A young man and a young woman standing sideways in front of a mirror. In the middle, a Virtual Reality camera is placed. Both are working on the camera rig. The young man is smiling. The scene is bathed in red and green light.

Virtual Reality Close Up

| Author: Johannes Schmülling | Photos: Pia Henkel

»Silent Disco« is a 45-minute virtual reality experience that I created together with director Fabio Thieme. Our vision began to take shape during pre-production: The unifying element of the films are the states of ecstasy experienced by viewers in virtual reality against the backdrop of their own transience. Fabio and I are of the opinion that both can be very similar states. You can find out more about the content of the project on the project page of »Silent Disco«.
The technical challenge was to achieve the most intense immersion possible. To achieve this, it was necessary to allow our actors to interact with the camera at a very close distance.
From numerous VR shoots for a federal agency, I learned that conventional stereoscopic 360 cameras work poorly in close-up and often require a minimum distance of 5 feet.
Months before I was approached for »Silent Disco«, I was in contact with Arne Stadler, then segment manager at Canon EMEA, and carried out various tests with the Canon Dual Fisheye RF 5.2mm lens. This lens offers the advantage that actors can interact with the camera with a close focus of just 8 inches and can be combined with any camera body.
Our minimum requirement was a resolution of 8k (4k per eye at 200 degrees), 50fps and a high-quality codec. There was another camera to choose from that would have given us 8k at 120fps, but in the end we chose the Canon R5C because it has a small body, which was necessary for our rig. A dual-gain sensor readout would've been perfect: However, this point was not decisive for us, as we were shooting exclusively in controlled lighting situations. We combined the R5C with a monoscopic 360-degree camera. I built a template for the Canon footage to be able to extract the full 200 degrees. I then wanted to stitch the footage in Davinci Resolve Fusion. The concept was rounded off with 3rd Order Ambisonics audio, which was the responsibility of our sound designer Istvan Hollos.
It was great to see that the team around camera assistant Teresa Marakova and gaffer Jakob Schleiter were able to get excited about calibrating the stereoscopy and lighting in virtual reality so quickly. In total, over 30 people were involved in the project in front of the camera and another 30 behind it.
We shot the project over three days (and one pre-lighting day) in Berlin. It was financially supported by the experimente#digital grant from the Aventis Foundation. We would also like to thank ARRI Rental Berlin, ARRI Rental Munich and Canon Germany for their support! More about »Silent Disco« in the current issue of Film & TV Camera 9.2023.

Two young women and a young man standing on the stage of a strip club. The young woman on the left is working on a camera rig. The two people on the right are talking. The light is greenish with red accents.
A woman dressed in white lying on the stage of a strip club and dancing. The strip club is bathed in red light.
A middle-aged woman dancing at the pole of a strip club. She is wearing a white dress and is painted white. To her left, a woman in a red dress is moving towards the stage. The scene is lit in red and white.
Three people in front of monitors. The young man on the left points to the monitor showing the image of the scene being filmed. Next to him on the right is a man following his instructions and operating a lighting console. Another man is visible on the edge of the frame. The monitors emit a bluish light.
A man stands in an elevator taking a photo with an analog camera. Magenta and blue light shine through the transparent ceiling. To the right of the man is a Virtual Reality camera.
A young man stands in front of a 1x1 meter frame through which light is shining. He clenches his hand into a fist and checks the light. Next to him is a young woman in a red shirt. Bluish light floods the room.
A monitor shows a bluish-magenta-lit strip club. Dancers are dancing on the tables.

Apple Vision Pro & XR Fundings

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