as well as those affected by situational circumstances (in case an individual is temporarily unable to use the mouse, or has a poor internet connection, for instance). Currently, due to the highly inaccessible web, many people with disabilities are unable to consume digital media. They end up being excluded from public discussions, and cannot receive crucial information. This becomes an even more pressing issue when our interactions and life, in general, go virtual during pandemics, conflicts, and natural disasters.

“If we’re not mindful of [web accessibility guidelines], we will end up creating a more digital world with even less accessibility for people with disabilities. And we’re facing this in our everyday lives,” says Nidhi Goyal, a 36-year-old blind disability and gender rights activist, and a comedian from Mumbai, India. She is one of the three women with disabilities we featured in our latest project, Inaccessible Cities — a web interactive experience that is fully accessible to people with disabilities. It is one of the first digital news interactives to do so.

For our small AJ Contrast team, this was our first time working on a fully accessible online project. While incredibly rewarding, it is a task that’s time-consuming, expensive, and requires specialized technical skills. We followed the 2.1 AA level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which comprises the American set of rules since our team operates in the US. But what are some of the elements of an accessible web interactive multimedia experience? And what do terms such as “alternative text” and “audio description” even mean?

#1: Creating accessible multimedia content

We spent several months working on Inaccessible Cities and told the stories of Rebecca Lamorte, Nidhi Goyal, and Olajumoke Olajide using a variety of media such as images, audio excerpts, video, GIFs, infographics, and more. The usage of multimedia content can pose an accessibility challenge since it requires alternative versions like audio descriptions for videos and alternative text descriptions for still images among other things.

It is not just a matter of describing the image of a woman in a wheelchair, for instance. In order to give blind users a deeper understanding of the context in which the story takes place, it is important to mention in the image description that “Olajumoke sits in her wheelchair in the middle of a poorly maintained street in Lagos with her back to the camera. The street is crowded with vendors, vehicles, and goats.”

We worked with US-based SeeWriteHear in order to create accessibility assets that were compliant with the web content accessibility guidelines. Below are the different types of assets they assisted us with:

• Transcripts (for audio and video): Text for every video and audio snippet, including dialogue or voice-over, as well as descriptions of visuals and important sounds.

• Closed Captions (for video): Subtitles that display the dialogue along with relevant sounds.

• Audio description (for video): Recorded audio descriptions of the visuals in the footage. The descriptions include important information about the character and surroundings that are visible. When working to create the audio descriptions, we had to make adjustments to earlier versions of the edited videos to make sure there was enough room for verbal descriptions needed for users to fully understand the story.

• Alternative Text (for content like photos, infographics, GIFs, games etc.): Written descriptions for each non-text element of Inaccessible Cities. The descriptions should be factual and should convey information that helps users fully understand the stories. These descriptions are integrated into the web page’s HTML code, which is not visible to those who are not using assistive technology. The alternative text (or alt-text) is read aloud by a text-to-speech synthesizer.

#2: Making the navigation, structure, and design accessible

An important lesson we learned is to be mindful of our narrative language. Always use an intuitive story structure with clear instructions so that users can easily navigate the experience.

Visual descriptions should be consistent and design elements such as buttons and color schemes should follow the best practices since pre-production.

Overall, working on this piece was a learning curve for the AJ Contrast team due to the extensive list of accessibility requirements, and the jargon we had to familiarize ourselves with. But first and foremost, we focused on the most essential elements of navigation, structure, and design:

• Content Heading: Each new section of the experience should have a clear title to help users identify the content without straining their vision.

• Keyboard Navigation: Users should be able to navigate the website using the keyboard only. The tabbing order (hitting the “Tab” key to jump through the links/clickable options on the page) should be thought through thoroughly so that interactive elements are activated in a logical order, from left to right, top to bottom.

• “Go to main content” link: We added a “go to main content” link to the top of the page that lets users tab to an anchor link at the start of the main content of each page. This means that the “skip” link allows users to easily bypass content that is present at the top, such as the navigation menu options.

• Labeling buttons: Buttons should be as descriptive and concise as possible, giving users enough information about what the action of clicking on that element entails.

• Contrasting colors: Color of the text boxes and other website elements should have a strong contrast to the background images and tones in order to ensure easier readability and to provide a good user experience.

It is important to mention that the use of widgets, such as extensions that promise to make websites accessible to all, has been proven to be ineffective. So we worked with our developers to code the experience in a way that includes all the above-mentioned elements and more, for the best possible experience for most users.

#3: Integrating creative visual storytelling into an accessible format

How do we make sure that adding accessibility doesn’t take away from our creative storytelling? It is important to understand that the story comes first and good accessible design enhances the user experience for non-disabled users too. That is why it is important to design the structure, navigation, and interactions by taking into account marginalized audiences from the start. Make sure the experience is intuitive for people with disabilities as much as for an able-bodied person.

We worked with AKUFEN, a Canadian web design and development company, for the implementation of the accessibility features and development of the website. They advised us on the general design and structural adjustments needed to make our web experience fully accessible and more user-friendly.

Additionally, it is always helpful to have conversations with experts to understand the many different aspects that need to be included to make a website ADA compliant. So a large part of creating image descriptions, for instance, should be considered as an important part of storytelling.

#4: Reviewing and quality control

Once we completed the initial development of the website, it was time to review the project thoroughly not only from an accessibility compliance point of view but also from a user experience standpoint. The WCAG list is extensive, so it was crucial to have the AKUFEN team responsible for cross-checking every single point included in the requirements.

Additionally, we should be mindful that users with disabilities who will access the website have a wide variety of disabilities or impairments. So while quality checking the project, we not only focused on the visually impaired as those who will be needing assistive technology to navigate the web experience but we also took into consideration people with intellectual, motor, or sensory disabilities who would be interacting with it. As an example, we discussed if it would make sense to auto play audio descriptions, as the visually impaired might not immediately find where to toggle such an option in the video settings. However, having too much sound could disorient users that have sound sensitivity.

In terms of testing the project, we used several online tools that help us check if the page was compliant. Google Chrome extensions such as WAVE Evaluation Tool and axe DevTools are quite convenient — they scan the page or specific parts of it and detail what requirements the site is not meeting. Other online tools such as WebAIM Contrast Checker and Color Palette Contrast Checker, for example, helped us double-check if some design elements were properly created. We also reached out to several people with disabilities, including Kelechuwu Ogu, a blind journalist based in Lagos who we collaborated with to review the page and provide feedback.

Our big takeaways after working on this project are:

1. Web accessibility should not be treated as an overlay or afterthought.

2. Web accessibility guidelines and inclusive design should be prioritized from day one of creating a new website.

3. Don’t underestimate the time and resources needed to accomplish such a project.

4. Budget enough time and money for the testing phase because it’s crucial to gather feedback for an optimal user experience.

Even though this project took more time and resources than we initially anticipated, we are committed to ensuring all our future projects are accessible and inclusive of millions of people with permanent or temporary disabilities. By creating an accessible web interactive project, we aim to spearhead discussions about online media accessibility and set the standard for digital news content that’s fully inclusive of people with disabilities⁠ — a significant part of our audience currently shut out from digital media inclusion.

Creating our first accessible web interactive experience for people with disabilities was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For the last week, we’ve taken our Instagram and Twitter followers to Eastern Cape, South Africa, where teenage boys from the Xhosa tribe are preparing to embark on a weeks-long journey to the ‘mountains’. Why? To undergo a sacred and age-old tradition, ‘Ulwaluko’.

The ceremony is exclusive to Xhosa men, and involves a circumcision (and other ceremonial rites) that signals transition to manhood. ‘Ulwaluko’ dates back to the 16th century and has been passed on from generation to generation, largely unchanged. Xhosa men were regarded as hunters and warriors who protected the community, as well as maintained and supported their families.

The ‘Ulwaluko’ ritual was used to prove whether or not a boy had the character to withstand extreme situations, like a man could.

There are many reasons why Xhosa males undergo ‘Ulwaluko’.

• It’s done out of respect for themselves, respect for their families, and respect for their community. For the Xhosa people, to undergo ‘Ulwaluko’ is to become a real man, an ‘indoda’, which comes with certain rights and privileges.
• Having successfully attended ‘Ulwaluko’ provides a Xhosa male with a higher social status than when they were just ‘boys’, or ‘amakhwenkwe’. They can now participate in family meetings and community discussions. They can also inherit estates and get married.
• Those who pass ‘Ulwaluko’ are deemed ready to take in and understand the cultural knowledge, moral codes and beliefs of the Xhosa people, giving them the power to become leaders in their community.

However, there are concerns that too many of these procedures are ending in mutilation or death, due to improper surgical techniques and lack of professional medical care.

Patisanani Izibele Tokwana, 2019 Mandela Cultural fellow and Xhosa woman, and Robinne Burrell, who launched the fellowship in Ndaba and Kweku Mandela’s non-profit, Africa Rising, came together to research and report on the ceremony for a few months.

We spoke to both women about their thoughts, findings and experiences during their reporting on ‘Ulwaluko’. Here’s what they had to say!

What it is like growing up as a child for you in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa?

PT: Growing up in the Eastern Cape has been such a privilege for me. Because of urbanization, many families have moved from small towns in the Eastern Cape to bigger cities. This has caused some values and beliefs of what it means to be Xhosa to be lost in the process; even the way that the IsiXhosa language is spoken changes slightly from city to city, because other areas have found a certain Xhosa slang, which is very different from the original language spoken in the deep Eastern Cape rural areas. Having had the opportunity to grow up in the Eastern Cape I have seen the power of ubuntu (a phrase meaning ‘humanity towards others’) first hand, and I have known integrity and respect upfront. The Eastern Cape has given birth to great leaders like Tata Rholihlahla Mandela, John Kani, Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Siya Kolisi, Zozibini Tunzi and many more. I feel so proud to be part of the Eastern Cape, the culture and the extraordinary humanity and talent that this place possesses.

