We joined forces with The New York Times to create a VR film entitled 'The Modern Games.' The experience marks the start of the Summer Olympics in Rio and takes viewers through time to some of the most unforgettable moments in Olympic history.

From the revival of the modern Olympics in 1896 to Babe Didrickson's paradigm-shifting victories in 1932 to the almost superhuman feats of gold-medalists like Bob Beamon and Usain Bolt, NYT VR takes you inside the triumph and failure, joy and despair of the Summer Olympics.

Creating a sense of transport was a key aesthetic to capture in the creation of this experience. We wanted the viewer to feel that they were not only temporally projected into the moment photograph was taken, but also enveloped by the historical lens that embodies our vision of specific points in past.

The team closely analyzed each environment from iconic source material of Athens, Los Angeles, Beijing and Mexico, adding texture, depth and CGI elements such as crowds to bring each scene to life. Each element was seamlessly integrated, paying close attention to the consistency of lighting and tone of each distinct moment in time.

It was an exciting prospect to have these iconic photos as our source material. They presented interesting questions about distinctions between camera lenses and the human eye. Photography is a subtractive exercise – the photographer’s goal is to isolate exactly what they want the viewer to pay attention to and capture it in a single frame. By contrast, virtual reality is additive. The viewer controls the direction of focus, so as environment-builders we have to account for that. Certain tools essential to photography like focus and vignetting are no longer relevant or effective.