RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2015 www.PosterPresentations.com
• VR films are shot using multiple cameras which are “stitched”
together to create a 360° view. • They can be viewed using a
smartphone or a VR headset such as the Oculus Rift or the Vive.
What is a VR/360° film?
How was this film shot?
• The Ricoh Theta camera is made up of two 180° fisheye lenses.
• The footage from these two lenses can be automatically stitched
together almost seamlessly, but the footage is low quality and grainy.
Ricoh Theta vs GoPro Rig
• Most current VR films are
documentary films. We’re still learning how to tell effective narrative stories in VR.
• The big question is: How do you
make the medium relevant? How is
a VR film different from a traditional film?
• In this film, I attempted to make the VR medium relevant by turning the physical object of the camera into both a prop and a character in the piece.
• VR films are more play-like than
film-like, because the director can’t dictate where the audience is
looking and can’t use traditional film conventions like closeups.
• Is the future of VR documentaries? Video games? Narrative? This new medium is still finding its voice.
Every narrative VR film is an experiment in storytelling.
Can you tell narrative stories
in VR?
Title: RebootingWatch the film!
Run time: 8 mins
Writer, director & editor: Natasha
D’Amours
Sound: Hector Andres Perez Villatoro Starring: Alistair Ogden and Stephen
Dopp
Special thanks to: Rachel Enns, Ana
De Lara, Maureen Bradley and Daniel Hogg
Watch it at: bit.ly/RebootingVR
Natasha D’Amours, Department of Writing March 7, 2018 This research was supported by the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards, University of Victoria
Supervised by Maureen Bradley
• This film was shot using a Ricoh
Theta VR camera and a GoPro VR
camera rig.
• After comparing the footage from both cameras, the Ricoh Theta
footage was used for the final cut of the film.
Natasha D’Amours, Department of Writing
Experimenting with Virtual Reality and 360° Filmmaking
REBOOTING
UVic’s GoPro VR camera rig
• The GoPro VR rig is made up of six individual GoPro Hero cameras.
• The footage from these six cameras is stitched together using Autopano
Video stitching software.
• The footage is of a much higher
quality, but the stitching process is more challenging and has more
visible seams.
Low quality Theta footage with near-invisible seams
Theta footage before stitching
Six GoPro shots like these two are stitched together
• Other VR cameras exist with varying levels of footage and stitch quality.
