Members were intrigued as the possibilities of Virtual Reality (VR) Augmented Reality (AR) and 360 degree shooting were revealed at an NZCS event held at the VR Garage in November.

Members were intrigued as the possibilities of Virtual Reality (VR) Augmented Reality (AR) and 360 degree shooting were revealed at an NZCS event held at the VR Garage in November.

Aliesha Staples of Staples Productions explored the techniques and equipment on offer and surprised many with the extent to which VR, AR and 360 shooting is already happening in New Zealand.

It would be easy to dismiss this stuff as gimmicky just because there has been little impact on conventional drama shooting so far. But it’s hard to ignore the potential for the screen industry to be affected by YouTube, Facebook, the games industry, and the electronics industry.

Staples pointed to the efforts of the giant Samsung to promote VR headsets as a hard-to-ignore factor that is opening up the field. (Observe the appearance of VR headsets in mobile stores, of all places).

And while VR may not be the stuff of cinema film screens just yet. The Suicide Squad shows, it can make for a pretty inventive EPK and games spinoff. However, Staples was quick to point out that resolution and colorimetry have moved on since then. After all – that was last year.

Also on show at the event was various 360 shooting options – think of shooting Google Street View style, but without the vehicle loaded with keyboard and servers.  

Because 360 is so easily watched on-line this is a rapidly moving area and it is not just factual film makers, others are trying to figure out how to use this dimension to tell a scripted story as well.

After the main session members were free to have a go within several VR scenarios using a headset, and if you have never done this before, well, it is literally a whole new world. But then you had to be there…