Key considerations for low budget VR film

It is not always necessary to spend a small fortune on a VR film. With the right considerations and some careful planning, it is entirely possible to create an impactful and memorable VR film on a low budget.

When commissioning a VR film, particularly for educational purposes on a low budget, it is really important to carefully consider and plan the objectives of your campaign, the narrative and the logistics of the shoot. We spoke to a VR production team about the considerations for a low budget VR film - this is what they had to say:

Crew

The smaller the budget the less that can be spent on crew. Remember that crew will often need to travel and will require accommodation and refreshments during the shoot days. Sometimes members of the crew can double up on their roles. Whilst this may save money, added pressure on crew members may not always get the best result. Perhaps there may be someone from your organisation that you could lend to be a ‘runner’ for the day, to support the crew and keep the cost down.

Lighting

Low budget films are unlikely to have enough budget for lighting a scene and then removing the lights in post-production as this a time-consuming and ultimately, costly task. Therefore, you will have to rely on natural light. Think about the shoot day and what time of year you intend this to be. Remember in the winter that it can get dark as early as 4pm and in the height of the summer it may be particularly bright the cameras may suffer from glare.

Camera selection

Depending on the environment, and which 360 rig is used, parallax and stitch lines may occur. For example, if filming takes place in a ‘tight environment’ such as a car, the crew will need to use small rigs where the camera sensors are as close together as possible to reduce parallax. Parallax is where multiple cameras used to create VR intersect their viewing ranges and anything close to the camera may not be captured. The crew will also need to reduce the stitch lines as these will become evident in the tight environment. Ideally the crew would use 2, 3 or 4 lens rigs – each has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, 2 lens rigs are less forgiving when stitching the footage and the film will ultimately be of a lower resolution but with fewer stitch lines – the more lenses, the more stitch lines. The more cameras/lenses used, the higher the cost of the rig.

Audio

We have the option to record either stereo audio or spherical audio. Spherical audio has a much greater impact on the final film however an ambisonic audio recordist and engineer will need to be hired to produce and arrange the final audio files which can increase costs. Stereo audio is far more straight forward and can generally be handled by the editor during the editing process. Stereo audio is usually perfectly sufficient if budget is a consideration.