What is the principle of shooting VR panoramic videos?

VR panorama has become the hottest word in the film and television industry in recent years, and there is not much experience to learn from. Everything is still in the exploratory stage, so how to make a VR panoramic film? Coolman Summarize six practical experiences for you.

What kind of machine is used for VR shooting?

Basically, the most widely used panoramic camera on the market now is the panoramic camera made of GoPro, which has six heads, seven heads, ten heads and other specifications, which are also useful. Assembled by Red Dragon or blackmagic. Generally speaking, the more lenses, the smaller the safe distance and the smaller the distortion, and the opposite is true with fewer lenses. If the shooting scene is relatively small, a shooting machine with fewer lenses is more suitable. For example, cameras on both ends are a good choice. Considering that the safety distance is basically fixed, the more lenses there are, the fewer gaps there will be in the screen, and the relative safety distance will become smaller. However, it should be noted that as long as there are lens gaps, there will be stitching problems.

How to place the camera?

Generally speaking, the lens language is still the core of the traditional audio-visual language. It just needs to think of a suitable presentation method according to the VR method, even if Hollywood has not yet truly Create an audiovisual language that works. A tripod or monopod is the most common setup method, and you can choose to hang the camera, hand-hold it, or fly it with a drone.

In order to capture the action of a scene, the director needs to consider the audience's choice of role while watching, whether he is a participant or a bystander. Usually there are several angles such as hanging from the ceiling, shooting from the ground up, and being at the same height as the actors, with the main picture as the center, and sometimes shooting in the middle of the scene. This way, viewers can explore the scene as they wish and see what interests them.

How to solve the scene penetration lens?

As for the lighting problem, scattered lighting is now mainly used to create an atmosphere. You can also plan the lighting area in advance and erase it later. However, Neither of these two methods can make the lighting as refined as traditional film and television. VR shooting cannot be refined. If you want to light, you need to communicate with the post-production department to facilitate erasure. The same goes for tracks, which can also be erased later.

How to guide the audience to follow the main plot and rationally use music to emphasize moments and convey emotions. Another method is lighting. Take the hilarious thriller VR movie "Stewardess vs. Ghost in the Sky" currently being filmed by VR Popular as an example. The story takes place on an airplane and has elements of horror, so when setting the plot, At that time, all the lights on the scene were turned off, leaving only a flashlight, so that wherever the flashlight shines, there is the main plot. When the surroundings are completely dark, the audience will naturally follow the development of the plot.

How to deal with camera sound?

You need to find the right reason for scene switching. The premise is that the director needs to give the characters a reason to switch, such as saying to a certain character: "Go get it for me." Small action points such as "glass of water" can complete the transition. Since the pick-up involves traveling through each lens, the sound is mostly collected using wireless microphones. The current VR terminal hardware (all-in-one machine + mobile phone) only has left and right channel settings, so currently VR itself cannot realize the sound following the gaze on the presentation terminal.

However, the shooting of VR film and television content usually requires one shot to the end, so when choosing actors, it is more suitable if there are drama actors, because drama actors can usually perform without interruption and have rich body language. . The characteristics of VR video determine that it does not have close-ups like traditional movies, so exaggerated body language will become the focus of expressing emotions.

What changes have occurred in post-editing

Except for the additional step of stitching, post-editing is the same process as traditional film and television. It is easy to use editing software with relatively low-level algorithms. collapse. For example, pr and fcp7 are editing software with very old algorithms, but they have been used because of the habit of using them in traditional film and television. However, because their own algorithms are too low-level, there will be many seemingly painless errors in VR editing. Itchy but really annoying little problem. The algorithm of fcpx has been updated and there is basically no problem.

How to handle sensory stimulation

No matter how scary the plot is in traditional movies, the audience can immediately feel relieved when they look at the reality around them. But in the era of VR videos, because you are immersed in the scene, if a corpse suddenly falls out of the closet in front of you or a ferocious-looking monster suddenly jumps out next to you, those with heart problems may not be able to easily just say "scared the baby to death" It's calmed down, but it could lead to death.

Whether VR should be used to shoot horror films requires thinking from a moral perspective, not a technical perspective. Because horror movies often lead to various accidents and tragedies occur, there are currently no purely scary VR ghost movies. Most of them use comedy elements to harmonize the atmosphere.