Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/825852
VIRTUAL REALITY ar commercials are sexy, espe- cially when they involve cut- ting-edge technology. Recently, Pixvana consulted and supervised a VR video project for Volvo Cars. Pixvana CTO/creative director and co-founder Scott Squires and I advised our partners throughout each stage, starting with pre-production and concept all the way to the final delivery. We teamed with SuperSphere, a VR creative company, and Uppercut NYC, a creative editorial house, in association with the agency Grey to create a new ad for Volvo Cars in VR — an experience made all the more exciting because we were shooting on Red's new 8K Helium cameras. SuperSphere's Jason and Josh Diamond, The Diamond Bros., directed both spots alongside SuperSphere EP Doug Allenstein, plus award-winning DP Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network, Fight Club). Armed with SuperSphere's custom VR rig of six Helium cameras, the Toronto-based shoot furthered our knowledge base for how to best capture VR video content in ultra high resolu- tion, and how to manage that content throughout the pipeline. The other aspect that was special about this production was the fact that a tradi- tional broadcast spot was being filmed with the same camera as the VR piece. Earlier this year, Pixvana and SuperSphere experimented with a custom VR rig comprised of five Red Weapon cameras in a one-up and four- around configuration on a tripod. It was a great success, but for this project we upped the ante, adding a sixth camera to capture the downward view, and mounted the rig on a 50-foot tech- nocrane. Because of the technocrane mount, we needed to push the down camera out a bit from the center and angle it slightly forward, which was helpful since it allowed us to have more overlap with the down and front camera and give us coverage of the down view during the camera move. Of course, we still had a big technocrane in the shot that would need to be removed in post. Our biggest pre-production conversa- tion was about how to move the camera. Since Volvo Cars intended to primarily dis- tribute the spot via Facebook and YouTube as a 360-degree video, we opted to go with a slow, steady velocity camera move. Once the camera rig was assembled, wired and mounted to the technocrane, we were ready to move into position and capture some reference shots. We started rolling and were excited to see all six cameras up on the monitor. Testing the stitch on set was really important for validation. Since we made modifications to the downward cam- era on set, based on the technocrane, we couldn't solely rely on the camera prep tests we'd done previously at the camera house. Working at full resolution took 20 minutes each time we tested the stitch, meaning 50 crew members were sitting around waiting for us. Through some trial and error, we found that the most efficient way to test the stitch was to display one camera at a time without overlays, and have video playback grab a still from each cam- era. Then we took those six stills to do a quick stitch. It wasn't full resolution, but it was enough to confirm that we were on the right track without wasting much time. We also took the playback recording of each camera and edited the different views together with simple dissolves to help visualize what the viewer's experience would be. After the shoot wrapped, Uppercut took on building the edit and color correction, and worked with Yessian, a New York audio post house, to do the Ambisonic mix. (Uppercut reports that it used Lustre to set the look for the broadcast version, then tweaked the grade after The Molecule matched the look in Nuke. The studio then brought the deliverable from The Molecule into Flame to add snow elements and per- form other trim color and last cleanup, then used Premiere with Mettle to place the logo and preview the final. It then exported a ProRes and compressed to the deliverable specs with HandBrake to send to Yessian for playback of the Ambisonic audio specific to the deliver- ables — YouTube and Facebook. When Uppercut received the sweetened files from Yessian, it used the 360 Video Metadata tool to inject metadata and viewed it in Samsung Gallery with an Oculus headset for final approval.) Visual effects and stitching were handled by The Molecule, who relied on a combination of Nuke, Maya, Autopano, Cara VR, Mocha and Photoshop. They stitched everything together, removed the technocrane, balloon light, crew and enhanced the night sky. The final result is a two-minute shot of friends out in a beautiful environment celebrating the new year. A 360-degree, 4K LatLong was created for Facebook and YouTube, mastered at 10K resolu- tion. The 10K version will be available soon on Pixvana's new Spin Player for optimal immersion. This shoot was a great learning experience in our VR journey and partnering with all of these like-minded companies made the journey that much more rewarding. BRINGING A 10K VR VIDEO TO LIFE FOR VOLVO CARS BY AARON RHODES EXECUTIVE PRODUCER PIXVANA SEATTLE, WA PIXVANA.COM C COMPANIES PARTNER FOR A REWARDING JOURNEY The custom VR rig with multiple Red cameras. The VR rig was mounted on a 50-foot technocrane.