Why did you choose to research and report on ‘Ulwaluko’ during your fellowship?

PT: I grew up as the only female among six males — my brothers and cousins. Growing up, we were always made aware that they would have to ‘go to the mountain’ one day [as part of the ‘Ulwaluko’ ritual], and the thought of losing any one of them traumatizes me. So, my aim is to raise awareness, so that we may come up with ways to make this procedure safer… and so that our brothers do not end up dying helplessly in the mountain.

As the 2019 Mandela Cultural Fellow from Eastern Cape, why is reporting on this issue important to you as part of your role as a representative of your country and culture, and most importantly, your role as an ambassador?

PT: Maintaining our values as South Africans is very important. We also have to bear in mind that we are a rainbow nation [symbolizing the coming together of all of the different peoples who live in South Africa], and that every decision we make affects every other person. This brings me to how other people choose not to go to the mountain and how they get discriminated for doing so; it is our responsibility as a country, and as leaders in this country, to create a safe space for those who choose not to practice their culture. This requires people to voice how they feel and as leaders, we have to lead by example: to speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.

What do you think the government can do to protect the heritage, but also protect boys from the health risks associated with ‘Ulwaluko’?

PT: The government has passed a law that only allows an ingcibi (the traditional surgeon who cuts the foreskin) who is registered and has undergone inspection to perform the ritual. The government should also allow women to play a role in this (to a certain extent), because as much as this is a well-known ritual for Xhosa men, women also play a huge role as they are the ones who have to agree, by tradition, to send their children to the mountain. Many women feel like they are being failed by men as their sons continue to die in the ‘mountain’, due to the negligence and ignorance of some men.

Can you explain that a little more (the lack of women’s voice in the ritual)? What are your thoughts on that?

PT: At times, I feel like this is very unfair to women, because they are the child bearers of these boys. They also deserve to have a say in such matters, because when a boy dies, he dies not only as just another initiate, but as someone’s son and someone’s brother. Women should be given some ground to hold, in terms of trying to make things better. Many men have proven to only care about the ritual, and not the most important thing at hand, which is the lives of these young men and the future ahead of them.

You’ve talked about some of the health concerns related to the ceremony — like penile mutilation and in some cases, death. What other issues or concerns related to ‘Ulwaluko’ did you find while reporting?

PT: One of the main issues that many people don’t seem to realize is the shaming that comes with not having gone through with the ceremony. Some people choose to do the procedure at hospitals; this method is safer, if I am honest. The problem is that people who choose to take this route are not seen as real men and do not get the same benefits as the “real Xhosa men,” like respect and having a say in important family/community issues. For us, this is a big issue because we believe that this results in men retaliating in different ways. Men find themselves looking for power in other places; they may turn to alcohol, become thieves and are most likely to fall into an abyss of depression (because of the shaming). What makes it even worse is that men are shamed [even further] when they speak out about having such troubling feelings and experiences.

Now that you’ve finished researching and reporting on ‘Ulwaluko’, what is your personal take on the ceremony as a Xhosa woman?

PT: I still find pride in the meaning and purpose of the ritual, as it depicts the knowledge that has been passed down to us by our great grandparents and our ancestors. I see myself allowing my own son to undergo ‘Ulwaluko’ in the future; I would love for him know the importance of the ritual and the teachings, joy and the growth it brings. However, I feel very worried about how the ritual is currently being executed (in some places), because many innocent lives are being lost due to the recklessness of a certain group of people. On the bright side, I feel hopeful as the health department works hand in hand with traditional practitioners to make things better and safer. I feel hopeful for my brothers: that they will get good care and come back home alive.

We asked Robinne Burrell what stood out to her while reporting on ‘Ulwaluko’:

RB: I think what first stood out to me is how unchanged the practice is from its origin centuries ago. You can have a young man on his smartphone one day streaming videos and the next, he is in survival mode with few provisions and with no formal medical supervision. The tradition seemingly hasn’t evolved into a modern version; it’s all been very preserved as it began, which was initially for preparation for being a warrior, and there’s little forgiveness for those who bypass this rite of manhood.

It was also a reminder of how strong the patriarchy is in South Africa when I realized how little transparency and inclusion there is of women. A woman has no say in the practice, before, during or after. When I read about the numerous botched circumcisions that have led to disfigurement and sometimes death, I thought: how can this practice be preserved without eroding the tradition, yet regulating it for safety? I’m still learning a lot about Ulwaluko as I explore all of the complexities, but I do feel it should be made safer for young men through better regulation and the social permission to get follow up medical exams by a medical doctor if necessary.

To learn more about the ‘Ulwaluko’ ritual and what Patisanani and Robinne found, follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

The Surprises and Challenges of Reporting on an Ancient Ritual: A Xhosa Woman Tells All was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Brought to you straight from the editor’s desk.

In traditional linear video formats, you have a lot of freedom to fix production issues or mistakes made during shoots, because the frame size you’re working with often excludes a huge part of a scene. That’s why you’ll hear many people say, “We can just fix it in post.”

When it comes to 360 or VR footage, however, there are a lot of technical details that shooters need to pay attention to in order to make the editor’s life much easier during post-production. Sadly, some things are just not fixable when working in 360 degrees.

I’ve come up with a list of what NOT to do and what to AVOID while filming in 360VR, which comes from my own mishaps and blunders while editing.

For those of you who are new to 360VR content creation, you should probably pay special attention to this list. Memorize it. Learn it. Live it. Because speaking from experience, it will save you so much time, tears, and headache…

Now, onto the list:

1. Never forget the lens cloth.

A smudged lens is an editor’s worst nightmare. A shot can become completely unusable if part of it is blurred, so wipe those guys off until they’re crystal clear. In. Every. Take.

2. Don’t just put the camera anywhere and run away. Instead, let the camera placement be a very conscious decision.

Being conscious of where you put the camera doesn’t only mean that you need to pick the best angle or spot for a complete view of the scene. There are many other things to consider, like where you can place the camera so that people, or objects, are not in front of stitch lines. Objects that are too close to the camera (and moving between seamlines) could take quite some time to fix in post-production, and if you’re dealing with stereoscopic, there is a great chance the footage won’t look seamless after all because of the disparity between the right and left eye.

As a shooter, you need to make sure the camera is not too close to objects or people. This is also especially relevant if you are filming in stereo, as it could become a big pain to work with the footage later on in post-production. In many situations, it can be difficult to control how close to the camera people pass by. For example, in ‘Forced to Flee,’we were filming in a refugee camp and people were constantly milling about to get food donations or travel between tents. In scenarios like that, it’s impossible to control or keep people at a minimum distance to be able to easily stitch the scene (without people being in the shot). When possible, let people know how the 360 camera works, so that they won’t get too close to the rig and ruin your shot.

3. Learn to recognize when you need to take plate shots.

I’ve seen some post-production folks out there not giving a lot of attention to tripod removal, by either leaving the tripod as it is, blurring it (like the footage that comes out of the Google Jump Camera, for example), or adding a logo to the bottom of 360 videos. This is, and can be, a stylistic and technical choice, but I believe that for a truly realistic and immersive 360VR experience, a neat tripod removal is essential. Tripod removal is a stage of the production that needs to be taken into consideration not only by post production professionals, but also by shooters. The camera placement often affects how seamless the nadir looks (nadir is the bottom of the image). So, if you place the camera on a solid and/or uniform surface — such as asphalt or grass — it is definitely easy to mask out the tripod. But, if the camera is on a rug full of patterns or geometrical figures, or inside a car, for instance, it would make much more sense for the shooter to take plate shots.

There are two types of plate shots that we, post-production folks, usually request that our shooters take while in the field:

a. Still photos of the nadir:Still photos of the ground (or wherever the camera was placed in each shot) should be taken in order to facilitate the tripod removal process in post-production. It should be an image that is as close to how the scene looks in reality. This shot should be taken from a similar angle and height that the 360 camera was placed, preferably taken with a GoPro, so that the curvature of the photo can match the curvature of the spherical image.

b. 360 clip of the scene without any action:This type of plate shot will help post-production folks replace part of the shot with a clean shot instead, when needed. Let’s say, you’re filming a 360 interior shot and you want to use artificial lighting to make sure characters were lit up properly in the scene. The best way to do it is to hide the light where the 360 camera cannot reach (i.e. sticking LED lights on the walls, on objects or around the tripod itself etc). In some cases, however, the best solution is to use good old-fashioned lighting techniques — with proper lighting equipment — and then taking a 360 shot of the space without the gear from the exact same spot (not moving the camera) and masking that out of the shot. This might seem pretty complicated when carrying it out in the field, but trust me, it’ll make all the difference once you get to the editing suite.

4. Pay attention to the lighting and camera settings: don’t pick dark locations.

Not every 360 camera gives you the choice to adjust the color and exposure settings. Consumer-end cameras in general don’t let you play with a lot of image properties like shutter speed and saturation, for instance, though in most cases you are able to control the ISO. The first thing to keep in mind — no matter if you’re using a small 360 camera, or a high-end expensive one — is if the shot is too over or underexposed, it is rare that you’ll be able to fix it in post. Similar to DSLR footage capture, when filming with a 360 camera, you should adjust the settings to get a flat image that gives you more freedom when color correcting your piece.

5. Beware the shaky shot! Keep the camera steady as if you were balancing raw eggs or a pile of books on your head.

Nowadays, there are a myriad of tools you can use to stabilize your shot during post-production. However, they can only do so much. You must first ensure that the camera is not super shaky while filming; that’s what is going to save your time and money in post.

6. Make sure you’re recording 360 shots in high resolution.

It is really unfortunate when you are editing a piece and you realize that a very important shot for the story was accidentally shot in low resolution. Scaling the footage to frame size to match the rest of the material can work, but it can also cause export glitches, for instance, and slow down the delivery of the content. Needless to say that if you’re exporting a 6K video and one of the shots was shot in 2K, that is going to be very obvious, especially when watching the 360 video on a headset.

