The wildebeest migration in VR
Who said you have to go all the way to the Maasai Mara in Kenya to see the wildebeest migration?
Deep VR, a South African production company, has used virtual reality technology to make a short film called Exodus: The Great Migration. The 360-degree footage makes you feel like you’re part of the action, even when you’re on the couch at home. How do I watch it? Get a VR viewer like Google Cardboard (from R89 at takealot.com). It fits over your head and turns your phone into an immersive viewing device. Turn your head to follow the proceedings. You don’t need a headset, though. If you want to watch on YouTube, you can use the arrows onscreen to change the direction you’re looking in. Where? Visit deepvr.co.za/exodus for instructions and a link to the nine-minute YouTube video. If you want a behind-thescenes look, there’s also a half-hour video detailing how the film was made.
Why did you choose the wildebeest migration? The film is one huge experiment to learn more about where the future of the format is going and how to make money from original content. Also, hardly anyone is doing wildlife VR properly, so we decided to jump in.
How does shooting VR differ from shooting for normal TV? VR is frameless – you film in every direction at the same time – whereas normal footage is carefully composed. You might film large parts of a traditional wildlife documentary using a zoom lens from a distance, whereas we had to place cameras in the thick of the action to get useful shots.
What were some of the challenges you encountered? The herds move incredibly fast. We were especially interested in river crossings due to the marvel and the danger associated. The problem is that the Mara River is long! It was hard to predict where the animals would cross, and when they did decide to act, we had to get our cameras down before them. Most of the frustration of the shoot was anticipating crossings based on the time of day, weather conditions and a variety of other factors. Also, despite our best efforts at camouflage, the cameras had to be exposed to be effective. The wildebeest would often come to the edge of the riverbank, see the cameras and stand there looking at the river while our batteries drained out.