360-degree documentary 'Follow My Lead' puts viewers in the arena for the NBA Finals

By Brad Jones September 15, 2016

follow-my-lead — Oculus

The National Basketball Association has teamed up with Oculus to release a 25-minute virtual reality documentary about last year’s championship series. Follow My Lead: The Story of the 2016 NBA Finals is a 360-degree video experience that charts the entire seven-game series between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The film demonstrates how VR technology might be used to augment traditional video experiences. Follow My Lead was shot with 360-degree cameras, so viewers can turn their heads while watching to see any aspect they like of any given scene.

This means that you can immerse yourself in the crowd and see how others react when LeBron James pulls off a particularly impressive dunk. Some more unusual moments were also captured — the memorable tumble taken by a cameraman during Game 6 is apparently even more visible than it was on the television broadcast.

Creed and The Wire actor Michael B. Jordan was called upon to provide narration for the documentary. Meanwhile Brooklyn-based outfit m ss ng p eces — perhaps best known for working on the video for Daydreaming from Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool album — handled production duties.

It will certainly be interesting to see whether Follow My Lead starts a trend of documentary content designed to be viewed using VR hardware. Despite the film’s lengthy runtime, watching it in this format is apparently not as conducive to headaches and discomfort as you might expect, according to a report from Engadget.

Follow My Lead is an ideal way to relive the conclusion of last year’s championship series before the 2016-17 season gets underway next month. The film has been designed to be viewed on the Samsung Gear VR headset, and is available now as a free download via the Oculus Store.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

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