7. Don’t be careless while recording audio.

Sound plays a very important role in 360VR films and experiences. It sets the tone and mood of a piece, and establishes how professional a production sounds. In the past, we’ve had a lot of issues with freelancers who don’t pay as much attention to sound recording as they should. This proves to be quite the problem when editing our VR documentary films, where voice overs play a crucial role in driving the narrative and pushing it forward. If you have a noisy background, or if the person being interviewed is accidentally rubbing the mic on their clothes, those sounds will be super distracting for the audience when in 360 space, because they don’t really belong to the scene.

Additionally, fixing it in post would take a lot of time and depending on the situation, it may not even be 100% fixable. So, the lesson to be learned here: always use a professional microphone to capture natural sound and interviews and keep interviewees in a quiet (and not echoing) space. And in the event that you’re filming in windy locations, make sure to use a foam on the mic to record the natural sound separately, since the original audio extracted from the camera won’t sound great.

That’s it, folks! Did you learn something new today? Did I miss any other crucial tips? Leave me a comment below!

Do’s and Don’ts of Filming a 360 Video or VR Film was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A number of illustrators and animators in this industry started off working in the traditional format, in which the animation and visual effects are gathered into a frame, and they don’t need to worry about what ends up outside the canvas to make the magic happen. In 360/VR, however, the scene is a bit different. A lot of freelance animators we’ve hired to work with us were creating animations and illustrations for 360° space for the very first time. “Animating for VR was a bit new to me. Movement over distances was a challenge that I faced. Animating on a flat screen is something else, and its implementation on VR is a whole other feel,” says animator and illustrator, Tasneem Amiruddin, who worked with us on I Am Rohingya and Dreaming in Za’atari.

In 360 video and virtual reality, there is no longer a frame you can focus on, so it can be much trickier and challenging to come up with art that suits the environment and enhances the user’s experience. Hugo Hache, who put together the illustrated environment that you see on Yemen’s Skies of Terror, told us that “When it comes to the biggest technical challenges for creating animations in a VR environment, it would have to be letting go of some of the logic you would apply in a typical 2D flat animation. Some effects and tools that would normally be the go-to in order to accomplish certain results, are not necessarily the same ones you would use in a VR animation. For example, drop shadows or glows have to be manipulated considering other axises, while on a 2D, you would have side to side (either on the Y axis or the X axis).”

In general, creating animations and illustrated environments for the 360 format can be challenging in terms of finding a balance on the scale, distance and angles for a realistic look, especially when you are used to fitting everything into a flat rectangular frame in linear videos. It can also be tricky to have a fully illustrated environment and animations all around without experiencing any kinds of lines on the back of the scene, given the edge of the flat image you work with throughout the creating process. We compiled some of the technical challenges that we face in this industry — from creating a fully illustrated or animated 360° environment to fixing tedious problems that come up during the post production phase of such projects — and some tips from our team to make sure you know what to do to solve these issues, if you ever run into them.

1. Creating 360 illustrated/animated environments from scratch:

Problem:

Another important thing to note is that understanding perspective is super important for you to create sketches for 360 videos. You should keep in mind that your board is a panoramic, flat surface and that the edges will eventually meet once you place your work in a 360 video edit and watch it in a VR headset. Hugo Hache, who created animations for some of our pieces, explains that “In VR, you have to keep in mind that the whole 360 environment, in other words the ‘ceiling,’ ‘the floor’, ‘the back’ and ‘the front.’ Despite this, you do create the initial VR composition on a 2D canvas that later on will be seen in VR/360, and that is when you notice all the problems regarding the edges of the 2D comp, not translating as expected. Basically, you end up with lines and borders that just don’t match at all, therefore ruining the illusion and overall just looking terrible.”

Solution:

Hache says that “Fortunately, now there has been great advances in this area and we have tools of these sort created exclusively for VR. These help get around “the edge” difficulty fairly easily by comparison, but yet, when coming from the average animation, there is an inevitable learning curve that, as mentioned at the beginning, demands you to let go of some of the logic you are so used to.”

For guidance and inspiration to create 360 fully animated/illustrated environments, Draw Sketches for Virtual Reality Like a Pro, by the AI/VR/AR product designer Volodymyr Kurbatov, is a Medium article that we shared with freelance illustrators and animators who hadn’t worked within the 360 space and had adapted their creations into our projects in the past. Kurbatov recommends this book for those who would like to learn more about designing human dimension and interior spaces. I would also recommend checking out the 360 drawing workflow and techniques by French artist and illustrator JL Mast, who has worked in several projects with Marvel. There, he explains some of the most basic topics you need to grasp in order to create a 360 illustration in the equirectangular form — creating a 6 points perspective grid, and drawing and transferring your work to Photoshop for further adjustments. Also, these VR Sketches Sheets created by Intel’s UX designer Saara Kamppari-Miller could also be helpful when you first start experimenting with 360 illustrated environments.

2. Issues Adding Flat Illustrated/Animated Elements:

PROBLEM:

Usually, I create motion graphic elements, animations or illustrations separately, and then put everything together in 360 using VR effects on both After Effects and Premiere, so that these elements won’t look curved and deformed on the 360 environment. However, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Very small details throughout the process can make similar elements created on After Effects look different from each other in Premiere in terms of scale, even if you are using the exact same values on the immersive VR effects included in the latest versions of Premiere Pro.

SOLUTION:

When all you have to do is add some animated 2D elements to your video (such as lower thirds, location cards, subtitles etc), bringing the flat file into Premiere and adding VR effects is the easiest way to go. But more often than not, you have several motion graphics, illustrations or animations to be placed, so the best workflow is to create and place all your animations/illustrations the way you want them to look in After Effects, and then integrate your final render into the cut in Premiere. However, if you choose to bring a lot of flat 2D elements (such as linear videos, photos, background filters, animated arrows) into Premiere, you might face some [very annoying] issues with scale and software glitches when you try to adjust the pace that things appear on screen. For example, sometimes you adjust the VR Plane to Sphere effect settings and when you click anywhere else afterwards, the numbers you chose to adjust the different source and projection axes suddenly and inexplicably go back to the numbers you had before. Oh, the stress!

This is a software glitch and I haven’t found a solution yet, but when it happens multiple times, right after I set the values that look good, I quickly copy the effect before clicking anywhere else in my cut. If the values go away, I delete the effect and paste it back.

Also, when applying the VR Plane to Sphere effect on 2D elements in Premiere, the size of the canvas you rendered in After Effects matters — if you want to get a good look and quality of your image when you apply the effect. Let’s say you are creating chat boxes in After Effects to create a messenger-app look on Premiere. To do that, you need to make sure that the canvas size of all the boxes you are rendering are exactly the same; otherwise, their scales will look different.

That is why at the end of the day, it is better to place all the elements the way you want in After Effects and render them as a one-piece that will be brought into Premiere later.

3. Unwanted lines on the back of the 360 image:

PROBLEM:

We have faced issues with unwanted lines on the back of some of 360 videos quite a few times, and we’ve identified some reasons as to why this happens. Often times, when using the VR Plane to Sphere effect in Adobe Premiere to place 2D animated elements on the back end of your project, a line might appear if you are using additional effects such as drop shadow. Resizing a 360° environment is also problematic; scaling a smaller 360 image to frame size in order to fit the rest of the piece will potentially cause headaches with your export. In addition, we have noticed that sometimes rendering a sequence before exporting — and mostly when rendering layers of live footage and animations/graphics — has caused the back line to appear in the final export.

Lastly, there are other cases in which these lines might appear, which are not related to the use of graphics, but they are worth mentioning. In some cases, if you create a separate png mask for your tripod removal and in Premiere, you end up having to readjust the orientation of your shot, that can also cause similar issues.

SOLUTION:

A trick we figured out to get rid of the back line — while applying both VR Plane to Sphere and drop shadow — was to keep the drop shadow first, and then place the VR effect under it in the effect controls tab.

When it comes to dealing with different resolutions in the same timeline, make sure that the specs of the 360 illustration/animation go with the resolution of the full piece, to avoid having to fit to composition size later. So if you’re working with a 4096x2048 sequence, for example, and one of the shots is 3840x1920, it is worth trying to precompose the shot after the tripod removal is done in After Effects and make the original composition 4096x2048 before rendering. Attention: do not change the canvas size before removing tripod because that will mess up with your composition. Another way to go would be to bring the tripod removed 3840x1920 scene into Premiere, rescale it to 4096x2048, export it and bring it back to your video edit. Finally, to solve the issue of adjusting the orientation of both the shot and the tripod mask, it is often better to nest both layers and apply VR Rotate Sphere to the nested sequence instead of applying it on the separate files.

4. Nesting and applying effects to a lot of .png+alpha files

PROBLEM:

One of the worst technical nightmares I’ve faced in 360 post production was dealing with a lot of PNG layers in one Premiere Pro sequence. During the post-production of We Shall Have Peace, because I wanted to have more freedom to control the pace of the voice-over, videos, photos and graphics appearing on screen, I chose to create each separate asset on Photoshop and After Effects, and then bring everything into Premiere. Turns out that stacking too many PNG+Alpha files with VR transitions applied is a terrible idea. At some point, I needed to make a quick fix to get rid of a glitch in one of the graphic sequences that I nested, but because the project was so heavy, it would not reopen.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term, nesting a sequence is a compositing technique that works as a subsequence that gathers a group of files that you’d like to see grouped in your master sequence, for the sake of organization and practicality. So going back to my issue, I tried everything I could possibly think of: cleaned the disk cache, created a new project file and imported the final sequence with the full documentary, updated my Premiere version, tried to open the project in other computers, but nothing happened. I asked many other professional editors and nobody was able to help me. Premiere would crash every single time.

