Capabilities
Step-In Videos (VR)
Wide Awake Films is a pioneer at creating 360-degree videos that meld together historic photos with modern videography to create a truly exciting way to explore the historic landscapes all around us.
Historic photography allows us all to travel back in time to see a place as it existed when the photographer captured it on film. Returning to those very places and seeing those images integrated into the modern, current landscape gives us the means to see that history afresh - to see why these historic landscapes have so much power. Our Step-In 360 videos can be created both as traditional videos, but also as true Virtual Reality (VR) experiences where one can pivot around to take in the full view.
Awards
This pioneering VR series has garnered several awards for its use of innovative techniques and educational storytelling.
2024 Webby Honoree: “Step Into History” - AI, Metaverse & Virtual - Best Use of Augmented Reality – American Battlefield Trust
2024 Bronze Anthem Award: “Step Into History” - Digital & Innovative Experiences – American Battlefield Trust
Exploring the Civil War’s Greatest Photographs
Wide Awake Films has been working with the American Battlefield Trust on a series of Step Into History videos that revisit some of the American Civil War’s greatest photographs. Standing in the same spots where famed photographers Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O’Sullivan stood has brought new insights into the history that they captured on battlefields across the country.
Creating the Step-In Magic
Each of these Step In videos requires a great deal of preparation and study before the cameras roll. Our talented team of videographers and Virtual Reality specialists are then able to take modern 360 footage that we capture on-site and blend in the historic images seamlessly. This painstaking work requires great skill and patience in order to create a unified view that places those historic photographs directly into the landscape.
@richardglady3009 on YouTube
“Wow! I love the combination of present and past and the explanation of the importance of the photographs from Antietam. I hope you get the chance to create other videos like this from different battlefields. As the war evolved and the cost only increased, the people of both sides got a glimpse of the cost of war. Thank you.”
