BBC announces first major virtual reality project: a VR documentary

Easter Rising follows the perspective of 19-year-old Irish rebel Willie McNieve.

Cassandra Khaw – Mar 2, 2016 11:25 am | 3

The BBC is continuing its experimental approach to new content with the announcement of a virtual reality documentary. Tentatively entitled Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, it will put users in the shoes of 19-year-old Willie McNieve, a participant in the aforementioned armed insurrection in Ireland. The documentary will use McNieve’s eyewitness account, a recording that the BBC says laid undiscovered for over 30 years, to provide a more personal glimpse of the rebellion.

Scheduled to release some time this year, Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel will be available for both the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR platforms. Those without a virtual reality headset won’t be left in the cold. A video version is coming to a BBC iWonder guide for Web users.

Unsurprisingly, this won’t be the BBC’s only foray into virtual reality. According to the website, there will be more interactive documentary projects launching this year to mark “other key moments from 1916 including the battle of the Somme.”

BBC executive Martin Davidson said: “The events of 1916 in Ireland had an immense impact on Anglo-Irish relations. In this anniversary year, BBC audiences will be able to tap into a variety of programming that sheds a light on the lasting influence of the attempted rebellion that took place whilst the rest of the country was distracted with World War One.”

As noted by VRFocus, Easter Rising is not the organisation’s first experiment with the medium, but it is the BBC’s first major VR project. And while virtual reality might still be in its infancy, the world already has seen a number of documentaries presented in that format. There’s a synergy between the two conceits. Documentaries are, after all, intended to bring us as close to the subject as possible, regardless of whether it may be an exploration of prehistoric oceans or a glimpse of embattled Sudan.

But will there be an audience waiting to receive these new documentaries? Most likely. Pre-orders for the various VR headsets have been staggering. Take the HTC Vive, for example: 15,000 pre-orders were reportedly made in 10 minutes, despite the fact that, including shipping, it costs about £750.