What are we up to this year? We\u2019re filming 360\u00b0 spherical video.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DUc8DbSRiDM<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The project started a year ago \u2013 in Fall of 2016 \u2013 with the One-Shot-Wonder Assignment, a 360\u00b0 \u201ctest run\u201d conducted towards the very end of the semester. Students used Ricoh Theta S, a basic camera that automatically stitches together footage from its two built-in fish-eye lenses. No postproduction required. And in this assignment: No postproduction allowed!<\/p>\n But while the tech may be (relatively) easy, designing good content for the 360\u00b0 format is not! We stumbled into both unexpected obstacles and exciting avenues for future exploration.<\/p>\n Media-makers used to traditional production will immediately want to know this: Where can we hide the production equipment? Light kits? Boom operator? What about the tripod?<\/p>\n Lights and mics have to be hidden on set. Crew can either hide behind furniture or double as on-camera extras. But we had to work a bit harder to answer the tripod question. Looking directly down \u2013 within a 360\u00b0 view \u2013 means looking directly at the tripod. And without advanced postproduction, there\u2019s no way to avoid that. So what can we do?<\/p>\n The Emergent Media Production students \u2013 in this first one-shot experiment \u2013 proposed two solutions.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Where-To-Hide-The-Tripod Solution 1: There\u2019s no need to hide production equipment if production is part of the story world. Two students filmed a rehearsal of Temple Smash!, the student-run comedy show. Their footage captured not just what was being filmed on camera but also the hard-working crew and off-screen voice talent\u2026 now no longer \u201coff-screen.\u201d And in the video above, Alexis Johnson \u2013 a student reporter for Temple Update \u2013 controlled the 360\u00b0 camera from a cell phone on her lap while she anchored the student-run news show.<\/p>\n Looking \u201cup\u201d and \u201cdown\u201d can often be a letdown in 360\u00b0 video: Seeing a tripod breaks the cinematic illusion and witnessing an empty ceiling makes the expansive quality feel gratuitous and unnecessary. In the studio, however, the look up revealed a dynamic light grid and the look down revealed a tripod, yes \u2013 but in this case, both elements added to the mis\u00e9-en-scene, pulling viewers into the story world rather than pushing them out of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where-To-Hide-The-Tripod Solution 2: The Ricoh Theta S cameras are not big and they are not heavy. They balance easily on flat surfaces. One student placed the camera on a board game, and filmed her family playing the game. The camera became like a game-piece, and this camera perspective added charm to the work. Another student also used a game, this time placing the camera on the box top. A group of friends performed around the camera, ultimately posing in a \u2018mannequin challenge.\u2019 The project truly presented a visual wonderland: All angles were fun and entertaining, worth the viewer\u2019s attention. Looking around showed friends in costumes with props, posing \u201cmannequin\u201d style around the room. Looking \u201cup\u201d exposed flashing lights on the ceiling and looking \u201cdown\u201d showed magazines and games \u2013 all natural parts of the mis\u00e9-en-scene. There were no bad angles, no unconsidered viewpoints. And… no tripod!<\/p>\n Another student placed the camera on the dashboard of his car as he drove to campus:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=53rGSdo8KD0&feature=youtu.be<\/p>\n The video opens with viewpoint oriented out the windshield. This view is familiar to anyone who has ever been in a car, and the opposing view \u2013 the view of the driver \u2013 is likewise familiar to anyone who has ever seen a movie or TV Show scene filmed in a car. However, this familiarity is countered by the uncanny ability to do an Exorcist-like head-twist between these two angles of view. And because looking away from the road would normally pose grave danger, invitation to swivel is especially unnerving.<\/p>\n The camera motion in this video feels natural.\u00a0One potential frustration when viewing 360\u00b0 video content is the inability to move. You can look<\/em> in any direction, but you can move forward<\/em> in none. The smooth motion of driving eases this concern.<\/p>\n These were only some of our discoveries\u2026 more coming soon in Results of the One-Shot-Wonder Assignment, Part 2!<\/em><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Please join us to see the Fall 2017 360\u00b0 student videos!<\/span><\/p>\n The Fall 2017 projects are made possible with the generous support of the Innovative Teaching with Makerspace Technology grant<\/strong>, awarded by the Digital Scholarhip Center<\/strong> and Center for the Advancement of Teaching<\/strong>. Please come join us to celebrate what this grant helped us to accomplish! (Spoiler alert: Editing is allowed this semester, so look forward to multiple locations, scene transitions and text titles!)<\/em><\/p>\n Information here:\u00a0https:\/\/library.temple.edu\/beyondthepage\/event\/withinvisibility-exploring<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Laura Zaylea<\/strong> teaches traditional and emergent media production in the Department of Media Studies and Production, Klein College of Media and Communication, Temple University. Upcoming 360\u00b0 courses include Dublin 360: International Urban Storytelling (Summer, 2018; more information here<\/a> ) and Emergent Media Production (Fall, 2018). More about her teaching and creative work can be found at www.LauraZaylea.com<\/a>, and you can reach her any time at Laura.Zaylea@Temple.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Laura Zaylea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4111,"featured_media":4430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[297,308],"tags":[78,128,6,253],"class_list":["post-4387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-studies","category-makerspace-grant","tag-360-video","tag-makerspace","tag-top-news","tag-video-editing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em><\/strong>You can\u2019t hide the tripod. So make it part of the story world. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong>You can\u2019t hide the tripod. So don\u2019t use one. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/files\/2017\/11\/VR-300x168.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWith\/In\/Visibility: Storytelling in 360\u00b0 Video<\/h1>\n
Thursday, December 14
\n1-3pm
\nPaley Library Lecture Hall<\/h1>\n