Here | Silvrlake (week2)
This week has been a bit more production-intensive. Some time spent researching graphic card, processor needs for editing 4k video - and I purchased a VR compatible PC. I shot some tests with the Gear 360, and I’m now able to see the Action Director software on the PC, in action.
The stitching is still terribly disappointing. Here’s an example:
Samsung’s response: “in order to avoid stitching issues, the camera needs to be positioned 3 to 5 feet from the objects / persons. For example, if you have two persons facing each other, the camera should be in the center with each lens facing each person with appropriate distance to avoid parallax issues.” The parallax issues stem from the fact that the two 180 degree lenses can’t occupy the same space (on the theta the 2 cams are closer to each other).
Unfortunately with a fish-eye lens, anything beyond 3 ft looks REALLY far away. One of my issues with a lot of VR live action content really is distance, you can be “present” but if you are far enough, you can also be very detached.
In the end, the Gear 360 is still a better choice for this project than the Theta S, looking at the 4k vid on the Gear VR I see a marked difference in resolution.
The test footage I shot on Monday also highlighted that I may need to add a microphone or two that I can sync up later. The Gear 360 microphones (it has 2!) records excellent ambient sound, also making conversation pretty hard to focus on.
I’ve scheduled 2 interviews tomorrow - in some great Silverlake locations. Hoping to keep the tone light, fun and relaxed.
Stay tuned, next week I’ll post some footage!
Ana
ana@silvrlake.net
This week has been a bit more production-intensive. Some time spent researching graphic card, processor needs for editing 4k video - and I purchased a VR compatible PC. I shot some tests with the Gear 360, and I’m now able to see the Action Director software on the PC, in action.
The stitching is still terribly disappointing. Here’s an example:
Samsung’s response: “in order to avoid stitching issues, the camera needs to be positioned 3 to 5 feet from the objects / persons. For example, if you have two persons facing each other, the camera should be in the center with each lens facing each person with appropriate distance to avoid parallax issues.” The parallax issues stem from the fact that the two 180 degree lenses can’t occupy the same space (on the theta the 2 cams are closer to each other).
Unfortunately with a fish-eye lens, anything beyond 3 ft looks REALLY far away. One of my issues with a lot of VR live action content really is distance, you can be “present” but if you are far enough, you can also be very detached.
In the end, the Gear 360 is still a better choice for this project than the Theta S, looking at the 4k vid on the Gear VR I see a marked difference in resolution.
The test footage I shot on Monday also highlighted that I may need to add a microphone or two that I can sync up later. The Gear 360 microphones (it has 2!) records excellent ambient sound, also making conversation pretty hard to focus on.
I’ve scheduled 2 interviews tomorrow - in some great Silverlake locations. Hoping to keep the tone light, fun and relaxed.
Stay tuned, next week I’ll post some footage!
Ana
ana@silvrlake.net
week 3
It’s been a busy week. A big thanks to Jordan Mann (another Oculus Launchpader) who took the time to stitch a snippet from the scene above and showed me that even that image I posted last week could look better with some care in de-fishing and stitching. This is her work:
https://youtu.be/Qq7__A0BKyQ
Also special thanks to launchpadian Tanya Anya Ya, for helping during an interview. I’ve been focusing on the “narrative” behind the interviews. We are narrowing down individuals, places and community organizations have influenced and moved culture in Silverlake.
I’ve been meeting frequently with my interviewer/producer, Maria Galante to figure out our talking points. We interviewed a older community activist and got some fantastic and unexpected stories. A good portion of the footage was useless - at some point the camera mode was switched to interval - the camera “settings” button on the Gear 360 are way too easy to accidentally push. But we have re-scheduled the interview to follow up and get more detail.
The amount of interest this project has been generating locally has been very motivating - as we talk to more people in the neighborhood we are also getting plenty of interest and many suggestions for people and places to include.
We have been checking out the photograph collection from the The Los Angeles Public Library, finding some pretty wonderful aerial views of the area circa 1930s.
Compare to this early test of 360 aerial footage I shot, weeks ago on a Theta S:
https://youtu.be/DLR74qLRke8?t=55
(This is the footage that convinced me the Theta S resolution would not do for this project!)
After our interviews next week I hope to spend some time working out the graphic elements to overlay onto the 360 video. I’ve seen this done very effectively in shots where the graphic elements become part of the scene - on a wall, on a screen, on a any kind of flat surface (for example Jaunt’s/McCartney “Let’s Dance”). In addition, I have some ideas for some playful animation that I want to test with 360 footage.
More to come on that.
It’s been a busy week. A big thanks to Jordan Mann (another Oculus Launchpader) who took the time to stitch a snippet from the scene above and showed me that even that image I posted last week could look better with some care in de-fishing and stitching. This is her work:
https://youtu.be/Qq7__A0BKyQ
Also special thanks to launchpadian Tanya Anya Ya, for helping during an interview. I’ve been focusing on the “narrative” behind the interviews. We are narrowing down individuals, places and community organizations have influenced and moved culture in Silverlake.
I’ve been meeting frequently with my interviewer/producer, Maria Galante to figure out our talking points. We interviewed a older community activist and got some fantastic and unexpected stories. A good portion of the footage was useless - at some point the camera mode was switched to interval - the camera “settings” button on the Gear 360 are way too easy to accidentally push. But we have re-scheduled the interview to follow up and get more detail.
The amount of interest this project has been generating locally has been very motivating - as we talk to more people in the neighborhood we are also getting plenty of interest and many suggestions for people and places to include.
We have been checking out the photograph collection from the The Los Angeles Public Library, finding some pretty wonderful aerial views of the area circa 1930s.
Compare to this early test of 360 aerial footage I shot, weeks ago on a Theta S:
https://youtu.be/DLR74qLRke8?t=55
(This is the footage that convinced me the Theta S resolution would not do for this project!)
After our interviews next week I hope to spend some time working out the graphic elements to overlay onto the 360 video. I’ve seen this done very effectively in shots where the graphic elements become part of the scene - on a wall, on a screen, on a any kind of flat surface (for example Jaunt’s/McCartney “Let’s Dance”). In addition, I have some ideas for some playful animation that I want to test with 360 footage.
More to come on that.
