360°

How do we manage to film a soap opera in VR?

Our interest goes together with technicalities:  we wanted to portray a soap opera without making it obvious that cameras and film equipment were there.  That includes Us, the filmmakers.  

On our travel to Obidos in Portugal, we experimented with the camera angles to change scenes smoothly and to become us, the filmmakers, "extras" in the scene, creating our own characters and "hiding" from the viewers; and finally, we work with ideas on how to hide the invisible stick in different positions or using tools to make it feel natural.   

Later, we trained the actors to do this.  We also find good blind spots to hide, and excellent post-production tools to fix empty scenes we were unable to film at the time.  These unfinished scenes are on hold.

Every location had its challenge:  manipulating the camera manually before recording each scene in the "flashbacks", had to be done in order to show a beautifully obscure backstage.  We found this only after the first day of shooting at the film studio.  The mansion and the bath house were beautifully decorated on-site locations for our soap opera purpose.  

The mansion represented how things change, and a reminder that our neighbor's greener grass is nothing but a facade. A construction, a new beginning... is not other but someone else ending.   The bathhouse is our comfort zone, our safe space, the place we go back to regain energy, to become stronger.  The experience to live these scenarios, including the beach from the beginning and end, with a 360 view is astonishing.  

During the exposition, viewers experimented with different kinds of sensations while immersed in the soap opera world.  We comfort them with odors, sounds, and other elements related to the film as a welcome to the real world.  

Experimenting with different camera angles, scenarios and other ways to film in VR to use in public spaces, for educational purposes, or for other applications while working on our collaborative process without specific roles is one of our interests in this artistic research.

The Art Newspaper - International art news and events, September 28, 2021, Extended reality: what future do AR and VR offer the art world?,