SpinAward for The Hague startup Hack The Planet

The Hague startup Hack The Planet has won a Golden SpinAward for the humanitarian virtual reality documentary ‘Meet the Soldier’. The award for best creative digital concept in the field of augmented and virtual reality was presented on Wednesday evening, April 25th, during the annual SpinAwards Night in Amsterdam. It was the first time in the twentieth anniversary of the professional prize that the AR & VR category participated.

The SpinAwards are the highest achievable trophy in the field of digital marketing and creativity in the Netherlands. In the new category Augmented & Virtual Reality concepts were awarded that use these techniques to tell, convince or learn a story. Meet the Soldier, about two Ugandan fighters from rival tribes, has really managed to use VR as an empathy, according to the jury.

Meet the Soldier, which premiered last month during the international film and debate festival Movies that Matter, is recorded in Uganda with the latest technologies in the field of 360 degree / 3D video recording. The special feature of the twenty-minute documentary is that the main characters meet in virtual reality, while the viewer is also in the virtual world. As a third person, the viewer becomes part of the journey made by the Ugandan fighters. The Hague’s initiators of the documentary, Hack The Planet, a non-profit start-up of Internet agency Q42, and People with a Mission, an organization for international cooperation and solidarity, hoped to enable the Ugandan fighters to empathize with their enemy. The viewer of the film sees, in virtual reality, the way to a possible reconciliation.

The humanitarian VR documentary originated from a multidisciplinary collaboration between various institutions and agencies. In addition to Hack The Planet of The Hague Q42 and People with a Mission, Fabrique worked on the art direction and design of the film, the technical realization was done by Wolfstreet and Scopic delivered all hardware plus edits. The movie was directed by Teddy Cherim. There has also been collaboration with Leiden University’s Center for Innovation to add even more value to the documentary in the form of data visualized in the film. As a result of the launch of Meet the Soldier, other organizations such as Unicef ​​have shown interest in using this special VR concept for other conflict areas.

Hack The Planet is a non-profit start-up of the technical-strategic internet agency Q42 from The Hague. With Hack The Planet, Q42 tries to make the world a little better by using smart and easy-to-use technology that can make the difference in solving humanitarian problems.