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Virtual Reality Location recording


chriskellett

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Thanks, a binaural head would not work for our needs as it has too much of a dead area, the back 180 degrees plus the top views would all be off axis, audio wise. I think that the mic head Chris Milk has developed is an interesting idea but it might be too hard to hide in the cameras dead zone ( basically the area below the camera that the tripod sits) which is why he now has worked it into the design of his cameras I am guessing. This project is , like a lot of VR stuff, an on going experiment so we are open to new ideas. Currently, the camera has 24 lens, and the manufacturer has developed their own slating system app to sync the external audio recorders in post. There is a 5.1 mic that hangs directly below the camera on the tripod that feeds an external recorder also mounted in the tripod center area. We are now doing a second recorder that is recording wires of various people in the field of view in a sort of forced perspective , audio wise. 

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You should try and get in touch with Jose Frias and/or Laura Cunningham. I'm assuming you're not in Freelance FB group, but they've both posted quite a bit of info on VR recording over the last year or so. I believe they're both members here, but I could be wrong.

It really boils down to what Post needs and what they're able to do and not do and what blindspots are available to use.

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7 hours ago, Flipstar said:

You should try and get in touch with Jose Frias and/or Laura Cunningham. I'm assuming you're not in Freelance FB group, but they've both posted quite a bit of info on VR recording over the last year or so. I believe they're both members here, but I could be wrong.

It really boils down to what Post needs and what they're able to do and not do and what blindspots are available to use.

Hey, thanks for the mention! Laura is IMO one of the leading subject experts, and the person who got me started into this odd but never dull niche of sound recording about 2 years ago. She is a member here, but she's not as active, and she's also busy backpacking throughout South America (still very jealous about that), so she's less likely to notice this thread.

Chris, feel free to call, text or email me if you want to talk about it further, but I would agree with Flipstar that it boils down to what post wants / can handle. The current workflow you delineate seems fine to me, and I would venture to say that it is pretty standard amongst 360 shoots. Most likely all the raw material you record will end up in a virtual reality engine like Unity, and all the isolated mics that you're recording will be "placed" in the space created in Unity. In Unity, they can create all the necessary head related transfer functions to create a binaural audio experience for playback. For 360 videos specifically, recording a "camera perspective" (as I like to call it) from the 360 camera array is pretty much required, and you can go as simple as an omnidirectional lav (the end result won't be as compelling though), or as complex as a multi-position binaural array or ambisonics microphone.

Many of the mic solutions you can think of can be stitched out in post, or be hidden in the Nadir (the blind spot below the camera array). You'd have to talk to the camera tech and/or post to figure out the best solutions. A lot of times post can easily paint out stuff too, as long as the camera array locked and the background is steady, all they have to do is take a 5-10 second plate, and you can break the "frame". I've done it plenty of times.

Chris Milk's multi-position binaural head is not the only solution. 3Dio Sound makes this 4-position binaural array that is far less voluminous, and much easier to hide in the Nadir:
http://3diosound.com/products/omni-pro-binaural-microphone

Like Suso, I'm also an ambisonics fan. I personally own the SoundField SPS200-SB which is great for location recording, and I find it easy to hide in the Nadir as well, but the Core Sound Tetramic is smaller if you're looking for the smallest ambisonics mic possible (it's cheaper too, but higher self-noise).

Cheers,
J.

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