SOLUTION:

That was a difficult one! After trying to open the nested sequence in different computers, I finally managed to open it, only to find that I had to wait another hour to be able to click on any file without crashing Premiere again. I had applied VR transition effects after all the layers for them to fade out nicely. It turns out that this was causing the entire sequence to crash. At that point, after carefully removing effect by effect, I found the problematic one. I deleted the file, brought it back to the project and was able to carry on with editing.

—

It is truly rewarding when you are able to effectively recreate a space that brings viewers into a new world in VR, or potentially enhance their experience by adding graphics to the 360 space. Despite all the technical challenges you might face in post production, watching something you created on the headset and understanding how much this artistic touch contributes to the storytelling component of the piece is priceless. If you’d like to learn more about how and why we chose to use animations and graphics to make some of Contrast’s documentaries more impactful, make sure to check out my blog post “The Use of Illustrations, Animations and Graphics in 360° Videos”.

Troubleshooting Technical Challenges in 360VR Post-Production: Part III was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Editors go through a LOT of technical issues during the post production phase of 360 and virtual reality films. Interestingly enough, there are many ways we can fix these issues without experiencing major headaches, or prevent them from happening long before the project reaches the editing suite. It’s also pretty helpful for those who film, direct or produce these kinds of experiences to understand and be aware of the difficulties that can arise throughout the post-production process; by knowing what problems to avoid before you start your project, you could potentially speed up your post-production timeline and costs.

Last week, we wrote about how to stabilize and stitch shots and remove tripods with the least amount of hiccups possible. This week, we’re covering the biggest problems we’ve faced with color correction and sound… and how to avoid and/or fix them.

1. Color Correction and Dealing With Low Light Footage:

PROBLEM:

It is quite challenging to film low light scenes, even while using high-end 360 cameras. Very often, you get super grainy footage with a lot of noise and quality loss in dark spots. There are a few useful noise reduction tools and plugins that filter frames in a video sequence to differentiate noise from detail, in order to finally smooth out your footage on a frame-by-frame level and get rid of the digital graining aspect of low-light shots. However, you should be very careful when using these tools in your shot, because that can compromise shapes and details depending on how much of it you apply, especially when there are people in the scene. If you use too much of this effect, you might end up blurring out the tips of people’s fingers and facial traces, for example.

SOLUTION:

The most important thing to remember when filming in 360 is that it is always better to shoot in flat, or RAW, to have more flexibility to color grade your piece in post production. However, that is not always possible. In our films, Yemen’s Skies of Terror and Determined for Hope, both filmed by Yemeni journalists in Yemen, there was no way to get our journalists equipped with high-end virtual reality cameras. The quickest way to get the footage from them was through using a consumer camera, which gives you pretty saturated (and often overexposed) exterior shots and underexposed interior shots.

It’s possible to get away with color correcting tools from Premiere, for instance, but there are also other platforms that can help you achieve better results. I have seen some people use SCRATCH VR/Assimilate to color grade 360 footage, while others use Blackmagic’s DaVinci resolve, which has received mixed reviews in the industry. To remove subtle digital noise in a 360 scene, you can always apply a minimal amount of VR denoise effect (value between 0.1 to 0.5), as well as a bit of VR sharpen (value between 2 to 15) in Premiere. But for best results, we use the Neat Video, which gives you more effective tools and more control of your footage than the VR denoise effect.

To clear up noise from both high quality footage and shots captured by consumer grade cameras, another tutorial created by Hugh Hou shows you how to prevent — and fix — the noisy aspect of low light footage from capture to render, as well as how digital compression plays a role in the quality of the final product in this tutorial.

2. Spherical Sound:

Problem:

We should keep in mind all of the restrictions that filming a documentary entails. In immersive documentaries, for instance, often times you don’t have the luxury to repeat more than one 360 take when you are trying to quickly capture something that is already happening. When ambisonic audio is part of your production plan, and your camera doesn’t have a built-in spatial audio recorder, that challenge becomes even bigger.

I talked to spatial audio designer Daniel Sasso about the greatest technical challenges that sound designers face, and he emphasized that: “Many times, the 360 sound ends up not being thought through for this format beforehand, which means that most times, we need to work with sound captured as standard mono or stereo.” That means that if directional sound is an essential part of your story, and you didn’t manage to capture spatial audio for the scenes you end up using, you will have to improvise in post-production and kind of “fake” the spatialized sound. That is what happened while filming one of our pieces, “The Curse of Palm Oil,” shot on the GoPro Omni rig in the forests of Malaysia. Some of the shots were taken very quickly either because they were in restricted areas, or because the crew found something interesting to film and had only a couple of minutes to set up the camera in the best spot possible.

Besides, another big challenge with spatial audio is creating a piece that will be distributed on different platforms. Depending on where you are showcasing or publishing your video, the required number of channels and final specs are different, so it is best if you already know what these platforms are before starting your edit. There are specific requirements for Youtube, Oculus, HTC VIVE and Facebook, for instance, and adjusting your project after to add one more distributing platform can be a pain. The VR editor Lorraine Cardoza, who has experience editing documentaries in the 360 format, told us that when it comes to technical challenges of VR post, “I personally have dealt with many different technical troubles from ingestion to delivery, but the biggest challenge has always been delivery and accommodations for different platforms for both sound and video.”

Solution:

One great thing that made “The Curse of Palm Oil” more authentic and rich in sound design details was the fact that our producers on this project made sure to record separately distinctive and interesting sounds of the forest coming from very specific places: animals and birds, bulldozers, leaves, etc.

These recordings, and additional free sounds I found on FreeSound, allowed me to add sound effects to boost the spatialized sounds, especially on the shots that only had stereo audio from the camera itself. For some of these shots, however, adding sound effects captured separately wouldn’t help, so I had to what I did was to multiply the stereo audio files in different layers on Reaper, and apply Facebook360 plugin to emphasizing the direction of the action on one side more than others.

Regarding the different number of channels and render settings for distribution in different platforms: when I mixed audio for Contrast’s first documentary “I Am Rohingya,” for instance, my whole workflow was focused on publishing the content on Steam VR/HTC Vive using the ATK plugins (similar to Facebook 360, which helps you design spatial audio on Reaper and other audio editing programs) and I had trouble adjusting it to other platforms. Using Facebook 360 on Reaper really facilitated my workflow, because it allows me to encode the same audio mix for Youtube, Oculus and Facebook using FB360 Encoder. Lorraine also exemplifies the struggle with her own past experiences: “I’ve worked on a project where the sound had an ambisonic mix, but Premiere would mix up its channels so I worked with the sound mixer to find a command using FFmpeg to manipulate it to keep the structure of the audio layers and marry the video. Along with that, the videos in stereo 4K codec needed to be an H264 which also was not supported by Premiere. So using FFmpeg again, I used commands and forced the codec until it was playable online and in the headset.”

Stay tuned for next week — we’re covering animation and sound!

Troubleshooting Technical Challenges in 360 and VR Post-Production: PART II was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Editors go through a LOT of technical issues during the post production phase of 360 and virtual reality films. Interestingly enough, there are many ways we can fix these issues without experiencing major headaches, or prevent them from happening long before the project reaches the editing suite. It’s also pretty helpful for those who film, direct or produce these kinds of experiences to understand and be aware of the difficulties that can arise throughout the post-production process; by knowing what problems to avoid before you start your project, you could potentially speed up your post-production timeline and costs.

From stabilizing shaky shots to tripod removal, we’re outlining the biggest problems we’ve faced when working with 360 footage… and how to avoid and/or fix them.

Stay tuned for next week, when we discuss how to avoid some of the biggest mistakes when colour correcting, mixing spatial audio and adding animation and illustrations to your films.

1. 360 Video Stabilization

PROBLEM:

One of the greatest complaints of those who watch videos in a VR headset is the motion sickness caused by unstabilized/shaky shots. This can definitely compromise the quality of the overall experience, so if you are producing a VR film and plan to add some stunning drone shots, images captured on a rover to generate a bit of movement, or if you’re actually walking and holding the camera up high through a crowd, it is important to make sure your horizon is stable and the movement as smooth as it can be.

SOLUTION:

But, let’s say you end up with a shaky and unstable shot, even though you tried your hardest to make your movements as smooth as possible. Are there ways you can fix that in post? Yep, you’re in luck! Some people use SkyBox Studio V2; others do it while stitching on Autopano Video Pro (which can be very effective and quicker than other methods if your shot is monoscopic). Similarly (but less effective from my perspective), you can use Mistika VR to stabilize your shots. Finally, you can use the After Effects plugin, Mocha VR, which is the best tool to use if you are trying to stabilize stereoscopic footage and/or if you have at least one trackable object, preferably near the horizon line (for instance, a person holding the tripod while surfing or skiing, a tall building or structure, etc). Mocha VR is also very useful for object removal and to get rid of the tripod during moving shots. Check out this Mocha VR tutorial, which gives you a hand at trying out different tracking options.

Now, for my dear friends who shoot 360 videos using drones, make sure the lenses of your camera are not super shaky individually. That is going to be a huge headache to your post-production team and will most likely not look very smooth, despite all of your efforts.

2. Stitching Stereoscopic Footage

PROBLEM:

When it comes to stitching, the first thing anyone working in post-production hopes is that the shooter does a mindful job. It is quite tricky to stitch a 360 shot together when people, or objects, are passing by super close to the camera. When there is not enough overlap between lenses, it’ll be very difficult to get a seamless image. Things can also get a bit more complicated when you are working with stereoscopic 3D footage. Just as a reminder, stereoscopic 360 footage is captured by cameras such as ZCam V1 PRO and Insta360 PRO that imitate the human eyes, which means that they film different angles of the same scene and generate images for the left and right eye. That creates depth of field, while monoscopic videos are flat and the images look the same for both the left and right eye. That being said, any small discrepancy in the seam line of a stereoscopic shot ends up being amplified with the 3D effect, and becomes very noticeable when watching the material in a VR headset. Sometimes, these discrepancies are in different spots per eye, which can cause discomfort.

