IMMERSIVE & SPATIAL FILMPRODUCTIONS
The future of 180 and 360 degrees video user experience and immersive (drone) film productions
In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has evolved from a niche technology for gamers to an increasingly powerful tool in both the business and consumer worlds. While most people may not notice it much yet, with the rise of AI, the technological development of VR is now accelerating rapidly. This applies not only to the platforms on which this content is experienced, such as VR headsets and large dome screens but also to the (AI) software and cameras used to create the visuals and technology behind VR content. VR has truly become a catch-all term, encompassing much more than the bulky white ski goggles you might use to play tennis in your living room. The possibilities of VR and AR (Augmented Reality) for both the business and consumer sectors currently seem endless! It is highly likely that future AR devices will completely replace mobile phones! This shift will have a massive impact on how content is experienced and, consequently, on content creation itself. For the film industry and for us as a VR drone filming company, this means that the focus will also shift to new concepts like ‘immersive’ and ‘spatial filming’.
In this blog, we will take a deeper look into the technology of the VR video experience for users, as well as the equipment used by VR filmmakers. What platforms are available today, and which cameras are being used in the current VR film industry to create immersive content? At the bottom of the page, you’ll also find related abbreviations to explain terms like 6DOF and FOV. For us as a professional drone filming company, these are incredibly exciting developments, as they bring major challenges to filming for the movie industry. If you are looking for a professional drone company with years of experience in VR drone filming, feel free to explore the rest of our website or get in touch directly to tell us exactly what you’re looking for.
PROFESSIONAL VR CAMERAS
BLACK MAGIC URSA CINE | ACHTEL 9x7 | INSTA360PRO | BIG SKY & APPLE VISION PRO CAMERA
The power of immersive VR video productions lies in the technology and cameras used to capture these captivating experiences. Until about five years ago, there was little known about the development of professional cameras and lenses for spatial and immersive film productions. However, with the advent of the Apple Vision Pro, the SPHERE in Las Vegas, and the development of META’s Quest and Orion headsets, more and more people are beginning to see what the future could bring, and more advanced professional cameras for immersive 360° and 180° spatial video are being created. For us, as a drone filming company, the question is whether these cameras can be flown under a drone or helicopter. Do we perhaps need to build a unique drone for this? This depends on whether it’s a 360° immersive or a spatial 180° camera, but other factors like weight and balance related to the lens also play a significant role. Most professional immersive cameras are massive, and the accompanying large 180° lenses often have considerable weight due to the glass.
Black Magic Ursa Cine 17K 65
The Black Magic Ursa Cine 17K will become an important camera in the world of high-end spatial film productions. With an incredible 17K resolution (17520 x 8040 sensor), this camera will be a professional choice for capturing impressive 180° imagery. The camera is expected to be released in 2025, and it’s still to be seen which lenses Black Magic will offer to support stereoscopic shooting for spatial filming, although there are already images of the Black Magic Ursa Cine 17K with a dual fish-eye lens. The image of the Black Magic Ursa Cine under a drone is an AI-generated image and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but it seems we could potentially fly it under our Condor or Alta-X drone. A unique rig would, however, be necessary to keep the props out of the shot, and once the camera is on the market, Kiwi Aerial Shots will work on developing this setup.
Insta360 Pro2 & Insta360 Titan
The Insta360 Pro2 and Insta360 Titan are powerful cameras that can both be used to capture high-quality 360° videos. The Pro2, for example, is equipped with six cameras for an 8K resolution output. The Insta360 Titan goes even further, offering 11K resolution for 360° imagery. These cameras are ideal for creating immersive VR experiences, and we have already used them many times for professional VR aerial shots with our drones and helicopters. However, it seems that these cameras may no longer provide sufficient resolution for the future, as 8K is becoming less adequate. So, we are waiting for a new professional camera from Insta360 Pro.
Achtel 9×7 Camera
The Achtel 9×7 camera is a truly unique and leading-edge camera for professional film productions and is already being used for the largest dome screens on Earth. The camera offers an unprecedented resolution of 18,688 x 14,000 with 16-bit RAW footage, resulting in 11GB of data recorded per second. The Achtel 9×7 has already been flown on a custom-built drone and is available for purchase or rental, though it comes with a hefty price tag: €300,000 to buy or €30,000 per week to rent.
BIG SKY Camera for the Las Vegas Sphere Dome
One of the other most advanced fish-eye cameras is the BIG SKY camera, specifically designed for shoots used in the Sphere in Las Vegas. This giant-screen theater, which opened in 2023, outshines all previous dome theaters. The theater alone features 167,000 speakers! The BIG SKY camera also boasts a resolution of 18K and uses a dome-shaped setup to capture 180° footage.
