Sarah Hill created StoryUp in 2015 to create immersive 360 video stories. StoryUP’s first experience, Honor Everywhere, was released in November of 2015 with Jaunt VR, Google, Ghost Machine VR and VU Foundation. Since that time, they have created experiences for Zenith Aircraft company, Kilgore’s Medical Pharmacy, Pate-Jones, and Welcome Home, Inc. In early 2016, they will release stories for the American Heart Association and a documentary shot in Zambia named “Gift of Mobility”.
The concept for Sarah’s company is based on her experience telling stories in various media formats. An alum of the Missouri School of Journalism, Sarah is a National Edward R. Murrow and 12 time Mid-America Emmy award-winning Storyteller. A former interactive news anchor, her team at KOMU-TV pioneered the use of multi-way video chat during a newscast. Through that experience, Sarah learned the value of Human Media and the ability to simulate in-person communication. As Chief Storyteller at Veterans United Foundation, she told stories about Veterans and military families and used Human Media to give a voice to military charities.
StoryUp’s 360-degree experiences envelop the viewer and trick our brains into thinking the experience is happening all around us. You used to have to travel to an amusement park or an Omni-max theater to view Virtual Reality in a dome or cave. Now with new goggles, a VR renaissance is underway. Even without goggles, these spherical stories can be viewed in the web browser on Youtube, Vrideo or Littlestar – but the videos are best experienced inside viewers like Google Cardboard, Zeiss VR One or Samsung Gear VR. Most of these viewers work with newer model smartphones. Because of immersive video’s unique ability to create empathy, the medium is tailor made for storytelling. Sarah believes story is a verb that can lift the world.
