By Annunziata Gianzero
AN ENVELOPING LOOK: The 120-year-old Church of St. Veronica is featured online by WestView as a 360-degree experience (a first). Photo by Constanza Gallardo and Maritza Villela.
You may be asking, “What exactly am I looking at?” Or, if you’re familiar with virtual reality and the new trend in producing news segments in 360-degree video, you may already recognize this as a 2-D screen capture of a 360-degree video.
Either way, WestView is now on the leading edge of this journalistic trend and has produced, in conjunction with the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, its first 360-degree video.
The subject of the first piece? The Church of St. Veronica, of course. The 360-degree video format felt most fitting to capture the full beauty of this historical church. The 2-D image, video footage, and this written piece will soon be available online at westviewnews.org. There, you will be able to click directly on the video and view its immersive splendor. On your phone, you can simply move the phone and it will auto-magically “move around” the church. (Note: You must have the YouTube app downloaded.) On your computer, you are presented with a virtual joystick to click around the church.
The video tells the story of today’s Church of St. Veronica. In it, you will experience a brief perspective from the group that gathers on Sundays to recant the Holy Rosary, a short interview with Father Santiago Rubio, and a discussion with Jorge Navarro with views of the dance classes he organizes at the church. You will even hear some classical selections from the upcoming holiday concert on Saturday, November 25th.
