Cyberella – Design Issues for Interactive 360 Degree Film

The idea of 360 degree is not a new phenomenon in arts and media. It has its origins in the arts of the early 18th century and later the panoramic view in the field of photography and also in film was adapted. Groundbreaking technological progress has allowed for a new hype in 360 degree videos in recent years, including new possibilities of interaction. In this paper we will describe the current status of the ongoing project Cyberella which focuses on exploring filmmaking and narrating techniques for interactive 360 degree films. Our approach is divided into two steps. Firstly, existing interactive 360 degree videos are examined for their specific film language. A catalogue will summarize important results of the analysis, including research questions, as a basis for our film project. Our second step will comprise of our film project Cyberella, which is testing a variety of film styles to find new ways of filmmaking and defining design guidelines. In summary, this paper aims to contribute to the discussion of how storytelling in relation to traditional film language can or should be adapted in 360 degree interactive video context to formulate first design-issues for practical use.