Into the Himalayas
The problem
Conservation storytelling in the Himalaya needed to put viewers inside the landscape, not in front of it.
The approach
Stereoscopic 360 rather than flat video, so scale reads the way it does on the mountain.
What was built
Riverbank Studios shot the cinematic content; Habitat XR was brought on as the 360 VR crew, and subcontracted Gavin for the stereoscopic stitching and the edit.
The outcome
The 'Mountains' episode was named a finalist at the 2020 Jackson Wild Media Awards, among the most respected honours in wildlife and conservation film.
Into the Himalayas is a three-part stereoscopic 360° VR conservation series, shot in the snow leopard country of Ladakh, northern India. Gavin did the stereoscopic stitching and cut the films.
The “Mountains” episode was named a finalist at the 2020 Jackson Wild Media Awards — the conservation-film field’s most significant award, often described as its Oscars.
The production ran in tiers: Riverbank Studios was the prime and shot the standard-format work, with Habitat XR handling the VR. Gavin was subcontracted by Habitat XR for the post — the stereoscopic stitching and the edit. He did not shoot it.
Habitat XR published the series’ signature shot on their own channels in March 2020: three wild snow leopards, a mother with two sub-adults, on an ibex kill in the Ulley Valley. Habitat XR describe it as never before filmed in cinematic VR.
Episode 'Mountains' was a finalist in the prestigious 2020 Jackson Wild media awards.
