Today, for the first time ever, Google has produced a Google Doodle that plays a 360 degree VR movie and it was done for the French illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. Reading the Google Doodle page is probably even more fascinating than watching the 360 video, or maybe not:
Here is the 360 video, you can drag the video left or right or up and down and see stuff going on in all directions of the video. There is a debate if 360 video will be a big thing or not, I am not a film person so I won't go there. Here is the video:
Here is the behind the scenes story on how it was made:
It is not Georges Méliès birthday, but rather the anniversary of the release date of his À la conquête du pôle (The Conquest of the Pole, 1912) works. It was released a 106 years ago today in 1912.
I can't imagine how much time and money Google spent on this Doodle that would be on the Google home page for 24 hours. But yet, Google clearly finds it worthwhile in their effort to promote VR.
Forum discussion at Twitter.