360° trailer for ZDF’s TV series TEMPEL
VISUALISE places you inside ZDF’s world of TEMPEL in a 360° trailer for the gritty German TV drama
VISUALISE was approached by German production company Polyphon with an exciting and challenging brief. Shoot a 360° trailer of German TV drama, TEMPEL, matching the broadcast quality of the original ZDFneo production.
Shooting Mark Tempel
To ensure we captured a broadcast quality version of the trailer in 360°, we took two of our custom-built rigs to the shoot in Berlin, both systems used the Sony AS7 II cameras to achieve the high-end production quality in the low light that matches the series.
The most challenging scene we shot was inside the van belonging to Mark Tempel, the main character in the series. The space restrictions required a significant amount of pre-production R&D to allow seamless capture in such a small environment.
It was determined that using a ‘standard’ 360 rig, made up of an array of multiple cameras was not an option for the van scene, as not only would it take up too much space, the cameras would be too the close action, causing issues for the post-production team.
We devised a system by attaching a single Sony A7 SII camera on a Nodal head (which rotates the camera around its lens) and recorded plates of video.
This method of content capture requires precise planning and direction, to ensure the plates matched. This was especially challenging due to the violent action taking place around and inside the van.
“What’s exciting about this project is that its one of the first narrative pieces of VR content which has the same level of production value as a high budget television series. Although the experience is only 2 minutes long, it will pave the way for longer high quality narrative content in the future.”
Will McMaster, Head of VR, VISUALISE
Capturing 3D sound
Working in VR also bring certain challenges when it comes to the capture and mixing of ambisonic (3D) sound. Like VR film production, ambisonics doesn’t yet have any standard format, so creative and technical problem solving is usually required.
Henrik Opperman, Head of Sound at Visualise, customised his ambisonic audio workflow to be compatible with multiple delivery formats including YouTube and VR headsets such as the Samsung Gear VR.
“We recorded with the best on-set recording solutions and post-produced in high resolution ambisonics. This set us up to meet the high standards of broadcast regarding speech, music and sound design – all in a spatialised mix delivered to multiple platforms.”
Henrik Oppermann, Head of Sound, VISUALISE
Attention to detail across the pre planning, production and post-production process was critical to matching the quality of the TEMPEL broadcast series, and perhaps most importantly, giving future viewers the ‘true’ feeling of what it would be like to literally be inside the world of Mark Tempel.
VISUALISE Credits
Executive Producer: Henry Stuart
VR Director: Will McMaster
Director of Photography: Jonathan Curran
Sound Director & Engineer: Henrik Oppermann
1st Assistant / DIT – Chris Corless
2nd Assistant – Joe Packman
Editor: Tom Hawksley
Stitching & VFX Artist: Chris Corless & Will McMaster
Sound Recordist: Henrik Oppermann
Sound Design: Henrik Oppermann
Senior VFX Artist: Tom Hawksley & David Robinson
Colour Grading: Jonathan Curran
Producer: Alex McMaster