Garry Sweet and 6 GoPros (VR experience)
If we follow the 'evolution' or even 'revolution' (according to Fujifilm) of storytelling through imaging - both cinematography and photography - camera technology, like fast food, has become dense, cheap and convenient...... but has much really changed aside from more pixels in a smaller body?
We still look at one frame, on a passive display; this is beautiful, but very familiar. Conventional imaging doesn't push the boundaries of what the medium could offer.
It's time to think outside the box...or at least the frame.
Watch this experience on your phone in YouTube and move your phone around.
Whilst conventional cinematography or photography prides itself on the art of framing, the 360 VR medium gives a full immersive experience to the viewer, giving freedom from the frame.
A VR cinematographer must then use motion, screen vectors, light and mise en scène to not only direct the viewers attention on screen, but around the entire 360 environment.
This technology hasn't had a mass uptake yet, however with YouTube, and recently Facebook both making 360 video native, the medium is ready to go to the masses.
On the 9th of September under a bridge in Melbourne, Gyton Grantley (Director), Gary Sweet, Donal O'Keefe (Camera) and myself (Sound Engineer) shot a 360 degree VR experience.
Frame Grab from one of the 6 GoPro's - Copyright Gyton Grantley and Donal O'Keefe
You, the viewer have been kidnapped in this short as you're interrogated and asked questions... which you can't answer because you're a mute.
To achieve this, the 6 Gopros mounted on a Kolor rig was then placed on a mono pod and stuffed down the head of a manikin.
I was the sound engineer, which becomes increasingly difficult when you need to record 360 degrees, outdoors with moving, shouting, fighting actors. So this made the shoot quite fun.
Four Wireless Sennheiser lapel microphones were attached to the actors, being recorded into a Zoom H6. Whilst a Zoom H2, H4 and multiple condenser microphones were hidden on the body of the manikin. Folly was then later recorded of flapping pigeons, overpassing trains, rustling trees and the gushing river to give a binaural soundscape.
Filming is to continue into the year, but for now we're testing the waters of what's possible with VR technology.