Apple Submerged Camera for Apple Vision Pro
With the release of the Apple Vision Pro, Apple had to demonstrate what immersive spatial 3D filmmaking capabilities it could offer. To achieve this, they set up their own film production for the movie *Submerged*, developing a proprietary spatial dual fisheye camera for the shoot. The Apple Vision Pro is one of the most advanced VR headsets currently available. The making-of video from Apple (shown below) illustrates the new challenges that spatial filmmakers will face. This applies to the director, the actors, the set in which the filming takes place, and, of course, how the camera must be operated, as nearly everything will be in the shot. This will also be a challenge for future drone shoots with these spatial cameras. Also, check out Brian Tong’s experience of watching the *Submerged* Apple film. The comments under his video from other viewers clearly show how vibrant this new way of experiencing films will become in the future.
CONTACT US FOR IMMERSIVE AND SPATIAL AERIAL SHOTS
You can always email or call us with any questions you have about the possibilities of spatial and immersive drone footage. Our contact details can be found in the footer of this site or on our contact page. You can also easily send a message via the contact form, and we’ll get back to you today!
VR GLASSES AND DOME THEATERS
APPLE VISION PRO | META QUEST | ORION | LAS VEGAS SPHERE
For the users of future VR content, there are various ways in which we consume this content. Different methods offer unique experiences, each with its own immersive qualities. First, there is a distinction between 180-degree and 360-degree content, which indicates the scope of the content. With 360-degree imagery, the content surrounds us entirely, allowing the viewer to freely look around in all directions. In contrast, 180-degree content is only in front of us, but still with a wide field of view, which allows us to feel immersed and gives us the freedom to look around within this limited space.
Another difference is whether the content is recorded in 2D or 3D. In 3D content, the film is shot stereoscopically with two lenses placed side by side. This captures the footage as our eyes perceive the world. This is what defines spatial content. For drone filming, the use of dual lenses and spatial video is often not very relevant. The distance between the drone and the subject is usually so great that the difference between the left and right eye’s perspective is negligible. For the 360-degree drone shots we produce, we often film monoscopically. The difference between monoscopic and stereoscopic content is also frequently seen in the preference for VR headsets, where stereoscopic is favored, versus large DOME screens, where monoscopic is preferred. Below is a summary of the different ways consumers can view today’s immersive content.
Meta Quest 3
The Meta Quest 3 is the latest VR headset from Meta and is a significant upgrade compared to the previous Quest models. The Quest 3 offers a wide range of possibilities, from various VR games to watching films on a screen as large as you desire. Watching full 360-degree films is also possible on the Quest 3, although it’s clear that a higher resolution would enhance the experience. The Meta Quest 3 has a resolution of 2064 x 2208 per eye and a refresh rate of 120 Hz, offering faster performance than its predecessors, as well as improved features for mixed-reality applications. Where previously the real world surrounding the user was displayed in black and white, now users can view their environment and their own hands in full color, with minimal latency issues. Sending a message on your mobile or grabbing a coffee while using the Meta Quest 3 is no longer a problem.
Orion Glasses from META
Meta’s Orion glasses represent an emerging technology that goes even further than traditional VR headsets like the Quest 3. These smart glasses, designed for the future of augmented reality (AR), promise to seamlessly integrate VR and AR into the real world and, in my opinion, will eventually replace mobile phones. The potential for daily use is enormous, as users can continue to see their physical surroundings while simultaneously being immersed in a virtual world. Everything you look at can provide information, and individuals can layer their own virtual world over the existing one.
Apple Vision Pro
The Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s flagship VR headset, offering an unparalleled visual and audio experience. With the Apple Vision Pro, users can watch films and VR videos in a 20K resolution that is nearly indistinguishable from reality. For filmmakers and content creators, this offers new opportunities to produce ultra-realistic and immersive content that meets the expectations of this emerging technology. Films on the Apple Vision Pro can be viewed in 360 degrees, 180 degrees, and in both 2D and 3D, allowing users to fully immerse themselves in an incredible nature documentary or feel maximum tension in a thriller, where they might even find themselves hiding next to the main character.
LAS VEGAS SPHERE
The Las Vegas Sphere represents a completely different way of experiencing immersive video. This enormous sphere in Las Vegas projects images onto a vast dome screen, creating a 180-degree immersive experience. The Sphere has brought the world of dome projections back to the forefront, as there have been many of these dome theaters around the world, but they were previously known in the film industry as Giant Screen Cinemas. These Giant Screen cinemas, like the Omniversum in The Hague, Netherlands, have often only offered lower resolution images of 4K or even HD. With the arrival of the Sphere and all the new VR headsets capable of viewing spatial content, immersive cinema is entering a new era.
