Gibson the Lion
National Geographic
In a first-ever 360-video filmed from the heart of a pride of lions in the wild, you get to come face to face with these big cats in Virtual Reality. In close collaboration with Zambia Carnivore Programme, Martin Edström and the IVAR Studios team push the boundaries of immersive wildlife storytelling further in this lion VR-video for National Geographic.
With 360-video and Virtual Reality on the rise, we wanted to show the power of this new immersive format. Immersive video holds great power in giving new perspectives on wildlife and conservation.
The Story
Gibson the lion lives in the wilderness of South Luangwa National Park in Zambia with his mother. The 360-video story lets you follow along as Gibson and his mother are both forced to leave their pride because of conflict with a new dominant male.
Using our custom-made camera rigs for filming 360-video, we followed both Gibson, his mother, Pala and the other lions of the pride for over a month in the field. We used a custom-built remote-controlled car to be able to place the camera in places no human could ever go: face to face with these big cats.
Services we have provided
Story development
We specialize in developing stories for immersive formats, letting the audience step into the story and interact with it.
Immersive production
We capture, produce and publish content within all fields of the immersive space - from 360-video to interactive virtual reality.
3D and Reality Capture
We bring back high-resolution 3D assets from all over the world, using photogrammetry, lidar and reality capture.
End user experience
Our innovative approach enabled the audience to literally meet lions face to face in virtual reality. Even if you have seen hundreds of natural history documentaries, our experience offered something new: presence. We were able to bring you up close and into the center of the pride of lions, in a way that hadn't been filmed before.
Impact
The resulting 360-video has been widely published on many different channels and has over 75 million views, and is regularly used in events, talks, and exhibitions by National Geographic. Martin Edström and The IVAR team pushed the limits of how we can come close to and experience wildlife and remote, inaccessible places in new immersive formats.
Get in touch
Do you want to learn more about immersive storytelling? Perhaps you already have a project idea?