Mark Zuckerberg posts VR short film on prisoners who are transforming their lives through education

In his ongoing bid to bring about positive social change, Mark Zuckerberg has posted a VR (virtual reality) short film that highlights the lives of prisoners who are changing their lives through education.

The short film is part of the Oculus ‘VR For Good’ program, which is meant to drive social change by “pushing the boundaries of cinematic VR”.

The film is called Step to the line and was unveiled at the Tribeca Film Festival last week. Zuckerberg has now posted the film on his page.

The Facebook CEO writes, “One of the most powerful side effects of VR is empathy – the ability to understand other people better when you feel like you’re actually with them.”

The film focuses on the lives of the inmates, putting you face-to-face with them in VR. Zuckerberg says that the film shows how hard it is to build a better future.

You’ll also be interested to know that the film was shot on the $60,000 (around Rs 39 lakh) Nokia Ozo camera and directed by Ricardo Laganaro, produced in partnership with Defy Ventures.

The Ozo is an orb-like device that’s festooned with cameras and mics. Together, the device captures 360 degree video and audio and that too in VR.

Each camera has a 195 degree field of view, a global shutter and can record video in 4K at 30 frames per second.