Hello Everyone!
What you are watching right now is a 6K 360 video shot on an ARRI Alexa Mini LF in Open
Gate with the Entaniya HAL 220.
Keeley is sitting very uncomfortably, about 4 feet away from the camera.
I forced her again to be the model, and she is not so happy about it.
Now our director John instructs her to walk away and walk into the camera to do a narrative
film style distance test.
She is now standing 2.5 - 3 feet away from the camera, which is really close in VR.
If you look down, her feet are under the tripod.
If you are making films in VR, you want to get the subject as close to the camera as
possible to create that emotional impact.
One of the common issues in VR film is that the subject always feels so far away.
With Alexa Mini LF and Entaniya fisheye lens, we are trying to solve this limitation and
push narrative VR filmmaking to the next level.
You won't see this close-up impact unless you are watching this with a VR headset, like
the Oculus Quest 2 on YouTube VR.
So, save this video on your watch later playlist.
Download the YouTube VR app on your Oculus Quest 2 and watch it there.
It should show up on your watch later playlist on YouTube VR.
The best way to see this tho, it's to sideload the full 6K video onto Oculus Quest 2.
No YouTube compression gets in the way.
So You see the full Hollywood level image quality of the Alexa Mini LF in VR.
If you are a member of my new 360 VR Filmmaking masterclass, you can download the original
fisheye RAW ARRI MXF file, the ProRes 422 HQ stitched version, and the Oculus Quest
2 sideload version.
I will provide the link in this video description down below.
If you are a professional DP or Director looking for a cinematic way to film VR content, I
highly recommand downloading them and see them yourself.
Now we see some fast motion.
Keeley is doing a jumping jack.
Now Keeley is doing the Macarena dance.
Wow, I don't even know she can dance.
To capture 6K 360 video, we need to shoot at Open Gate in 29.97 fps.
Single-lens resolution is 4480 x 3096.
We wish we can shoot at 60fps, which is more ideal for VR.
ARRI might release a new camera in spring 2022, which will do 6K open gate in 60fps.
That camera will be even better for 360 VR film.
Don't forget to subscribe to CreatorUp.
We will do our best to get the latest ARRI camera to do tests on live-action VR production.
Now we are doing some nodal stitching test.
The lens we use is Entaniya HAL 220 PL.
It is a PL-Mount lens with 220-degree edge-to-edge sharpness.
Keeley is standing more than 180 degrees now on your right.
The stitching is still really good.
This is all thanks to the wide coverage of the HAL220.
Now she is moving onto your left, more than 200 degrees behind the lens.
Now you do see some Mistika VR optical flow stitching artifacts.
We will teach you how to fix that easily with edge points within Mistika VR in our new lesson
from my 360VR Filmmaking masterclass.
So let's talk about why we shoot nodal 360 with ARRI Alexa Mini LF.
And what is Nodal 360?
Nodal 360 is to first shoot 180 or 3D 180 with a fisheye lens like Entaniya HAL 220
or HAL 250.
And then turn the camera in its nodal point to 180-degree to shoot the 2nd half of the
sphere.
In post-production, we use software like Mistika VR or Mistika Boutique to stitch the front
and back into a full 360 or full 3D 360 immersive video.
The benefit of shooting like this allows us to use professional lighting to light the
actors & actresses.
The director and crew can also be in the scene to direct talents.
So it is more director-friendly.
In Hollywood, this is almost a requirement instead of asking the full crew to hide in
a cage somewhere.
Especially when you are working with a big-time director or clients who want to see the action
in real-time.
Shooting nodal also allows us to have the flexibility to combine scenes in post-production.
As you see here, Keeley and I is shooting in different time doing the same jumping jack.
The final stitched 360 video look like we are actually doing it at the same time and
having a full-on conversation.
Of course, this requires a very special blocking strategy and some VR directing experience.
I will cover all these in my 360 VR Filmmaking masterclass.
Check the link on the top right corner for more details.
The $60,000 ARRI Alexa Mini LF Large Format cinema camera is the film industry standard.
Dune, The Disney Mandalorian, Stranger Things, and many more Hollywood productions are shot
on this large-format camera.
Lots of directors and cinematographers will only shoot on this camera.
So making it works in VR is quite necessary.
This video is shot on ARRI ProRes MXF instead of ARRI RAW to save data.
Here is the ungraded LOG version.
The 16-stop dynamic range is something that the current VR cameras do not have.
Even the upcoming Kandao Obsidian Pro, a $35,000 VR camera, can only do 14-stop in special
RAW format.
The ARRI post workflow is also very good for video editors.
It's RAW format, or ProRes MXF files can all be easily playback in all major NLE, including
Adobe Premiere and Davinci Resolve, in both PC or MAC.
Compared to Insta360 Titan H.265 10-bit RAW or Kandao Obsidian Pro RAW, the workflow of
using ARRI is a lot faster and very standard.
Something that post-production house will understand and not charging you arms and legs
to finish your film.
Shooting nodal and stitching nodal 360 footage require a specialty knowledge.
I will cover all of that in my upcoming lessons on CreatorUp and on my 360VR Filmmaking masterclass.
ARRI Alexa Mini LF is very expensive.
But I will use SONY A1 or SONY A7 series, full-frame mirrorless cameras, to do the nodal
360 tutorials.
The workflow is exactly the same as Alexa Mini LF or RED Monstro.
So if you are new to the channel, don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell
here to keep up to date.
More and more clients require professional level 360 VR production in the post-pandemic
world, and you don't want to fall behind!
If you are a traditional 2D cinematographer, there is nowhere better to start learning
VR filmmaking and VR storytelling than CreatorUp.
So go check out our more dedicated VR filmmaking masterclass right here: