Recording your video

The rules of 360-degree video haven’t been written yet, so stylistically you’ll be inventing them as you go along. There are some practical things to consider when shooting that’ll give you the best footage to work with, though.

Remember that whatever camera you work with, 360-degree video is stitched together from multiple picture in much the same way as a panoramic shot on your camera or phone. You’re most likely to see rather odd effects where those seams meet.

The most obvious areas are directly above and below the camera. Depending on the model, you may end up with weird artefacts, black dots or an invisible spot. When you’re shooting a regular video, you need to think about framing a shot for the benefit of the viewer. With 360-degree video the equivalent is worrying what you’ll do with this dead space. Some people cover it with a logo, or use it to mask the camera itself.

These aren’t the only stitching errors you might see in a 360-degree video, but the trick to minimising the rest is not to get too close to anything. The closer objects are, the harder time the stitching algorithms will have making the two halves of the overall image match up. And even if they do match, there’s more likely to be a lot of lens distortion anyway – especially if your capture device has two cameras rather than three or four.

In addition, try to avoid filming in enclosed spaces, or sitting the camera on a table or flat surface low down.