Monoscopic image from the 360VR doc “From Waste to Taste,” filmed with the GoPro Omni rig.

Stereoscopic image from the 360VR doc “We Shall Have Peace,” filmed with the Samsung Round

Nathalie Mathe, a VR creator and post-production supervisor based in San Francisco, has been working as an artist and technology expert in film visual effects for 25 years. She brings some of her technical knowledge into virtual reality projects. When it comes to stitching stereoscopic footage, she says: “It’s nearly impossible to get good stereo during stitching and cleaning up when you have objects or people very close (less than 3 feet) to the camera, and other elements in the background are much farther away.”

SOLUTION:

I usually use Mistika VR and Autopano Video Pro to stitch footage captured with various cameras, but in more tedious cases, a lot of professionals in the field end up using Nuke and Cara VR, which can give you a more professional outcome and a neat look. However, depending on your budget, deadline and stitching line complexity, this option can be time consuming and also pricey, especially if it’s a one time project. The temporary licence of Cara VR isn’t cheap (1500 USD/quarter); you will also need to get a license on Nuke (1629 USD/quarter) to use it. If you don’t have a lot of time on your hands and you are not familiar with the software, it is recommended to hire a professional stitcher who can do the stitching for you on Nuke.

When fixing seam lines, stitching programs usually prioritize foreground over background, and vice versa. Although some programs like Mistika VR have improved their algorithms by using optical flow as an enabling tool, the image does not always look perfect. Mathe explained to me that her solution is often “prioritizing what the user needs to focus on in a shot, or stitching for different distances and compositing different versions together, but this is much more time consuming and tricky in stereo.” Hugh Hou is a co-founder of CreatorUp and VR videographer who posts pretty useful tutorials on 360VR post-production regularly. For him, the best “stitching solution is the one where you can move your stitch line based on the scene and the camera movement.” On Mistika VR, he stitches multiple passes with different stereo edge point placement in the exact same 360 take. Then, he uses After Effects to fix any stereo issues. For moving shots, for either stereo or monoscopic footage, he created this tutorial to show the most practical way to use edge point in the new Mistika.

I have also found Mistika VR to be the most helpful, in many cases. Their optical flow is great, although stitching lines might wobble in some cases. That happened to us in a project that is still in development, Still Here. 360 video was one of the mediums included in the experience, and some of the stereoscopic shots were stitched on Mistika VR: the foreground objects looked great, but in one of the shots, the wobbling background had to be fixed carefully through rotoscoping characters when they were walking towards the back of the scene.

3. Tripod Removal:

Problem:

We have experienced many issues with tripod removal, especially from shooters that have just started working in the field (i.e.participants part of our ‘My People: Our Stories’ initiative, where we trained filmmakers and journalists from all over the world on how to film using a 360 camera). However, it’s not only in the field that we’ve experienced issues regarding tripod removal. We’ve also faced several technical glitches in the post production process, caused by linking the footage in Premiere to the tripod removed shots in After Effects; encountering export glitches when adding a PNG tripod mask on Premiere; tracking issues while using Mocha VR to remove a rover or drone from a moving shot, etc. And what about shots where the light continuously changes and shadows of people running past the camera are moving? How do we fix shots that fall into that category? What if the footage is stereoscopic? Here comes some tips for a good looking nadir:

Solution:

When I first started working on tripod removals, my workflow was to replace the footage in Premiere with an After Effects composition. This way, the excerpt of the shot opens up in AE and any modifications you make will reflect on the Premiere sequence. That seemed very convenient in the beginning, since I didn’t have to spend time rendering shots after tripod removal. However, that became a bit of a nightmare when I had to extend shots, for instance, in which I would have to go back to After Effects, find the original compositions, change their length and then finally extend them (which means that your After Effects project needs to be EXTREMELY organized… if you don’t want to go crazy later). Besides, the export would often show a red screen, meaning that some footage was unlinked/missing, or I’d experience some glitches in After Effects while using the cloning tool. Facing these kinds of issues near the delivery deadline was a huge no-no, so I changed my strategy.

Another method that works — -if you have a static shot in which the light or shadow don’t change throughouts — -is to pick a frame within the time-codes of the footage that you are using, remove the tripod in After Effects or Photoshop (a great option if the camera was not placed on a smooth/solid surface) and render it as a PNG mask. If you have a plate shot of the spot where the camera was placed, you can then crop the still and place it on top of the tripod, creating new compositions to tweak and perfect your image.

This option is still convenient to me, because rendering just one frame and creating a mask in Premiere is the quickest choice. However, that has caused some export glitches, for different reasons. When the footage is heavy and you add PNG masks, it is essentially one more layer that Premiere has to process, and that can cause export glitches — especially when I’ve fixed the horizon line on the original shot and applied the same VR Rotate Sphere values to the PNG tripod mask to fit the image. Also, if one clip was shot in a different resolution than the rest of the video, bringing in a PNG mask can cause a black line on the back of the 360 export (where the flat corners of the equirectangular image meet). To avoid these issues, the best thing to do is to bring each original 360 clip into After Effects, remove the tripod and render the time-codes of the section you need in .mov (I sometimes extend the ending for a few seconds, in case I need to extend the shot later, in the final steps of editing).

Another issue we face, when trying to achieve seamless tripod removal, is when shadows or light are changing. In this case, the workflow becomes more tedious. At Contrast, what we do is remove the tripod with the cloning tool, based on the timecodes we need to use in the final edit, and adjust the cloning throughout the scene. To avoid the abrupt change in color of the new, fixed layers you are adding in the middle of the scene, you can select the new layers and create opacity keyframes, so that these layers will gradually and smoothly appear to cover up the messy part. Another option, which can give you better results, is to use Mocha VR on After Effects, which will help you track any light and color changes and replicate them on the parts where the tripod has been removed.

In this car shot, for example, we had a plate shot. However, the light inside the car was changing as the character was driving. What I did was place the still photo on top of the tripod and repaint the photo itself, grabbing the colors from the car seat (video) so that the light would change accordingly.

In stereoscopic footage, at the very bottom and the very top of the footage, the 3D discrepancy between the left and right eye are very minimal (as the zenith and nadir can’t conserve depth information properly). That being said, I am able to use the same tripod removal mask for both eyes and it usually looks smooth.

So, there you have it: we’ve discussed the biggest problems we’ve come across from stabilizing, to stitching and tripod masking. For those of you in post-production, have you found other useful solutions for these issues? Did we miss anything? Drop a comment and let us know. And stay tuned for our next post: we’re focusing on the greatest challenges when colour correcting and mixing spatial audio of a 360VR piece.

Troubleshooting Technical Challenges in 360 and VR Post-Production: PART I was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Our latest immersive documentary, “Living in the Unknown,” highlights the fears and hopes of the Uighur diaspora struggling to keep in contact with relatives in Xinjiang, a province in western China known for its strict surveillance and secrecy.

Life in the province of Xinjiang, in the far western corner of China, is shrouded in secrecy. From facial recognition cameras at petrol stations to the drones hovering above the border, the high tech surveillance in the region is rampant. There are police checkpoints at every corner. A recent report by Human Rights Watch details the system adopted by the Chinese police using a mobile app to monitor and store data on 13 million Uighurs, and other Turkic Muslims, in Xinjiang.

Reporting on this issue is complicated within and outside of China. Journalists who travel to Xinjiang to report on the Uighur Muslim community tell stories of police following their every step. The Uighur community abroad say they feel they are being followed, even though they are living far away and out of immediate reach from the Chinese government. There are informants who claim they are sent by the Chinese government to infiltrate Uighur diaspora. Many Uighurs abroad also don’t want to talk to the media, fearing repercussions for their families back home in China. Those who choose to do it either hope that the spotlight will help their case, or simply feel they don’t have anything to lose because their relatives have already been imprisoned.

It’s almost as if an Orwellian dystopia — where your every move is tracked and your entire life is at the mercy of Big Brother — has suddenly become very real and life-threatening.

So, how do we tell an immersive story that has at its center, one of the world’s most restricted areas? How do we cover a topic as complex as the Uighur issue — one that involves a long history of tension, alleged human rights abuses, and claims from multiple parties — and turn that into a creative, visually striking documentary? How do we provide an intimate look into the lives of the people from there — Uighur Muslims — and how they’ve been impacted by China’s surveillance and secrecy?

This proved to be quite the task, but we did it. We published our virtual reality documentary, ‘Living in the Unknown,’ which uses a mix of personal stories, archival footage and graphics to showcase the plight of the Uighur people, both inside and outside of China.

Here’s how we did it:

1. WE PUT TOGETHER THE RIGHT CREW.

‘Living in the Unknown’ wasn’t our first go at covering the Uighur issue. After the news about mass detention in Xinjiang broke in August 2018, we published our first story documenting the issue from the perspective of a Uighur mother and daughter. In the rare 360º footage, Hatice Abudurexiti showed her life in Istanbul, Turkey, where she and her daughter were taking refuge after her husband was arrested in Egypt. In 2017, dozens of Uighur students were detained by the Egyptian police on Beijing’s request. At the time of filming, Hatice hadn’t heard from her husband in nearly two years. The video, filmed by freelancers Oscar Durand and Özge Sebzeci in October 2018 — and edited by Contrast in house — quickly gained attention online.

That’s when we decided to go beyond a 2-minute social video and attempt to capture the issue with a longer, more in-depth documentary. However, dealing with such a complicated and multi-layered issue — with human rights organizations and Uighur activists on one side and China on the other — we knew that there was an immense amount of research that needed to be done in order to tell this story in an accurate, nuanced and meaningful way. Because of the sensitivity of the topic, it was also essential to put together a production crew that was familiar with the region, the characters and players involved, who could be trusted to gather the footage we needed to do this story justice.

