Virtual reality, Ozo, go pros, head sets, and the future of media consumption

[Brian Merlen]

I've been reading a lot about VR lately and wanted to talk to you all about what you think its impact and success may be in the market. From what I read Ted formally working for Red, has been with Nokia. They have devoted their new business model towards a VR camera.

https://ozo.nokia.com

I have seen go pro rigs and even elaborate rigs with Reds! As to which rigs are better I am not sure due to not using them yet personally. But there seems to be a wide price range in the market on both camera rigs and playback consumer devices.

As Cioni and others have discussed distribution is changing, and mediums can change easily via broadband. Shooting VR is a very interesting concept to me for doc film making. To really put the viewer in the action in a new way seems interesting. The camera blocking, gaffing, stitching, set design represent a whole new level of complexity. Interestingly enough though I think VR can really work for run and gun doc story telling wise by emersing the audience in a forign medium.

I wonder if red may also come out with a rig of sorts vs custom set ups coming out? If anyone feels free to add or has real world VR work please chime in because it seems even more cutting edge to me then a lot of the other technologies we film makers have been working with on the bleeding edge.

Ps brain farm has some excellent behind the scenes footage up right now! They do some great looking stuff!

 

[Elsie N]

Pretty impressive. As you say, useful for documentary work (surrounded by a pack of wolves for instance) or orgies (surrounded by a pack of pussycats. '-)

I thought the operating temp range to be puzzling. That is, 32 F degrees to 77 F degrees.

And I guess $60,000 for the camera itself is probably justifiable for what it's capable of, but I think I will wait for their "RAVEN" model release.

 

[Mike P.]

I think more people are watching more content on youtube than pretty much everything else these days. And being that youtube already has great VR/360deg viewing options and integration, the consumption level of this kind of content is only going to increase... substantially. I almost feel bad for traditional cinemas -- they can't compete with how quickly things change on the digital front... not even close.

With that in mind (and conversely), investing $60k for an Ozo (which will likely be obsolete -- or at least have a $1k direct competitor* -- within 12months) is way too much when you consider the aforementioned rate of advancement (it's shooting yourself in the foot for sure -- this isn't like the R1, which was 4k/raw/120fps 5 years before anyone else). Also, 60db/10 stops/ISO400/30fps isn't good enough when you can't properly control 360degs of your light... It'd be far more useful/practical to be lower-res, but have better DR and low-light performance.

That's just my 2cents, so pile on the salt.

*exaggerated for effect

 

[Brian Merlen]

Yes I agree entirely and I know some RU guys are using custom VR rigs with reds... I would love them to chime in? I haven't worked with it at all yet but seems very interesting. Def would love to see more VR myself cuz it may end by being much more of a market than 3D or other niches I'm interested by


i wonder if red or ET or WC can't also make some kind of uniform rigs for reds?

 

[PatrickFaith]

Well I'm only using two camera's for the 360 view with "normal" lenses, projecting those into the spherical frame and using 360 vfx mattes around the physical camera shots. This is more nukex projection map dependent though.