American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 22

Right: An image
from the VR project
Awavena. Below:
Cinematographer
Greg Downing helps
a butterfly find its
way off of a Nokia
Ozo 360-degree
camera during
production of
Awavena.

just as the picture moves as the viewer looks
around, so does the sound. Additionally,
objects moving past the viewer can cause
viewers to turn, directing them to a story
point behind them. VR technology also
allows for gaze-triggered action, meaning
that the story essentially pauses and the
next piece of action won't play until the
viewer is looking in the correct direction.
It's a natural human inclination to
look in the direction of movement, so for
3DoF projects, moving the camera is an efficient way to guide the audience to look
where you want them to. However, camera
movement in VR has to be executed with
extreme caution. As Downing explains, "If a
viewer is sensitive to motion sickness, the
slightest movement can cause a problem.
It's a very delicate thing. The filmmaker may
feel perfectly comfortable with the movement, but they may be used to the VR
world or be someone who loves roller
coasters. A viewer can have an awful experience if you're not careful.
22

August 2018

"The motion sickness comes from a
disagreement between the vestibular
system in the inner ear and what the eyes
see," Downing shares. "It's an imbalance
between the visual system and the viewers'
sense of where they should feel gravity or
acceleration. Any kind of movement that, in
real life, would have a feeling of inertia can
cause sickness. You can move, but you have
to do it slowly and steadily. There are also
tools to help alleviate the feeling of nausea.
If there's any object in the audience's field of
view that is fixed to their position, so it's not
moving, that helps a lot. For example, if the
character is in a spaceship flying through
space and they can see the cockpit window
and the controls at a fixed distance from
them, then the vestibular system won't be
out of sync. When you and an object are
locked in position together, your body
doesn't get the sense that it's supposed to
feel inertia."
Certainly one of the biggest challenges for cinematographers working in VR
is lighting the scene when the audience can
see 360 degrees at any given moment. A lot
of work can be done with practicals for
interiors; pushing large sources through
windows and hiding fixtures behind architectural elements are also common solutions. Another technique is to shoot only
180 degrees of the scene at a time, using
the other 180 degrees for lighting; after
shooting the first 180 degrees, you turn the
camera around and shoot the other 180
American Cinematographer

degrees, and then stitch the two shots
together to create a seamless 360-degree
shot.
For the crew, most VR photography
falls into the "run and hide" category. The
camera starts rolling, and the production
team runs away, finding places to hide
where they won't be seen by the 360degree camera rig. As a result, remote viewing is especially crucial for VR productions. It
is highly recommended that the director
and cinematographer both have VR headsets for viewing the scene that's being shot.
It's also possible to display an equirectangular image - a 2D representation of the
360-degree space, akin to a Mercator
projection of the globe - but it can be difficult to interpret this type of imagery if
you're not used to looking at it.
"VR has a lot to gain from the experience and knowledge of filmmakers,"
Downing concludes. "Much of what we
have learned about film still applies - with
just enough new twists to make it interesting and challenging. The exciting part is that
there are still new things to try that have
never been done. We have a rare opportunity to help define a new medium."
- JH
●

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2018