Hasta La Motion!

The New York Times Virtual Reality project has won two grand prix awards at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the Mobile Grand Prix for the NYT VR app, and the Entertainment Grand Prix for “The Displaced”. In November 2015, the New York Times distributed 1 million Google Cardboard viewers to home-delivery subscribers, along with the paper, the biggest ever project for Cardboard. The VR app was downloaded more times in its first few days than any previous New York Times app, exposing viewers to “The Displaced,” a VR story about how war has displaced 30 millions children from their homes. “The Displaced” also won the “The Most Next Award,” the top honor at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers’ annual AICP Next Awards.

The Displaced

Nearly 60 million people around the world have been driven from their homes by war and persecution – more than any other time since World War II. Half are children. The Displaced is the story of three of those children. Here Be Dragons partnered with the NY Times and Google to launch NYTVR with the VR film, which was directed by Here Be Dragons creator Imraan Ismail and NY Times journalist Ben Solomon. The film tells the stories of three children from Syria, Ukraine and Sudan whose lives have been upended by conflict and follows them as they move forward, trying to rebuild in the aftermath of earth-shattering events. Over a million subscribers to the NY Times received a special edition Google Cardboard to experience the documentary and virtual reality itself for the first time.

New York Times Virtual Reality Credits

The New York Times Virtual Reality project was developed by VRSE.Works (Here Be Dragons) by creative director creative director Chris Milk, directors Imraan Ismail, photographer Lynsey Addario, executive producers Kathy Ryan, Patrick Milling Smith, Andy Wright, producer Samantha Storr, working with New York Times editor Jake Silverstein, virtual reality editor Jenna Pirog, design director Gail Richler, film reporter Ben C. Solomon, reporters Susan Dominus, Andrew E Kramer and Marc Santora.

Editors were Ting Poo and Livio Sanchez at Spot Welders. Colorist was Dave Hussey at Company 3. Music was by McKenzie Stubbert.