Experience the Devastation and Resilience of the Los Angeles Fires through Virtual Reality
A snapshot of fire-ravaged Altadena is laid out before me, hovering like a diorama. My eyes zero in on a red door, its frame one of the few surviving remnants of a home. I pull it closer to me, and in moments I see a fraction of the house as it once was — now I’m in a cozy kitchen with blurred but welcoming pictures in the background and a grandfather celebrating a birthday. A voice-over tells me that it was Alexander, a grandfather, who painted the door red.
It’s as if a memory has sprung to life and exists solely in the ether in front of me. But in seconds it’s gone, and I see only rubble — scattered bricks and tiles, tree branches and wooden boards.
Musician David Low and his family in virtual reality film “Out of the Ashes,” which shows the destruction — and reconstruction — of the Palisades and Eaton fires.
(The Mercantile Agency)
Documenting the Devastation and Resilience
Filming is continuing on the project, which began just days after the flames ignited. Filmmaker, academic and virtual reality pioneer Nonny de la Peña secured media access to the burn zones for her and a small team via her role as the program director of narrative and emerging media at Arizona State University, which she operates out of offices in downtown Los Angeles. “I knew that this was going to be transitory type of situation, that it was going to change quickly,” says De la Peña, co-director on the film with Rory Mitchell. “I’ve covered enough disaster stories to know how huge this was.”
De la Peña has long been at the forefront of merging immersive technologies and journalism. Her 2012 project “Hunger in Los Angeles,” for instance, was the first VR documentary to screen at Sundance. “I think this technology is unique,” De la Peña says. “I’ve seen a lot of helicopter footage, but when you’re right there in it, it’s a different perspective as to what happened.” For this documentary, she partnered with Mitchell, an independent filmmaker, whose augmented-reality tabletop experience “The Tent” premiered at SXSW last year.
