360 Reflection

The 360-video shoot was a fun. I enjoyed having the opportunity to collaborate with the entire class. I had never shot with a 360 camera before, so it was a learning experience. On an average camera, there is only a 180-degree area to block out and fill with business. While shooting for virtual reality with the 360 camera, we had to ensure that there was interesting action happening in all directions. The camera itself was a prop, so we had to figure out a way to include it. If we did not do this, then we would risk our audience being torn out of the illusion.

One of the challenges of this assignment was working with a large group. We were divided into two groups, but everyone participated in each video. The teams had to make sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing and get the timing right. This was even more important than usual, because we were only allowed two takes. These two things may have been challenging, but it was good practice for directing scenes that may have an ensemble cast or a lot of background actors. Only having two takes created barriers, but it was also good practice for working under time and resource constraints.

The editing process was different than usual. Of course, there were different settings to stitch the video together and different exporting standards, but the actual editing brought a lot of things to take into consideration. We had little to no control over our lighting, so any color correcting or effects may vary on different parts of the 360-video. This applies to everything you may want to change in post-production. The unseen areas on the preview needed to be considered. In a longer video, this would make it a little more time consuming.

Overall, the 360-video shoot was a great experience. After working with this medium, I think it would be interesting to create a virtual reality narrative, with the camera being the point of view of a character and the viewer. It would bring up many challenges filming but would be an interesting experiment in the end.