"20K RESOLUTION DRONE FOOTAGE FOR THE LATEST VR HEADSETS"
THE FUTURE OF VR FOR THE FILM INDUSTRY
SPATIAL AND IMMERSIVE FILM PRODUCTIONS AND AERIAL SHOTS
In the coming years, there will be tremendous developments in both VR headsets, augmented reality glasses, and on the video production side with cameras, software, and content created specifically for this hardware. I believe that, ultimately, it will be up to the consumer to determine the direction we will take in the next 20 years. Over the coming years, consumers will experience many forms of immersive VR and spatial video content. These experiences will spark opinions that will soon become decisive in shaping the future of the film industry. And let’s not forget, 3D films in theaters, 3D TVs, and even the old red-green glasses used to view magazines—it’s all been around for years, but consumers haven’t fully embraced it yet. However, the technological advancements of recent years, especially with the arrival of augmented reality and ultra-high-resolution imagery, seem poised to change that.
At Kiwi Aerial Shots, we are closely following these developments, staying in regular contact with professionals worldwide, and we certainly see the enormous potential of immersive 360-degree and spatial 180-degree content for consumers. With advanced drone technology, we can capture aerial footage that is not only visually stunning but also creates a deeper connection with the audience. Whether it’s for a corporate video, a commercial, a nature documentary, or a full-feature film, Kiwi Aerial Shots is ready to take VR video production to a new level.
VR FILM Abbreviations
Abbreviations and concepts IN THE WORLD OF IMMERSIVE, INTERACTIVE, AND SPATIAL FILM PRODUCTIONS
VR – Virtual Reality
Virtual reality, a technology that creates a fully digital environment that the user can experience, typically through a VR headset.
AR – Augmented Reality
Augmented reality, where digital information (such as images, text, or sound) is overlaid on the real world, typically through a smartphone or AR glasses.
MR – Mixed Reality
Mixed reality, a technology that combines elements of both VR and AR. It adds digital objects to the real world, but these objects can also interact with the real world in real-time.
HMD – Head-Mounted Display
A display worn on the head, such as a VR headset or AR glasses, allowing users to experience visual information in a virtual or mixed reality environment.
FOV – Field of View
The area that a user can see through a VR or AR headset. A wider FOV provides a more immersive experience.
6DOF – Six Degrees of Freedom
Refers to the extent to which a user can move in a virtual space. Six degrees of freedom include forward/backward, up/down, left/right (translation), and roll, pitch, yaw (rotation).
3DOF – Three Degrees of Freedom
Movement in three directions (roll, pitch, yaw) without physically changing location. This is often found in lower-cost VR systems where only head movements are detected.
Gaze – Gaze-based Interaction
Interaction that depends on where the user is looking. Often applied in VR and AR applications, where the user can control the interface by simply looking at certain objects.
Immersive Film
Immersive film refers to films designed to give the viewer a sense of ‘immersion,’ often through the use of 360-degree video, VR, AR, or other interactive filmmaking techniques that draw the audience into the experience.
360° Video
Video is captured with cameras that record 360 degrees around the camera, providing a complete visual experience for the viewer, typically viewed through VR headsets or special apps.
Spatial Filming / Spatial Cinema
A filmmaking technique that utilizes space and location in a three-dimensional context. This can refer to 360-degree video, VR films, or film productions specifically created to offer a spatial experience where the viewer is not just looking at a screen but is ‘inside’ the scene. This may also involve spatial audio and environmental sound.
VR Cinema – Virtual Reality Cinema
A movie experience fully presented in Virtual Reality (VR), where the viewer enters a virtual environment and experiences the story in 360 degrees. VR Cinema uses VR headsets like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.
Immersive Sound / Spatial Audio
An audio technique that uses 3D sound and positioning to surround the viewer with sounds from different directions. This is used in immersive cinema and VR/AR experiences to create a realistic sound environment, making the viewer feel fully immersed in the film.
Autostereoscopic
Technology that creates 3D images without the need for special 3D glasses. This is sometimes applied in cinemas or on special screens for 3D experiences without additional equipment.
CONTACT US FOR YOUR IMMERSIVE FILM PRODUCTION WITH DRONES
Contact us via the options below to discuss your immersive film production and the drone footage we can capture for it. Feel free to call us anytime with no obligation, and ask any questions you may have. We’re more than happy to brainstorm with you on the best ways to execute your spatial drone footage safely, legally, and to the highest possible standard.
