Jayson Chesler
VR and AR producer. At the intersection of nonfiction storytelling and technology.
jaychesler@gmail.com
@JayChesler
Curated, traditional portfolio with visuals at JayChesler.com
Currently: Producer @ McClatchy
Previously: Experience Producer @ McClatchy New Ventures Lab, Faculty Associate @ Arizona State University, Co-Founder @ Terrainial VR
Education: B.A. in Journalism, Master of Mass Communication @ Arizona State University
Primary skills: High-tech storytelling, project management, photogrammetry
2020
- Sacramento City Council districts map
- Map, Data, Web
- Leaflet web map built with QGIS showing Sacramento City Council districts
- My role: Gathered geodata from the city, assembled + styled in QGIS and shipped for web with Leaflet
- North Sacramento homeless sleeping cabins camp
- Video, Drone
- Drone video (and A1 newspaper photo) to accompany a news story about the develompent of a sleeping cabin camp for the homeless
- My role: Shot drone video on DJI Inspire 2, edited on Adobe Premier
- Timeline of McClatchy family’s history in news
- Web
- Web timeline with text and archival photos of McClatchy family’s news legacy in Sacramento
- My role: Created timeline template with HTML and CSS, tweaked for functionality within company’s CMS, found visuals for this timeline
- Fresnoland Lab page
- Web
- Landing page and explainer for a donation-funded reporting lab
- My role: Built custom page functional within company’s CMS using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, altered existing JavaScript templates to work with AMP-compliant fallbacks
2019
- Actual Reality
- Officer Tara O’Sullivan 3D explainer
- 3D, Web
- 3D web story showing the 47 minutes between a Sacramento PD officer being shot in the line of duty and being rescued. Sacramento Bee’s first ever 3D animated explainer.
- My role: Kanban project management, storyboarding, script writing, audio editing, animation
- Yahoo News XR Camp Fire collaboration
- AR/3D, Web
- 3D assets for collaboration with McClatchy/Sacramento Bee and Yahoo News. Assets viewable in web or in AR through Yahoo News iOS app.
- My role: Represented McClatchy New Ventures Lab in technical meetings with Yahoo, Kanban project management, drone photogrammetry, photogrammetry consulting
- Camp Fire: One Year Later
- AR, Web, location based experience
- AR-enabled art gallery event. First AR location-based experience for McClatchy New Ventures Lab and Sacramento Bee.
- My role: Represented technical team in event meetings with Sacramento Bee, produced videos for AR overlays, Kanban project management
2018
- 2018 McClatchy New Ventures Lab Storytellers in Residence bootcamp
- live training
- Weeklong bootcamp for journalists and storytellers learning tools for augmented reality. First AR/3D bootcamp for McClatchy.
- My role: Schedule consulting, created teaching materials, taught workshops
- Reporting and production for Actual Reality – What They Carried and American Food
- AR, reporting
- Pre-production and fieldwork for the series that would become Actual Reality.
- My role: Field production with photogrammetry, drone operation and Kinect-based volumetric video and motion capture. Coordinated sources and storyboarded pre-production
2017
- On the Frontlines of the Border VR
- [Stereoscopic 360 video] [not publicly released]
- 360 video documentary (22 minute runtime) on immigration, Border Patrol and activism filmed on a GoPro Odyssey Google Jump rig.
- First round of Google Jump Start creators
- My role: Waterfall project management for production and post-production deadlines and deliverables, filmed along border and in Border Patrol embed, created stereoscopic graphics and facial blurs
2016
- Life and Death at the Mexican Border
- 360 video
- 360 video documentary (7 minute runtime) on immigration filmed on a 3D-printed 6-camera GoPro rig.
- 2017 Oculus NFFTYX Film Festival selection
- My role: Manually stitched 360 video in Kolor Autopano, waterfall post-production project management, festival application writing
- Navy Pier/Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Chicago 2016 - VIP 360 experience
- 360 video
- 360 video branded content experience for Chicago’s Navy Pier filmed on a 7-camera GoPro rig
- My role: Filmed at multi-day event, waterfall post-production project management, stabilized boat and walking motion shots
- Cronkite Border VR