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For me, it started with a little red hat. Seven years ago, Motorola sent me a box with instructions to discover a novelty from its ATAP group. The box contained something that looked like an elaborate pop-up book, a Moto X 2013 and a small red hat with an NFC tag. The hat belonged to a mouse called Pepe, and as soon as I typed it on my phone, he opened an app and I was transported to his world, the world of Windy Day.
This app – this world – was Spotlight Stories.
Spotlight Stories was an initiative to show what could be possible with better motion tracking sensors in the phone. Motorola used this beautiful and moving story to show what made its phones so special. And it worked. For 4-6 minutes, all the people to whom I handed this phone were transported to another world. Everyone who showed me that smiled all the time and asked immediately more when it was over.
And we have more. So much more.
Explore a new media
I've had the chance to follow Spotlight Stories from the beginning, and part of that was exploring this world from the artist's point of view. For Jan Pinkava, director of Windy Day, this experience was reminiscent of creating something for an audience. When you have the opportunity to go around in the real world and watch a story, no matter what point of view you choose, it's up to the storyteller to guide you and make sure the story fits his or her intentions.
You can turn around at any time and let the story be told. Keeping your attention while encouraging you to move is a delicate balance to achieve. Windy Day has even gone so far as to include a special soundtrack with audio loops when you are distracted, both encouraging you to explore and making sure that the actual story does not happen here.
Motorola has slowly turned Spotlight Stories into its own platform for video, updating it regularly with new and more entertaining stories. When Google bought the company, it was feared that this new intelligent experience would die. Instead, Google has invested a lot more in this team and pulled even more from this experience. We even could see the inimitable Glen Keane on stage at Google I / O while he was showing his work on Duet.
Keeping someone engaged when he was actually the one who is holding the camera is difficult, and watching new teams take up this challenge has never stopped being amazing.
Keane has never hesitated to explore new mediums, including the incredible behind-the-scenes work that he has created in virtual reality, but his work on Spotlight Stories was particularly special. At a time when hand drawn animation was long considered to be old, Keane showed how to dramatically adapt to this new medium. Duet was not just a story that happened when you were shooting, it was two stories that came together. This encouraged you to watch several times to fully enjoy the experience, without losing any of its magic.
Google has continued to grow Spotlight Stories well beyond its original mission and has pbaded on these experiences to millions of people. Live Spotlight stories have finally been added to the mix, alongside almost every imaginable animation style. Spotlight Stories, as a platform, became compatible with many different phones, then became available on the Web so users could click and drag to track certain stories, and eventually became a 360 VR experience. Spotlight Stories' iteration was facing the same basic challenges: it's hard to keep someone engaged when it comes to holding the camera, and watching new teams take on this challenge has never been stopped being amazing.
Really unique, despite everyone
In the same way that Motorola wanted to use Spotlight Stories to present the 2013 Moto X, Google had the opportunity to use the 360-degree video format to showcase its own virtual reality platform. Google Cardboard surprised a lot of people in its debut and was, from all points of view, extremely popular. It was not particularly profitable, even as Google increased quality by switching to Daydream. But this unique range of visual experiences has certainly helped the initial offer and contributed to the sale of the whole concept of "democratized VR".
But Spotlight stores have always been so much more than the material you use to make the experience, and this seems to be something that was lost as the platform continued to transform under Google. Being able to explore the experience at your own pace, have a fascinating story demanding your attention in a specific direction and make you really feel like you are looking into another world than yours – these were the pillars of which made the Spotlight original stories. out. And if you look at the last two offers such as they have been published on YouTube in 360-degree formats, the steady decline and stagnation of the number of viewers are obvious.
I will never forget how each Spotlight story made me feel the first time I watched them. And in many cases, the second and third time as well.
I can not say that I am super surprised to see Spotlight Stories go away, but the way it happened has disappointed me. With more platforms capturing 360-degree video, it's harder than ever to stand out. The 360 degree video on Facebook is still relatively new and is never very good. Google could have caused a sensation with Spotlight Stories on Facebook, but chose to highlight only its own distribution mechanisms. Nowadays, YouTube is full of 360, VR and even VR180 content. The barrier to entry when it's about grabbing a 360-degree camera and pressing the record button has never been so low, but this has always been the least difficult part of making a video of this type. And to date, there has never been another group as ambitious and creative as the Spotlight Stories team to present an experience that you want to experience fully.
Although I am sad to see it disappear, I will never forget how each Spotlight story made me feel the first time I watched them. And in many cases, the second and third time as well.
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