A 360° multi-perspective understanding of the Arctic.
The Polar Sea is a multi-platform 10-hour journey through the fabled, beautiful – and melting – Northwest Passage, that combines TV, web and virtual reality elements. Conceived as an immersive Arctic experience, Polar Sea 360 follows a three-man expedition on the Swedish sailboat Dax, as it travels 9,000km from Reykjavik, Iceland, to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. On TV, the Polar Sea project is a 90mins film, Polar Sea: The Northwest Passage, and a ten part documentary series called Polar Sea 360. Beyond the physical journey on TV, the story is enriched with an immersive web and mobile experience centered around 360-degree video storytelling. Available in three languages, French, English and German, the interactive Polar Sea 360 website features an extensive online magazine comprising more than a hundred contributions from adventurers, scientist, artists, and locals living and travelling along the Northwest Passage.
The magazine expands on the TV series and connects viewers to a comprehensive, 360° multi-perspective understanding of the Arctic. This media rich experience is complemented by the world’s first web based 360° documentary film. In The Polar Sea 360° Journey, viewers experience the Arctic through the eyes of the Inuit, becoming a part of revelatory stories about the beautiful, changing Arctic landscape.
The film is a genuine technical and aesthetic breakthrough. For the first time ever it tells a longer format story by seamlessly integrating 360° video with regular film in a new form of storytelling that did not previously exist. Polar Sea 360 also includes a 360° mobile app for iOS that allows viewers to navigate scenes in the Arctic with the swipe of their finger. By switching the app into virtual reality mode and inserting their iPhones into a special holder viewers can literally step into the Arctic and feel like they are there. For many Polar Sea 360 will be their first taste of virtual reality, a technology that is about to transform our relationship to the screen as we know it.
Broadcaster: ARTE/ZDF, TVO, Spiegel TV, Knowledge Network
Producer: DEEP INC. in association with Primitive Entertainment
http://polarsea360.arte.tv/en/
