The New York Times Magazine released its first contributions to the virtual-reality journalism field on Sunday—two films that convey different narratives. (You can watch them online.)

Virtual-reality, a longstanding realm of the video game, could revolutionize journalism by offering elements other forms of storytelling don’t NYT writer Jake Silverstein explains.

“By breaking free from the rectangular editorial frame of a traditional documentary film,” he writes, “V.R. invests the viewer with an uncanny feeling of agency, a sense of being able to look around for yourself... Turning this way and that, examining the sky or a cucumber or a lily pad, you begin to feel present in these vivid locations, a virtual witness to these children’s precarious lives.”

New York Times print subscribers received their Google cardboard virtual reality glasses over the weekend; however, although the virtual reality film is best viewed through adequate headgear, the NYT’s V.R. app can accommodate those who don’t have a viewer. (The smartphone alone can act as a moveable viewer into a story.)

V.R. journalism is still in its infancy, though; as Silverstein adds, it’s currently a uniquely physical process of staying out of the shot, while still coordinating with the subject being filmed:

Filming in V.R. also requires some effort. Rather than using one camera, a V.R. rig uses many, clustered together and pointing in all directions. The footage from this contraption is reconciled in postproduction to create a wraparound environment, with the viewer positioned at the center, like a sun within a solar system. To stay out of the shot, the filmmaker has to set up his camera rig, begin recording and then run and hide, peering from behind a haystack or a trash bin and hoping that the action unfolds the way he imagined. For this reason, V.R. usually involves more coordination between filmmaker and subject than in traditional video journalism. A subject may be asked to repeat an action, or wait until the filmmaker is out of sight to complete a task.

Related reading: The Associated Press has released a virtual reality film, and will produce a series; Wall Street Journal has also provided virtual reality programming on its platforms.

Photo Credit: Thomas Samson — AFP/Getty Images.