Simina Mistreanu, a China correspondent, joined ‘Living in the Unknown’ as a reporter and field producer. Having previously reported from Xinjiang herself, she brought her expertise on the Uighur issue to the project, which was an important and essential background for her reporting in Turkey.

“Xinjiang is one of the most pressing human rights crises in China’s recent history, and one that is difficult to wrap your head around,” she says.

Interestingly enough, according to Simina, the main challenge for journalists working on this issue is not the heavy policing.

“Visiting Xinjiang as a journalist is challenging, because state police follow your every step and prevent you from talking to people. But, perhaps an even greater challenge is getting readers and viewers to relate to and care about the fate of a group of people they have maybe heard nothing about, and whose situation is just as complex as it is urgent. It has been important for me to try to report on this issue from almost all possible angles, including the experiences of families living in Turkey without being able to communicate with their loved ones in Xinjiang.”

The crew also consisted of a Uighur fixer who knows the community in Istanbul very well. Abduweli Ayup is a writer and a teacher who fled China himself, after having spent time in detention in Xinjiang. Having Abduweli with the crew made it easier to get access to the stories, because the characters felt at ease and were willing to talk to him. Abduweli has also a lot of experience working with various international media, which was an important advantage, especially when working with a relatively uncommon medium such as 360º video.

Following our commitment to include as many voices from the community in the production and post production processes, we also looked for a Uighur musician to compose a score for the documentary. Translator and singer Rahima Mahmut, currently living in London, joined the project to offer her voice and tunes to wrap up the viewer in an authentic Uighur musical experience.

That leads us to our next point.

2. WE GOT PERSONAL (AGAIN).

Our first social video, featuring Hatice and her daughter, garnered a lot of attention online. As in all of our work, we chose to include a strong personal element in the video, as it always resonates with viewers. Hatice shared her worries and fears about her imprisoned husband, and about the life she was trying to build for her daugther in Istanbul. Through Hatice’s story, viewers were able to see, understand and were reminded of the very real effects of the alleged human rights abuses China is accused of. We wanted to continue on the same note in ‘Living in the Unknown,’ which is why the film features a follow-up with Hatice and includes more voices from the Uighur diaspora community.

Highlighting the sense of ‘family’, both in Istanbul and in China, was crucial in order for viewers to understand the plight of the Uighur people. Many Uighurs have managed to get out of Xinjiang in search of a place where they can freely practice their religion and foster their culture, but many do so with a heavy heart. This is because, in many cases, they’ve left the people and things they love most — what makes a place ‘home’ — behind.

For example, Habibullah, a 32-year-old Uighur businessman who has lived in Istanbul for nearly two years, shares that he hasn’t heard from his sister in nine months, while he walks us through his current life with his wife and four children. We gathered footage of the family eating, of his wife and children playing at a park, and of Habibullah at the store he owns. While walking us through his life in Istanbul, Habibullah shares his worries regarding his sister’s safety and of his longing to go back to his ‘motherland’.

We used the same approach to capture the personal story of Monawwer, an 18-year-old student. She and her sister have not heard from their parents since they arrived in Istanbul a year earlier. She talks about the friends she has made in Istanbul and of her plans for higher education. Like Habibullah, however, she expresses her longing for the day she can see her parents again.

We contrasted the characters’ current lives with their emotional recounts of what they’ve left behind, to accurately capture the Uighur (and general refugee) experience. This was our approach to getting viewers hooked and immersed in a topic that is as complex as the Uighur issue, as well as bring the human element back into the narrative (which has been dominated by dry, facts-based reports from human rights groups).

In addition, it was important to tell this story through virtual reality. This is because the medium gives the viewer an opportunity to see the homes of our characters, and to spend more time with them in their surroundings. This way, we are able to bring the viewer a bit closer to the people who feel they have been forgotten. Immersive journalism is very much about the location and setting, so it was important for us to document the city and the places that many Uighurs are now learning to call home.

“We hope that by bringing viewers into the homes of Uighur families in Turkey, we’ll be able to help create empathy and build a connection. Uighurs feel like their fate is of no concern to the rest of the world, that they are alone. We hope immersive journalism can help change that,” says Simina.

3. THEN CAME THE FACTS via MESSAGING INTERFACE

As always, we wanted to capture this issue in a nuanced and accurate way. This meant asking some important questions that forced us to consider how we could combine the personal stories of Uighurs (who’ve been directly impacted by the alleged human rights abuses) with important context:

• What does China have to say about the accusations? How do we represent China’s stance on the issue?
• How do we demonstrate the international conversation going on regarding this issue, in a way that’s visually interesting and fits into an immersive environment?

To tackle and answer all of these questions in ‘Living in the Unknown,’ we collected archival footage (and relevant soundbites) from past Al Jazeera news packages and various news agencies. But we didn’t want to just superimpose text, linear video and photos onto 360º footage, as that would be an overload of information, especially in immersive space. So, we decided to present the information in the form of a ‘messaging’ app. Taking into account the messaging applications that were most popular within the Uighur community, we created an ‘interface’ that we used to include all the information needed as ‘messages’ being ‘sent’ directly to the viewer.

This was not only a great way for us to present crucial contextual information to the viewer in a way that was captivating and worked within an immersive environment, but it also conveyed the painful situation Uighurs in diaspora find themselves in. Messaging apps are easily accessible and commonly used around the world, but are rather useless for Uighurs struggling to stay in touch with their families far away in China. Uighurs living abroad recall how their relatives simply delete their contact and stop messaging. This has to do with the fact that China perceives Uighurs in diaspora as potential sources of radicalization and, thus, closely monitors any communication. Thus, by using this visual style, we were able to present important contextual information in a way that worked well within an immersive environment AND highlighted the total radio silence many Uighurs receive from their loved ones after leaving Xinjiang.

Some examples:

To show China’s side: “We will not accept the politically-driven accusations from a few countries which are fraught with biases and are seriously far away from facts…” an excerpt from Le YuCheng’s speech in front of the U.N. Human Rights Council, November 2018 (VIDEO)

To include the findings of human rights groups: “We documented torture. We documented ill treatment.” Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch (PHOTO + AUDIO)

The world wants to know what’s happening in Xinjiang, but it remains one of the most restricted and tightly controlled areas. The secrecy and lack of verifiable information coming out of the region made the thought of publishing a virtual reality documentary about the Uighur issue quite daunting. However, we managed to bring the story to life by combining the personal accounts of the Uighur diaspora with archival footage and other contextual information. We also used unique graphics, to provide viewers with the perspectives of both the Chinese government and human rights groups in an inventive and creative way. These combined techniques were the best way to tell an immersive story that covers the long history of tension, alleged human rights abuses and claims from multiple parties, while also making the story very much about the lives of those who have been the most impacted by the strict surveillance and secrecy in Xinjiang: the Uighur people.

How We Told an Immersive Story About a Community That Hails From One of the World’s Most… was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

1. We don’t do breaking news: We produce short documentaries that focus on important topics and issues about communities of colour and the Global South. While we definitely have an edge when it comes to bringing the stories that often go under-reported to light — especially from a local perspective — our projects take a lot longer, so we don’t have a constant barrage of new material to distribute and stay relevant in the dizzying, 24-hour news cycle.
2. Most people don’t have access to a headset: Though we do publish our 360-degree/virtual reality documentaries on Facebook and YouTube, our documentaries are best suited for watching on headsets, like the Samsung GearVR, HTC Vive and Oculus Go. Most people also prefer linear videos when scrolling through content on social media, mainly because they’re unfamiliar with 360-degree videos.

These barriers, coupled with being a tiny team within a news organization that already has an established brand (Al Jazeera), at times made us feel like we were screaming — er, releasing — our content into the void.

So, how did we overcome this? Well… we haven’t, but we’re working on it.

We’ve come up with a plan that tackles and solves each of these issues head-on. We’re week one into implementing it and we’d like to share our thought process — for feedback, and in case any of you are dealing with the same issues.

Defining our brand and voice (while keeping our strengths in mind):

We’ve decided to relaunch the Contrast brand on social media, with a clearer identity of what the brand and the people behind it stand for.

We know we have to establish a consistent style and voice across all of our platforms, in order to build an audience that is active, engaged and loyal to our content. But, it isn’t just about establishing a consistent voice or a consistent style. The only way to find others who share our values — who are interested in hearing the diverse perspectives we have to offer — is by being authentic in the way we present ourselves. This means ensuring that our strengths (i.e. what makes us unique) and values are reflected in our brand.

What does this look like when executed? Keep reading.

Packaging our content differently for each platform:

In general, each distribution platform serves a purpose. Instagram is all about the visuals; Twitter is about staying on top of current events and connecting with like-minded people; and Facebook is our primary publishing platform — that’s where people go to watch our documentaries in their entirety. To increase engagement in each, we need to ask ourselves how people are consuming content on those platforms and package our own content accordingly (even if it means losing the 360-degree/virtual reality aspect, which is what made our particular mode of storytelling unique).

This is the part of the distribution plan that had us scratching our heads, because we are now working with multiple parameters: we needed to tailor our content for each distribution platform, while also ensuring our unique values, visual style and voice are preserved.

Let’s break it down by the value and platform that would help us achieve that best:

1. STORYTELLING: Contrast is a storytelling studio, yet we weren’t doing any kind of storytelling on our social media pages. We weren’t doing justice to the stories we covered in our documentaries, because we were using our social media accounts to promote our work in singular posts (posts that usually consisted of single images, which were lackluster compared to the stunning footage we captured in our virtual reality documentaries). Our posts also didn’t carry the nuance or richness of the characters and issues that were the focus of our documentaries.

PLATFORM OF CHOICE: INSTAGRAM

It makes the most sense to do most of our storytelling on Instagram, where people come to see great visuals, rather than read blocks of text. But, how do we adapt the stories and content covered in our virtual reality documentaries, so that they’re just as stunning and engaging in linear form?

