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The Largest Pilgrimage In The World, Captured in VR [Q&A]

The Largest Pilgrimage In The World, Captured in VR [Q&A]

Once a year, every year, for the last 14 centuries, people from around the world gather a few modest belongings as they prepare for a journey. Muslims have grown up hearing the significance of the Prophet Muhammed’s pilgrimage to Mecca and have curiously listened to moving stories from aunts, cousins and parents of their own travels there. The arduous pilgrimage stirs the imagination, for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and it is an obligatory event incumbent on all Muslims to complete at least once in their lifetime.

And millions take on the pursuit each year. They arrive from Bangladesh to Britain, and all nations in between, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a mission of a higher calling. As pilgrims make their way, they are tested under extreme temperatures, fatigue and dehydration.

Back in April I messaged a friend and said, “Wouldn’t it be amazing to capture the pilgrimage to Mecca, in virtual reality?” This story is well-suited for the medium of VR as I thought about the intense scenes such as millions of people circling, in unison and in prayer, the building at the center of Islam’s most sacred mosque.

I was pleasantly surprised to find one filmmaker had taken on the project. Luca Locatelli, the Italian photographer and filmmaker, recently completed his VR short Pilgrimage: A 21st Century Journey Through Mecca and Medina and distributed it through the NY Time’s VR app. I had the pleasure of interviewing him recently.

Interview with Director Luca Locatelli about his VR film. Interviewer: Shamir Allibhai on Aug 24, 2016. Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Shamir: How did you first get into VR?

Luca: I really love technology and in my life, I’ve liked trying new devices and new ways of storytelling. VR has always been so fascinating to me. I did some experiments even 5 years ago – they weren’t really successful – and so actually VR has been on my mind for awhile. Once Google and Facebook opened up on VR, I felt like ‘oh this is the right moment for things’ because it’s not so vertical anymore and everyone can access VR content. Now is going to be the opportunity to do something for real.

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Director Luca Locatelli

S: Why did you want to tell the story of Pilgrimage to Mecca?

L: My case is particular because a few years ago, I fell in love with a woman who became my wife. She’s Indonesian and she grew up in a Muslim family. Indonesia is a secular state but has the largest number of Muslims in the world.  I was raised as a Christian so I know much about Christianity but I didn’t know much about Islam. I got more involved and learned a lot of new things. One of these things is the pilgrimage to Mecca. My wife once showed me our friend’s Facebook pictures, happily taking a selfie in an incredible place with huge architecture. I asked my wife, ‘what is this place? Is it Indonesia? Dubai?’ and she said, ‘No, no. This is Mecca.’ And I was like, “Woah! Really?! This is Mecca?” And she said, “Yeah. I’d love to go there one day… It’s the dream of most Indonesians to go there and experience pilgrimage.” I felt like, “Oh my God. This is a story.”

Maybe I’m the only Westerner who didn’t know about the pilgrimage to Mecca but I wanted to check it out.

S: That was incredible that the Saudi government gave you permission to film Umrah (a pilgrimage to Mecca) because they rarely ever give permission.

L: Yeah, yeah. That was the toughest part because there were two possibilities. One was, I just join an Umrah trip with a travel agency and I go to Mecca and make the story. But I didn’t want to do that out of respect for the place and because I wanted proper access. And so, the NYTimes and I went through a huge process that took 8 months to get a final response. The Saudi government asked many, many questions. And I wrote a project description explaining to them the purpose and at the end of the day, it aligned with their goals. We both wanted to show to the world Umrah is a great occasion, and that Mecca is a peaceful place. A place where people just go there and can be comfortable and can pray.

The Saudi government took good care of us. At the end, we were brothers. I was not doing a story against the development of Mecca. I was using the development of Mecca to tell a peaceful story.

S: It seems to me that your story thread was focused on the relationship between din and duniya, the material and the spiritual worlds. Were you critiquing or giving a compliment to the Saudi government?

L: Yeah. It’s a good question and it touches a deep part of my journalistic soul. I love to tell stories in a way that I give to the audience the information. I don’t want to push in one direction or another. I like showing you what’s there and you can decide if it’s wrong or not. So, you can read the story in different ways. Personally, I think that this is a global world and it is pretty normal for me that there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken in front of the Kaaba [the most sacred Muslim site that sits at the center of a mosque]. For example, many of the pilgrims are coming from Indonesia and Indonesians love KFC so much. So, it’s just good business, you know. No one is asking why the Vatican is opening a McDonald’s 300 meters away from the Pope’s house. And yeah, you can say, it’s not correct to have a McDonald’s in Rome, just close by to the Pope’s house but then so what? I mean, it’s just a McDonald’s, it doesn’t have anything to do with the spiritual part. When it’s time to pray, everyone is praying. And when it’s time to eat, you eat.

So, it’s you [the viewer] who has to decide if it’s wrong or not. There’s many movements in Mecca that hate this kind of development. At the same time, it is giving the opportunity to people, to just eat what they want, or buy what they want and it doesn’t affect the spiritual part at all.

S: What was the toughest part of telling the story in VR?

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Director Luca Locatelli.

L: The toughest part probably was technical. Making high quality VR is still a big deal. We had six GoPros pieced together to a 3D-printed cage.

I would shoot the same scene many times to have the chance to get the right one but you don’t have much control. I mean, you just put the tripod down and then you turn on the cameras, roll and wait a distance away from the camera, hoping passersbys will not disrupt the shot. It was really tough.

And to be honest, I was really surprised myself, after the shoot, when we started the stitching process and to see it was all working out. I was amazed. I was like, ‘wow, this is really working.’ I am convinced the time for VR is now and so I think more about the technical aspects.

S: How many people were on your production team?

L: We were only three people. I had a local fixer and another operator. I directed the film, chose the locations, and dealt with the Ministry of Information. I had a minder who I had to ask when I wanted to shoot inside certain places and he gave me access.

S: Were there experimental shots that you tried that didn’t work out?

L: GoPros shoot wide angle, so sometimes even if I was in front of an amazing scene, it turned out badly. Like the shot with the clock tower was just in front of me, but after [in post] the shot seemed to be so far away. Some shots were looking right in reality but they were not looking right in VR, and vice versa. Every night I’d go back to my room and view footage from a few cameras and try to understand the visual language of VR. I tried to improve on it and I was really surprised to see how VR works very well when you are literally in the middle of a situation.

Moving shots in VR felt wrong. I tried filming while I was walking around the Kaaba but when you see the piece with VR glasses, you don’t feel comfortable as you aren’t actually moving.

As a photographer, I needed to change completely the way of composing the space.

S: Are you working on future VR projects?

L: I’m tackling climate change through a huge project. Are we going to produce enough [non-fossil fuel] energy in the future to solve the climate change issue?

I want to climb on a wind turbine in the North Sea and to go inside a nuclear site to explore this issue. But I have to understand how and where VR can do its magic because you need space, you need movement and you need a real story that is fitting for VR.

Featured photo by Luca Locatelli for The New York Times Magazine. Backstage images by Essam Al-Ghalib.

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