Tag: knot for sale

Some Thoughts on the Future of 360° Films

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Over the course of this term, whenever I told people that I was working on a 360° film, I got a variety of responses, varying from “What’s that?” to “That’s cool!” to the more serious “Do you think 360° is the future of filmmaking?” The short answer to that last question is: I don’t know. The long answer is something like this… When I started Writing 420 in September, I’d never even watched a 360° film with a headset, let alone made a 360° film. I immediately found the concept of working in 360° appealing, though. While some people in the class were hesitant about virtual reality and would have rather worked on a flat film, I was eager to explore this new technology. I didn’t know if it would turn out well. I was sure there would be less trial and error (and likely a better final result) if…

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Camera’s and Unlimited Immersion

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Three things to know before you pick up a 360-degree camera: 1) Know how to hide… very well. 2) Don’t push the wrong buttons on the camera. 3) Learn to get tricky with your set, not your frame. Well, obviously there is a lot more to know when it comes to the emerging field of 360-degree media. However this should give you an extremely basic start. Overall I don’t think I’ve learned as much on a film set as I did on Knot For Sale. This film pushed us all to think outside of the box when telling a story. Working as a Camera Assistant on set was abnormal and uncomfortable at first. One a normal set your thinking about angles, lighting, lenses, frames, but on a 360 set your job is condensed into thinking about the set, stiches, and the movement of the physical camera. Anyone working near the…

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Let’s Get Virtual

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A Look at How the Development of Virtual Reality Filmmaking is Mirroring History Light, sound, camera movement, editing: the building blocks of cinema honed and refined over 12 decades since the first public screening in 1885. Looking at modern day cinematic masterpieces like James Cameron’s Avatar or Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight it’s hard to believe that, just under a decade ago, the first film was nothing more than a 10-minute black and white long shot of workers leaving out of a factory.  Over the last one hundred years, film has seen huge developments in lighting, sound, camera movement, editing and more thanks to filmmakers eager to push the boundaries of the art form and discover innovative waves to unspool a narrative. The invention of 360 video and virtual reality, however, turns back the clock and puts filmmakers back at square one. The lighting, sound, cinematography, and editing techniques that have been…

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Virtual Reality Village

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It isn’t always easy for people to give up control, especially when it is something they birthed and brought up in this world. For me, it was hard to give up my baby. The screenplay I conceived consensually with myself in the darkest corners of my mind. They say though it takes a village to raise a child, but in my case, it took a writers’ room to raise my words. Every parent must learn when to let go a little to let their child find their own way and with Knot for Sale, I’m glad I did. The script I originally presented to our production class was never written for Virtual Reality. It was a second-year submission that I had touched up for the purposes of this class. I didn’t know how to write in 360-degrees at all, but I figured the script was simple enough with a decent…

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Entry into VR

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Nothing could have prepared me for my first few steps into virtual reality. I could go on and on, over the course of a few paragraphs, try and get as in depth about the experience as could possibly be done. But it wouldn’t be worth a cent. Nothing can do that kind of experience justice save for putting on the goggles and entering the brand new world yourself. Back in April of this year, I remember hearing that 2016’s incarnation of the University of Victoria’s “unicorn class”, WRIT 420, was going to comprise of an experiment of the virtual variety. I recall feeling let down, bummed out that instead of having the chance to put together what I knew would be a solid short film, the class would be stumbling into uncharted territory and taking a chance on a medium that the industry’s experts only barely have a grasp on.…

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