Exactly one month ago, the Thursday of Burning Man, we brought out the GoPros. We arrived early to set up, been exploring for a week, and decided it was now or never if we were going to attempt to shoot 360 video at the infamous, beloved festival we call “home.” This is the story of how we did it, what went wrong, and luckily, what went right.
BURNING MAN 2014. LOCATION: CAMPOLINE, 8:30 & C.
We built our usual reflective foam board Hexayurt, this year with solar power so that we could charge the cameras and computer.
We brought both of our 6 camera rigs (One is Freedom360, the other 360Heroes), as well as our 360Heroes 10 camera set up. We had 12 GoPro Heros, 2 tripods, one unlucky MacBook Pro, and a bunch of USB chargers.
We shot Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It was a particularly dust-filled year, so you can imagine the shooting conditions were less than ideal. A tripod broke in a dust storm. Our lungs broke in the dust storms. Everything came home covered in playa dust. Manning the “production facility” (see above) was hilariously haphazard. We questioned whether you can ever truly capture Burning Man, even in 360. (Spoiler: I think we have come as close as you can come to capturing the “feeling” of being there).
SUCCESSES
ONE REALLY BADASS 360 TIMELAPSE USING THE 10 CAMERA RIG.
Link downloads the video, which is best when watched in a 360 video player like Kolor Eyes.
STUFF WE LEARNED:
Our cameras were set to what we thought were the appropriate settings. Turns out, they worked for the 10 camera set up, but did not get enough coverage for the 6 camera shoots. When stitching the 6 camera videos, this is what turned out:
What the little black triangles represent are areas for which we do not have video information, because the cameras didn’t have the right settings. There is no way to fix it other than to fake it.
We met with friend John Schwarzell, who has been stitching 360 photography panoramas for years, and he gave us the following settings if you’re shooting on a 6 camera rig. I now give you these settings so you can avoid the black triangles of death.
FOR SHOOTING WITH A SIX CAMERA 360 SET UP
Ideal specs:
- 1440t – The T represents GoPro’s “ProTunes” setting. Make sure Protunes is ON (a t instead of a p at end of setting).
- 4:3 aspect ratio
- clapping at the beginning is best for syncing later (using audio to sync rather than relying on motion)
- ISO never over 1600, in daylight never over 400
- low or no contrast
- flat color (You get more details when the color is flat, rather than contrasted. More details = more items to line up in the stitch).
- Overexpose the camera facing the sun (+1), so that it doesn’t have a different exposure than your other cameras.
If you shoot according to these specifications, you should be able to make a nice stitch afterward, assuming your environment has enough detail. That being said, we have begun using the 10 camera rig almost exclusively. Our frustration with the black triangles of death has temporarily scarred us for the 6 camera rigs – They’re going to have to make a grand gesture to win back our confidence.
Another thing, and this probably goes without saying: shooting at Burning Man is a major challenge. The conditions are hostile and the resources bare bones, but also…
Who wants to deal with cameras when there’s so much fun to be had?
Shoot us an email if you have any questions about the whole thing.
Over and out!