Need VR advice
 

Hi all:

Working with a producer who wants to shoot a VR demo reel for their clients NOW! I have been researching, have written some articles for HDVideoPro on high end VR like the Google Stories "Help" piece, directed by F&F director, Justin Lin, been researching some of Chris Milk's VR work and it's all good. But these are pieces that have a fairly large budget and resources.

We have been looking at and eagerly anticipating the Sphericam 2 but it's not really that close to shipping yet. What about VR rigs that can be rented (for a reasonable cost of say, $500.00 per day?) today? Does anyone know of any LA area rental houses who are renting a decent quality VR acquisition system today that doesn't take a week long class to learn how to use? Anyone have a line on any LA-based VR post experts who know the right plug-ins and workflow to use, have the headsets, can handle the stitching, etc.?

Since this is spec, the producer is willing to spend a little money but not a large crew, big scale production. What do you know? Who should I speak with?

Re: Need VR advice
 

Hi Dan,

Contact Andy Shipsides at AbelCine and look into renting Nokia OZO. https://www.abelcine.com/store/Nokia-OZO/

The plugins I've developed function with OZO stereoscopic 360 footage once it is output from their stitching app.

Cheers,
Tim

Re: Need VR advice
 

Given your extremely tiny budget, perhaps just try and source somebody small with a 6x GoPro rig who is happy to help out for a token payment of a few hundred?

Re: Need VR advice
 

Spoke with the guys at Radiant Images, they rent the Go Pro 6, 7 and 10 camera rigs, the Ozo, as well as some very high-end proprietary systems. Go Pro 6 is $900.00 per day, the 7 and 10 systems are $1,200.00 per day. Radiant Images charges a three day week, so $2,700.00 per week for the GoPro 6 system. They have a proprietary system based off of of the Sony A7s that rents for $2,200.00 per day. It seems the Ozo system may have some heat issues which could affect us as we may be shooting a project in the African desert. They do rent the Ozo system though, I think it rents for about $3k per day. I may check in with Andy to see what Abel is doing with it and what the feedback is on it (the Ozo).

We are planning on shooting a test with the GoPro 6 system and if it works out well, we will take that system to Africa. Will keep you guys updated with our progress.

Re: Need VR advice
 

I was going to add a GoPro 6 rig to our rental inventory and pegged on renting it for $300/d. $900/d?? Wow!