Cine Gear: Virtual Reality Stitching Can Cost $10,000 Per Finished Minute
[There’s a company] that charges $10,000 per finished minute, and that sounds like a lot but that’s a pretty fair price,” he cited as an example. “Stitching is a multistep process. You bring [the camera footage] into software where you are basically taking the multiple video streams together. Then you’re 90 percent there. But that last 10 percent is extremely hard and can involve compositing and rotoscoping.”
Added director of photography Eve Cohen: “In VR the blocking is so crucial; it’s a way to guide the viewer. You don't have specific frames anymore but you have perspective.” She added that this fall, she's embarking on a feature-length VR production.
Several speakers addressed the question of camera movement: Can you move the camera in VR, and if so, how?
"The similarity [with traditional filming] is you are drawing the viewers attention; in almost every other sense it's different," said director of photography Andrew Shulkind. "We tested Steadicam, Jib ... [but when you are shooting 360-degrees], any system for stabilization is in the shot [unless you remove it in postproduction.] That's part of the argument for 180-degree VR experiences, but that's less immersive."
Closing the session, ICG president Steven Poster asserted that "this is a cinematographers' medium and the technology is growing rapidly.
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