Broadway’s ‘The Lion King’ pushes into virtual reality
"The Lion King" on Broadway is offering fans a view of the musical that even the very best seat in the theater can't rival.
The Disney stage blockbuster on Wednesday released 360-degree footage of its opening song "Circle of Life" that lets users look left, right, up, backstage and at the audience, even when sitting on a couch.
To create the virtual reality world, some half-dozen GoPro cameras were mounted on a stand and placed in the center of the stage as the actors swirled around in their Julie Taymor-created costumes and masks.
The stand also telescoped 20 feet into the air to capture the view as Pride Rock rises up and baby Simba is introduced. Software stitched together the various videos into a seamless, 360-degree view - a circle of life.
The footage can be seen free on laptops and desktops on Wednesday via YouTube and Facebook (using cursors to move around the virtual world) or smartphones and tablets (where the screen tracks movement) or special immersive headsets like Samsung's Gear VR and Google Cardboard.
Online:
https://www.youtube.com/user/DisneyOnBroadway
https://www.facebook.com/TheLionKingUSA
See the full story here: http://www.kmov.com/story/30550359/broadways-the-lion-king-pushes-into-virtual-reality