Eric R. Williams and his colleagues at the Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) Lab are pioneering a new approach to police training. Using a combination of cinematic virtual reality, traditional filmmaking, and real-world theatrical props, this revolutionary method connects emotionally and intellectually with its audience, resulting in proven changes to behavior and attitude.

Genesis

The Appalachian Law Enforcement Initiative (or ALEI for short), was the brain child of John Born, former director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety and colonel of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.  Born currently works for Ohio University’s Voinovich Academy for Excellence in Public Service, where he met John Bowditch, the director of the GRID Lab.  Together they agreed to produce two 30-minute VR experiences that leveraged the GRID’s previous research into a new, cutting-edge approach to cine-VR training. 

Innovation #1: newest research proves cine-VR changes behavior and attitude

Criteria

Noting the impressive results of the MESP, Bowditch believed that the GRID Lab could adapt this approach to law enforcement. Born agreed, but wanted to make adjustments to meet the need of his target audience of traditionally understaffed rural departments:

1. The experience had to be bite-sized and free standing – not something that was part of a scheduled program. It needed to be “personal, on the fly training”.

2. The experience had to be relatively “idiot proof” – not something that needed technical expertise to use.  It needed to be as simple as using your TV.

3. The experience had to “come to the cops” – both mentally and physically. It couldn’t be a message engineered by administrators, and the officers shouldn’t have to wait in line to receive the training.

Innovation #2: technology that is intuitive, free-standing, and easy to use

Development

The ALEI scripts were developed over ten months. Bowditch tapped Eric R. Williams (co-director, co-writer and co-producer of MESP) to lead the project. Williams is an award-winning screenwriter (WGA award for best new script) and professor of New Media Storytelling. A recent cine-VR piece that Williams directed won the “Best Virtual Reality Award” in the New York Nil Gallery International Media Festival. Born paired Williams with David Malawista - Forensic Psychologist and Commander of the Athens Police Department.

Innovation #3: developed by cops for cops

Three other officers joined the team from its inception: Lieutenants Tim Ryan and Eric Hoskinson from the Ohio University Police Department, and Captain Aaron Maynard from the Athens County Sheriff’s Office.

INNOVATION #4: DEVELOPED WITH Community participation

The development team realized early on that community participation would be an important part of the project. ALEI engaged with the community in three substantial ways:

1. Tia Jameson, director of Ohio University’s “Bobcats Lead Change” was brought on as the sixth member of the development team.

2. While most officers in Appalachia are white men, ALEI cast more broadly. 20% of the officers cast were female (1 in 5) and 50% of the commanders cast were non-white (1 in 2). The roles of narrator, council member, and dispatcher were also more diversely cast.

3. Once actors were in place, Williams used improvisation exercises to fine tune the scenes.  Actors Brandyn Bailey and LeJon Woods added enough critical nuance to key scenes that they were given co-writing credit.

In the end, the scenarios and dialogue were developed by an eight-person alliance: four law enforcement officers, three community members and Eric R. Williams as the screenwriter.  Together, this creative team developed two thirty-minute cinematic virtual reality experience: The Chet Story and The Dion Story.

INNOVATION #5: AUTHENTICITY

The advisory team of officers worked throughout production – ensuring that correct procedures were followed and that the professional actors physically carried themselves as officers would.  In addition, 40% of the “field officers” cast in these cine-VR stories were real cops.

While officers polished police procedures with the actors, Williams worked with actors and community members to make other aspects of the scenes as realistic as possible. The cast came from seven different cities (Chicago IL, Louisville KY, Morgantown WV, and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Athens OH) yet they met regularly online to rehearse and discuss the social implications of the project.

Production

Cinematographer (and editor) Matt Love has spent years refining his cine-VR workflow.  Using state-of-the-art lenses and a hand-crafted technique for plating his scenes, Matt is able to carefully remove elaborate lighting set-ups that create cinematic quality without drawing the audiences’ attention to the cinematic tools.  Williams and Love collaborated on production techniques that pushed the envelope with cine-VR processes:

• Adding crane shots and moving car shots

• Blocking scenes to force choice within the audience

• Unique transition devices to create a sense of “meta” storytelling

Innovation #6: UNIQUE cine-VR techniques

Often overlooked in cine-VR production, the sound design for ALEI was crucial to its success.  Award-winning sound designer, Jordan Herron (XR Awards finalist for Best Audio in VR – 2021) - and his recording assistant Gokul Muralitharan - created an ambisonic soundscape that served multiple purposes:

1. Reflecting the emotional state of the central characters during a time of crisis;

2. Evoking emotion in a story intentionally devoid of music;

3. Recreating the audio landscape to which law enforcement is accustomed (e.g. scanners, gunfire, private asides) to enhance each story’s authenticity with its central audience.

Innovation #7: utilizing the STORY ENGAGEMENT MATRIX  

During post-production, award-winning graphic designer Adonis Durado (Society for News Design, Society of Illustrators, HOW Design Magazine) collaborated with John Bowditch to design the iPad interface. He also collaborated with Love and Williams to design on-screen graphics for the cine-VR stories, and the physical signs that greet the ALEI audience before they put on the headsets. Combined, these graphic elements helped to lay the foundation of the PRE-MO, EMO, RE-MO approach..

implementation

The GRID Lab understands that cine-VR is most effective when it is combined with other forms of entertainment or education.  For ALEI, Williams employed the GRID Lab’s “PRE-MO, EMO, RE-MO” technique – which is shorthand for Prepare-Emotion, Emotion, Remembered-Emotion. Each step is a specific storytelling process designed for maximum emotional and cognitive impact.

Innovation #8: pre-mo, emo, re-mo