VR / 360 video not starring me!
February 1, 2018 11:30 PM Subscribe
I've just gotten a Samsung Gear 360 and would like to use it to record the path from place A to place B, allowing people to VR-goggle view it like it was them walking. How do I do that without blocking the shot?
If I hold the camera so it's directly above my head, I could put a little "modesty patch" at the bottom of the video like for when your camera doesn't reach the whole way to the bottom, but then the view is from higher than a natural eye-level.
I'm having all sorts of crazy ideas like mounting a tripod on a radio-controlled car and driving the camera around. What is the actual sensible way of doing these sort of immersive but moving videos.
If I hold the camera so it's directly above my head, I could put a little "modesty patch" at the bottom of the video like for when your camera doesn't reach the whole way to the bottom, but then the view is from higher than a natural eye-level.
I'm having all sorts of crazy ideas like mounting a tripod on a radio-controlled car and driving the camera around. What is the actual sensible way of doing these sort of immersive but moving videos.
The RC car is a good idea if the path is smooth. The Mantis prototype was based on an off the shelf rc car.
posted by Sophont at 7:01 AM on February 2, 2018
posted by Sophont at 7:01 AM on February 2, 2018
You will be small in the frame if you're more than a few feet away from the camera. How about a 10 foot long selfie stick?
This is a fundamental problem of panoramic videography/photography. Where do you stand when you're shooting if you don't want to be in the shot and the field of view is 360x180*.
posted by gregr at 7:24 AM on February 2, 2018
This is a fundamental problem of panoramic videography/photography. Where do you stand when you're shooting if you don't want to be in the shot and the field of view is 360x180*.
posted by gregr at 7:24 AM on February 2, 2018
I used to do social media for Samsung. Our solve for this was a rigged-up helmet, as EndsOfInvention suggested. We even added a waterproofing feature and got to capture dolphins jumping over our heads! You can, in fairness, see a bit of the helmet in the form of a dark spot... but we solved that in post-production.
(We also looked into designing some sort of remote trigger, but the helmet just worked so well!) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by functionequalsform at 10:40 AM on February 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
(We also looked into designing some sort of remote trigger, but the helmet just worked so well!) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by functionequalsform at 10:40 AM on February 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for the responses, all good but “you’re not that tall” totally wins. I’m not!
posted by J.R. Hartley at 10:57 PM on February 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by J.R. Hartley at 10:57 PM on February 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Well, only your natural eye level.
You could still head-mount it, but mount it on someone shorter than you and get them to walk the route.
I hold the camera so it's directly above my head
Don't hold it, mount it on a hat or cycle helmet (there are usually mounts for this sort of thing with action cameras, not sure about the Samsung.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:37 AM on February 2, 2018