1. BY TELLING A WEEKLY STORY: We’re going to tell a different story every week using images, cellphone footage and graphics, using our social videos and documentaries as a focus. The stories we tell weekly will be unified by a common monthly theme i.e. we will have a new theme every month and we will tell four different stories within the month that reflect the theme. This will hopefully establish a consistent narrative that people have a reason to follow.
2. BY EMBRACING THE ‘GRID’ look: Instead of publishing our film posters (which are always colourful and powerful) as a single post, we’ll publish each in a grid format, to maximize the visual appeal.
3. BY INCORPORATING DIFFERENT KINDS OF MEDIA: During our production shoots, we collect images, cellphone footage and audio, in addition to 360 footage. In the past, we didn’t take advantage of this; now we plan to, making sure that the stories we tell in the VR documentaries are continued to be told using a diversity of mediums on different social platforms.

2. SUPPORTING DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES, LOCAL STORYTELLING AND BUILDING A COMMUNITY: Contrast is run by a team of all-women, who come from various parts of the world. As such, we have many different perspectives represented on our team, which is reflected in the stories we cover — from Pakistan’s female carpenters, to food waste in Brazil, to the impact of war on Yemeni children. We’ve actively involved local communities in the storytelling process (i.e. by hiring local filmmakers, journalists or photographers) to get more nuanced, diverse perspectives in our stories. Thus, we very much support local storytelling, and given that social media is where one can connect with millions of people, from all walks of life, and that there are ongoing discussions around diversity and representation in journalism, it is very important for us to be able to communicate — and demonstrate — this specific value to our audience.

PLATFORM OF CHOICE: INSTAGRAM

Instagram would be the best way to support and build a community that consists of those interested in local and diverse perspectives. We’ll tap into this by:

1. Regularly collaborating with accounts that have global contributors, particularly from the Global South
2. Regularly reposting photos taken by local journalists, filmmakers, artists etc.
3. Leaning on the freelancers we’ve worked with in the past to submit updates on the stories — and regions — they were involved in covering
4. Host Instagram takeovers with local storytellers from different parts of the world, based on our monthly theme

PLATFORM OF CHOICE: MEDIUM

Because we’ve involved local journalists, filmmakers and photographers on every documentary and social video we’ve published, we’ve already begun building a local storytelling community. As such, we regularly feature these storytellers on our Medium blog, where they share their experience of covering x-y-z from the perspective of their community. We also share our behind-the-scenes into the ins and outs of producing a documentary, from pre to post-production, which we hope many readers will find relevant. We also plan to regularly feature those who are shifting the narrative within their communities by doing ground-breaking work — work that many should know about and/or can learn from.

3. FORWARD-THINKING AND INTEREST IN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: Virtual reality — and other emerging technology like augmented reality, artificial intelligence etc. that are being used for storytelling — are niche topics; not everyone is into these, and not everyone understands the tech. But, those who do tend to be very enthusiastic about its future and this is the audience that would be the easiest to engage. Thus, it’s important that we demonstrate our interest in new media and emerging technology, because this would be the best way to connect — and exchange ideas — with industry partners and leaders.

PLATFORM OF CHOICE: TWITTER

Twitter is the best way to establish Contrast as a thought leader in the niche industries that we belong to. Along with doing storytelling on Twitter, we use it to connect and share relevant information with like-minded people. Ultimately, we want our Twitter account to become the go-to source for news relating to the intersection of emerging technologies and storytelling, as well as upcoming immersive storytelling projects (particularly those incorporating diverse perspectives).

PLATFORM OF CHOICE: MEDIUM

Contrast was started in 2017, and in the last two years, we’ve experienced every glitch and mishap you can imagine during the pre and post-production process. Those tuned into the worlds of virtual reality and journalism will likely find our learnings — from how we’ve overcome these difficulties, to the shortcuts we’ve managed to find — very relevant and helpful. As such, we plan to publish more blog posts that cover ‘tips & tricks’ and ‘behind-the-scenes’, to not only begin to cement ourselves as thought leaders in the immersive storytelling arena, but also to connect with and feature other leaders as well.

Well, there you have it. Contrast’s rough plan to maximize engagement and build a loyal audience. I think the key here is being able to adapt our content in a way that preserves what made it unique in the first place and giving people a reason to keep coming back for more (telling stories week by week). We’ll check back in a few months with an update on whether this plan works or not!

Building an Online Engaged Audience for Immersive Stories: An Experiment was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you’ve been familiar with our work at Contrast, you already know that we take great pride in fostering, supporting and growing a global network of 360 video journalists and innovative storytellers.

This has led us to the work of Karolis Vyšniauskas — a journalist who is paving the way forward for independent media and relational journalism in Lithuania. (A key concept behind relational journalism is the notion of relational engagement: journalism that focuses on engaging with people as members of communities, not just as “audiences.”)

Lithuania, a country of nearly 3 million people in Eastern Europe, has spent half of the 20th century under the Soviet Union rule, which meant severe restrictions on speech and press freedoms. During this time, journalists’ voices were controlled by the government and independent publications were essentially non-existent. Since Lithuania’s independence in 1990, the country has generally enjoyed high levels of press freedom but some journalists — like Karolis —have been pushing further towards higher quality independent storytelling.

Karolis is a dedicated member of Nanook, a journalists’ collective aiming to “reinvent journalism in the Baltics.” Nanook is made up of 15 young journalists — filmmakers, photographers, and writers — who all began their careers after the country’s 2008 economic crisis. They’ve already produced some great work about their country. Their very first project conducted in 2016 — an in-depth multimedia feature on what it’s like inside Lithuania’s only women’s prison — was published on Al Jazeera.

At Nanook, Karolis hosts and edits Nyla, the first Lithuanian podcast supported by its listeners. In Lithuania, podcasts are a relatively new phenomenon. Despite the country’s unfamiliarity with this medium, Nyla has found some success. Karolis said their Patreon campaign has crowdfunded nearly $24,800 for their work. They’ve also experimented with relational journalism where they hosted live community conversations on important social and cultural issues happening in Lithuania today.

Beyond the podcast, they have also explored new strategies and methods to attract new listeners. For instance, Nyla opened and hosted a photo-audio exhibition at Lithuania’s National Library.

Nyla also aims to reach communities in Lithuania that have been largely ignored by the traditional media. Nanook recently launched a Russian edition of their podcast centering on the Russian and Polish voices from Lithuania.

Although Lithuania lacks a strong independent media tradition, and the journalism industry is limited by their language and small media market, Karolis said the journalism experiments he has conducted with Nanook and Nyla prove to be working.

We sat down and talked with Karolis to learn more about his work, Nanook, relational journalism and the importance of independent media in Lithuania today.

CONTRAST: Why create and run Nanook?

Karolis Vyšniauskas: We saw that there are too many stories untold by Lithuanian media and that the best way to cover them properly is by creating our own media outlet.

Nanook’s first project “Monotone Days”, later republished by Al Jazeera, gave a very intimate and humane view of the only women’s prison in Lithuania. Inspired by the quality of their work, I quit my job at a local radio station and joined Nanook’s team to launch a podcast.

We called the podcast Nyla — both names are a homage to the characters from the first documentary film, “Nanook of the North.”

Nanook was co-founded by photojournalists Berta Tilmantaitė and Artūras Morozovas. Currently, our team consists of 6 core members and 12 contributors, including illustrators, sound engineers, political analysts and composers.

Every week, we publish a new podcast episode followed by a photo series. At the same time, we are working on long-term multimedia projects and teaching media literacy classes in Lithuanian schools.

It’s a 24/7 job. Working on stories, securing funding, engaging with the people who follow our work — you have to do it all. But it gives a great sense of purpose and meaning.

Is there a reason for the lack of “strong independent media tradition” in Lithuania?

During 50 years of the Soviet rule in Lithuania, journalists were seen as party propagandists. Political discussions were held in private gatherings but not in open forums. There were journalists in exile opposing the government view, but their voices were restricted. Newspapers like The New York Times or The Guardian weren’t available and few people spoke English. So, there were few examples of what good journalism is.

When Lithuania regained independence in the early 90s, the press played a crucial role. New magazines and newspapers were established. Lithuanians were early adopters of digital news portals. For a brief moment, journalism was seen as a respectable profession with a clear mission in society.

But the financial crisis of 2008 and the rise of social media was too much to handle for many of those media outlets to survive. I was writing for a weekly magazine, which was a Lithuanian equivalent to TIME or Newsweek, established in 1992. It was shut down in 2017. Last month, one newspaper, which was run since 1990, declared bankruptcy. I doubt it will be the last one.

What do you credit for your journalism experiment’s success?

Many creative initiatives in Lithuania end because of the lack of cash. So the fact that we are able to sustain ourselves financially without making compromises to the content that we provide is a success. We are grateful to our listeners who are supporting the podcast via Patreon. We wouldn’t be able to run it without their contribution.

Recently, I received a message from one of our listeners. She said that Nanook’s work helps her be more empathetic. That is at the heart of what we are trying to achieve. We want to understand the lives of those people who are overlooked by media and often society as a whole.

Our earlier work included stories from Lithuanian Roma and Muslim communities; we started conversations on race, addiction and mental health. We helped to break one of the first #MeToo stories in Lithuania. There are a lot of taboo topics in our society and whenever we see that our work allows people to be more open about it, I consider that as a success.

What has the reaction been to Nanook?

It was very positive from both the people and fellow journalists. We wanted to confront the “journalism is dead” narrative and show that if you don’t find a news organization that you can fully commit to, you can try to create it yourself. It gave a sense of optimism.

What has garnered your interest in experimenting with relational journalism?

From the very beginning, we saw Nyla listeners as co-creators of the podcast. We looked for ways to engage them in real life, not only via social media.

We started with a debate at Vilnius University, where we invited students and our listeners to participate and ask questions to the panelists. We recorded the conversation and published it as a podcast episode.

