CNN Takes Viewers Back to 1986 With VR, Studio Re-Creation of Challenger Explosion
Rare behind-the-scenes archival footage allows CNN to recreate the newsroom
Brian Flood | March 31, 2016 @ 6:00 AM
Last Updated: March 31, 2016 @ 2:03 PM
CNN recreated its Atlanta studio from 1986 to bring users back to the moment when the space shuttle Challenger exploded on live TV for a 360-degree video Virtual Reality reenactment in advance of Thursday night’s premiere of “The Eighties.”
TheWrap was invited to attend an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the project. We witnessed CNN’s team recreate everything from the cameras and phones in the background to the news desk, giving it a feel directly from the era.
The finished product features a quick explainer by Anderson Cooper followed by an intense trip back to Jan. 28, 1986. Every detail is covered, including hairstyles and outfits worn by the actors-playing-anchors. The 360-degree video allows viewers to not only check out the anchors’ reactions to the Challenger disaster, but also the chaos of the newsroom.
“One of the greatest strengths and powers of VR is it’s ability to give you presence in a new time and a new space,” CNN VR executive producer Jason Farkas told TheWrap. “We wanted to give people a chance to time travel back to three key moments in 1980s history.”
The decade offered numerous significant moments, but CNN settled on the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the memorial set up where John Lennon was shot, and the Challenger explosion.
“For the Challenger explosion, we decided to actually include a bit of CNN’s history in it as well. Instead of recreating the moment where the disaster took place, we took note of the fact that CNN was the only national broadcast network to carry the explosion live on television,” Farkas said. “As tragic of a moment as it was, it was also a major turning point for CNN.”
A promotional team happened to be recording behind-the-scenes content inside the CNN studio the day the Challenger exploded and they kept rolling once the disaster took place. Farkas used this video to ensure his recreation was as authentic as possible.
The archival footage allowed CNN VR to pick up minor details, such as a staffer frantically running through the set as the news unfolded. CNN hired 40 extras, and designed 20 set pieces to give the feel that viewers are literally traveling back in time.
The dramatic scene that unfolds within the CNN newsroom while the anchors watch the Challenger explode on live TV is typically something you’d have to be there to understand. Not anymore.
“We also have a lot of CNN staffers who still work at the company, who weren’t on-air but were producers and behind-the-scenes people. We consulted them for historical accuracy,” Farkas said.
Everyone who watched the video seemed to have the same reaction, which is essentially: “Wow, this is insane.”
CNN used CGI effects for specific details, including what’s on monitors in the background of the studio. To make this happen, CNN partnered with TimeLooper, a location-based time-travel app for virtual reality.
“If you were looking at a TV monitor from the 1980s, what you will see is that actual TV monitor but in the green screen we will insert the footage,” TimeLooper COO Andrew Feinberg told TheWrap. “The detail is excruciating.”
The video will appear first on CNN’s Facebook page, CNN’s Android app — which as of this week integrates 360-video playback — and on the TimeLooper app. CNN has a team of 20 employees that a spokesperson says “touch VR,” so expect more projects in the near future.
The network was the first news organization to livestream a news event in virtual reality, with its VR coverage of a Democratic debate in October 2015.
10 Journalism Movies To Share the 'Spotlight' With
"All The President's Men" is the film that many critics have compared "Spotlight" to, and there's little wonder why. "Spotlight" follows the path blazed by the Robert Redford/Dustin Hoffman classic recounting the Watergate scandal, showing the investigative reporting process in great detail and exposing the roadblocks that reporters face when trying to uncover the truth.
It's a shame the "Star Wars" prequels made many moviegoers cringe at the thought of Hayden Christensen, because his performance in "Shattered Glass" is a must-see. Christensen plays Stephen Glass, a reporter from The New Republic who was fired in 1998 for fabricating many of his stories.
Forty years after its release, "Network" remains one of the most potent satires not just in cinema, but in any medium. Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning script bitterly attacks broadcast media for sacrificing the public good for salacious stories that will get ratings. Today, as the media chases after Donald Trump for more and more scandalous quotes, "Network" has proven to be prophetic. Again.
In a similar vein as "Network," but a generation earlier, there's Billy Wilder's "Ace In the Hole," which stars Kirk Douglas as an opportunistic, down-on-his-luck reporter who discovers a man trapped in a collapsed cave in New Mexico and uses it as an opportunity to regain his former big-city glory. Even back in 1951, sensationalism in the press was being examined in film.
Back on the more idealistic side of journalism movies, there's George Clooney's "Good Night And Good Luck," which features David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow as he takes on Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare. The concluding speech cautions about the potential and dangers of television that "Network" looks at more cynically.
From Australia, "Balibo" retells the true story of Roger East, a reporter who traveled to East Timor to investigate the disappearance of five other journalists just before the invasion of Indonesia in 1975. The film features "Ex Machina" star Oscar Isaac as Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta before his rise to the East Timor presidency.
The wittiest take on arts journalism is Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," a dramedy about an aspiring music journalist covering a rising band for Rolling Stone. The film is based on Crowe's own experiences at Rolling Stone, and features Philip Seymour Hoffman as legendary rock writer Lester Bangs in one of the most famous "job warning" speeches ever.
The words of Hunter S. Thompson, patron saint of gonzo journalism, are captured brilliantly by Johnny Depp in "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas." Thompson's writing crackles with life, and Depp's narration sets it ablaze. Listen to his reading of the famous "Wave Speech," which brings forth Thompson's ability to find beauty even in the ugly side of America that he always reveled in.
"Broadcast News," James L.Brooks' rom-com drama, has been praised for its insightful look at the day-to-day life inside a broadcast newsroom. Featuring a love triangle between an unseasoned anchorman (William Hurt), a high-strung producer (Holly Hunter) and an ambitious reporter (Albert Brooks), this is a much lighter alternative to "The Newsroom."
"Citizen Kane." Come on, does this need further introduction? Orson Welles' masterpiece is one of the heavyweight contenders in the Greatest Movie Ever debate, and a sobering look at the slow death of journalistic idealism at the hands of power and greed. Some 75 years later, that loss of faith in journalistic ideals seems to be more widespread in society. Maybe that's why "Spotlight" won Best Picture: it reminds us that truth-seekers aren't as extinct today as we sometimes may think.
1 of 10
From odes to investigative reporting to biting satires of mass media, journalism and the movies have a long history together
"All The President's Men" is the film that many critics have compared "Spotlight" to, and there's little wonder why. "Spotlight" follows the path blazed by the Robert Redford/Dustin Hoffman classic recounting the Watergate scandal, showing the investigative reporting process in great detail and exposing the roadblocks that reporters face when trying to uncover the truth.