Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277927
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 65 About five or six years ago, I was brought onto a project through a referral and it ended up being a VR art installation with music artist Bjork and legendary music video director Chris Cunningham. Instantly my mind was blown, and I wanted to be involved in this new, highly creative and highly technical field. To my surprise, many of the skills, workflows, and gear that I was already using for traditional media served as a solid foundation for my work in VR. The last project I worked on before the COVID-19 lockdown was Slow Mo Guys VR with Oculus. The basis of their original YouTube channel is two guys who do crazy experiments and use a high-speed Phantom camera to film it in super slow motion. Gavin Free and Dan Gruchy have a lot of fun making these videos that are both highly entertaining and educational. It's a nice mix of science, technology, and camaraderie that has garnered more than 13 million subscribers on YouTube. For this new series, they would be repeating some of their classic sketches but this time in 180-degree VR, with a 3D Phantom rig and headtracking spatial audio. I was lucky enough to be brought on this project as both production sound mixer and post-production sound mixer, which happens far more frequently for me in VR than in traditional media. This allowed me to be more involved in the pre-production process so I could gather intel on the shooting style and address some of the challenges specific to this medium. The most notable difference for sound capture is the 180- or 360-degree camera can see everything and you (usually) cannot boom because you would be breaking the frame. Most of the time it's "roll sound," then run and hide! The producers settled on shooting with the K1Pro by Z CAM, a 180-degree stereoscopic (3D) camera, so crew and staging would be able to set up behind the camera. They would also film their experiments with a dual Phantom rig with one camera shooting down into a mirror for super slow-motion stereoscopic footage that would be played back and reacted to. My plan for capture ended up being two lavalieres, an ambisonic mic at camera position, and a pair of shotgun mics positioned behind camera for backup and to pick up specific sounds during the experiments. I also wanted to record as much wild track as possible to make life easier in post. Since VR is still considered niche, not many people have a lot of experience making this type of content. There tends to be a learning curve with, not only the new technology, but with the concept of not merely telling a story but immersing the viewer in the story. In the sound department, we are doing more on set than just recording actors; we are helping sound design the scene! If there is an object making a sound in a scene, the common thought would be to minimize that sound and focus on dialogue. But in VR, I may pull out another wireless plant mic and add it to the soundtrack. Most find the challenge of the medium exhilarating and compare the creative process to sculpting an object instead of painting on a flat canvas. I could tell this crew was up for the challenge. The Slow Mo Guys are a very DIY bunch, so The production sound rig