With the help of Agora Journalism Center in Oregon University, we went a step further and made everyone a panelist. We recorded open conversations where we, as journalists, were conversation facilitators rather than hosts.

I was inspired by similar practices in Capital Public Radio, where Sacramento residents were debating rising housing prices in California. Or by Alaska Public Media, where journalists were inviting local residents to meet the convicts at prisons. We all met during the “Finding Common Ground” project. It felt fresh and inspiring.

Do you think there’s a need for relational journalism now? Why or Why not?

I came to journalism wanting to meet people and tell their stories. But the reality of today’s journalism is that you spend a lot of time at your desk producing quick articles made up of phone interviews and Facebook posts.

I see relational journalism as a way to escape that. I think that journalists have to find ways to be part of community that they serve. That’s the only way to survive.

What are some examples of relational journalism experiments Nanook has done?

Our first event was connected with the prison situation in Lithuania. Lithuania leads the EU in prisoners per capita, but half of the population says they wouldn’t want to live next to a former prisoner. So we invited former inmates to tell what life in a Lithuanian prison looks like, and how hard it is to re-enter the society that places a stigma onto you.

We were sitting in a circle and everyone could take the microphone and ask questions. For many, it was the first time that they were sharing a room with a former inmate — or the first time that they were aware of that.

Another event was held as a response to the official mayoral debates in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. We felt that the real issues were not raised, so we invited Vilnius’ residents to share what their hopes and fears are.

From skateboarders to young parents to urban sociologists, we felt that most of us thought about the same things: shrinking public space and lack of community. Many of the participants hadn’t met each other before, but we ended up talking for two hours.

Both conversations were recorded, edited and published as podcast episodes for those who couldn’t participate.

How have you been able to sustain Nanook — which is made up of journalists who started their careers after the 2008 economic crisis?

We don’t have any big investors, so we are juggling different sources of income. The most stable source of income comes from the podcast listeners via Patreon. Since the start of the campaign in late 2017, we’ve raised 24,800 USD from more than 400 people.

It’s not enough to cover the expenses of the podcast production, but for us it’s more than just a financial question. Each of the people who donated proves that Lithuanians are willing to pay for journalism — something that was forgotten with the rise of free online media. Also, many of those people became our friends and content co-creators, suggesting new topics and promoting our work to their friends.

We apply for different grants and make partnerships with NGOs who share the same values as we do, which allows us to have editorial control. We are also looking for business support in exchange for advertisement on the podcast. Vilnius-based email marketing company MailerLite was the first one to do this. Their sponsored message was the first ad aired on a Lithuanian podcast.

What kind of stories do you aim to cover? How do you find them?

As I mentioned earlier, we want to start conversations that haven’t yet started in Lithuania. Or we want to make those conversations louder and more diverse.

We also don’t shy away from pop culture topics such as cinema, music or video games. We think it’s crucial to talk about it in order to understand modern society. For example, we did an episode on sexism in video gamers’ community, or we talked with local hip hop artists about cultural appropriation.

The lack of topics was never a problem. Recently, we did a survey of our listeners and got 80 new ideas of what we should be covering, from work burnout to school situation. We just have to find time to do them.

How did you come up with the story on Lithuania’s only women prison?

Berta and Artūras made a long list of possible stories for their first multimedia project. One of their missions was to work on underreported topics and there are two kinds of underreporting — not talking about something or talking about something in a very trivial way.

For them, the way Lithuanian media was creating a narrative on sentenced women was unacceptable. The women were condemned, stigmatized, blamed and shunned. That narrative tells a lot about us as a society and how we see sentenced people, but it tells nothing about sentenced people themselves.

That’s why they went to Panevėžys correctional facility: not only to listen, but to really hear the personal stories that help to create a new narrative — taking time to go in-depth, without any preconceived notions.

What’s next for Nanook?

We just started to produce the Nyla podcast in the Russian language. There’s a limited choice of local media for the Russian speaking community in Lithuania so we want to include their stories as well. We also want to add new mediums to our platform such as space for creative writing and for photo stories.

Karolis Vyšniauskas is a Lithuanian journalist paving the way forward for independent media and relational journalism in the country. You can follow the work of Nanook at instagram.com/nanook_multimedia.

A journalist’s efforts to dismantle the Soviet Union’s legacy of media censorship in his country was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This time last year, we released our first virtual reality documentary from Yemen, Yemen’s Skies of Terror, that was filmed by two local journalists Ahmad Algohbary and Manal Qaed Alwesabi. We sent them 360 video cameras and trained them remotely through countless number of WhatsApp messages and calls over the course of four months, to ultimately produce an award-winning documentary that detailed the lives of three young Yemenis who were impacted by the air raids (read more about the process here).

The documentary finished, but the stories of the war continue to this day. In the coverage of the war, we’ve seen the devastation of an already struggling country. We’ve heard of the deaths of the illnesses and air raids, but so many of the stories of those left behind remain in the shadows.

This war in Yemen has had a profound impact on women. As mothers who carried the immeasurable pain of seeing their children waste away in front of their eyes, as caretakers responsible for the wellbeing of their families, and as documentarians and witnesses to the events of war. Above all, as men fall as a result of war, the women are the ones tasked with rebuilding and raising a new generation.

“Yemeni women have a role that is both big and harsh. Sometimes I feel that we have lost many of the features of our natural life. Especially since the economy has collapsed, we are always thinking about how to live for those who around us, who are under our responsibility. In a society where previously only few women worked, now many women are working,” says Manal.

Amal, another Yemen journalist, agrees:

“Many women lost their husbands from the war. Yemeni women became both the mother and father. The role of female journalists is no less important than male journalists, but it is important for us to support and be the voice of the rest of women by covering their issues, their suffering and their stories.”

As we approached another year of war, we wanted to work with the same journalists to continue to shed light on Yemen’s crisis, but this time through a different lens: exploring the impact of the war on women and their children, specifically looking at malnutrition. Ahmad Algohbary, one of the journalists we trained, ended up having to leave the country to undergo eye surgery, so we looked for another journalist based in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital.

Enter Amal Al Yarisi, a 27-year-old journalist from Sanaa. “I covered stories I never I imagined I would have to witness in my country,” she told us as she set about filming in 360 video for the first time.

She teamed up with Manal, who is based in Hodeidah, a key port city on Yemen’s western coastline. Having filmed for Yemen’s Skies of Terror in 2018, Manal was now embarking on filming her second 360 video documentary.

In the year that passed between her first film and the second, a lot of things had changed — despite her country still being frozen in war.

How the war in Yemen affected the documentary’s post-production

Last year, we struggled with issues of communication, but still managed to connect daily (or at the very least, every other day) on WhatsApp which became our main line of communication. This year, we couldn’t connect with Manal online most of the time.

The fighting and bombardment in Hodeidah had deeply intensified, with the last six months of 2018 being among the most difficult since the beginning of the war. Manal and her family were temporarily displaced from their homes. Electricity blackouts became common; the internet first cut off for hours, then days, eventually weeks.

Without internet, we had to reach her by weak telephone connection, struggling to hear her voice in the muffled scratches of a person around 2,000 kilometers away. She had no internet to send us the footage, so she had to load it on a USB drive, hand it off to a driver of a public bus and pay him to deliver it safely to Sanaa into the hands of Amal, who would then upload it online for us.

Some things also changed for the better.

Despite all the chaos, Manal got remarried this past year, sharing her happiness with us through a selfie with her and her son on her wedding day.

Yet, even the symbolic acts of celebration and life were nevertheless tainted by the war, as Manal contemplated the (im)possibility of bringing another child into what she now knew as a painful world.

All around her, she witnessed Yemen’s youngest generation dying, if not by shelling then by an even bigger danger — of hunger. Save the Children estimated that 85,000 children may have died from starvation. As many as half of children under the age of five are chronically malnourished. Most astonishing is the realization that Yemen will carry these scars deep into the future, when half of the war torn country’s children will likely not develop to their full intellectual capacity.

The numbers are shocking. The stories are heartbreaking. The crisis is devastating. We knew we had to cover this issue. We began first discussing the possibility of filming a story on malnutrition with Manal and Amal in early December. We spent some time training Amal how to film with 360 video, as she prepared a trip to Hajjah to film at a medical clinic there.

We continued to develop the possible story angles that examined malnutrition but also explored what it means to be a woman, a mother, a witness, and a victim and survivor of war. Through time, it became clear that Manal and Amal are also central parts of the story, as they navigated not only the painful scenes in front of them, but also questioned and reflected upon their role.

“The war turned me into a journalist and I found myself responsible for conveying all I saw.” For Manal, her role as a mother also played a big role as she witnessed the pain of the women around her. “Now, I see my son in all the children,” Manal said.

Manal, in Hodeidah, and Amal, in Sanaa, both filmed two young children undergoing treatment for malnutrition over the course of a little more than a month. Sitting with the children in the hospital rooms, we begin to grasp the larger toll that the children’s illness has on the mothers and families.

“The Yemeni mother is tired. Not only me, every Yemeni mother is in pain. Yemeni women are strong but this crisis made us weak, yet we still fight.”

Those are the words of Fawzia, the mother of two year old Hanadi, that was featured in the opening of our documentary.

As the stories of the children unfold, so do the stories of Manal and Amal, as they speak about their past dreams, painting an image of a brighter past, and what they still hope for the future. Through the voices and guidance of Manal and Amal, they bridge across different worlds and bring the viewer into their Yemen, showing what it used to and what it has now become.

“I may be unable to save all these children from hunger and the danger of death, but I hope to change and draw the attention of the world through reporting and documenting what they are going through, hoping that one day we will reach peace,” says Amal.

True to the meanings of their names in Arabic, with Manal meaning “Determined” and Amal meaning “hope”, the two of them share a world in crisis, yet are still determined to have hope.

How Two Yemeni Women Are Using 360 Video to Reveal Realities of War was originally published in AJ Contrast on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.