https://youtu.be/5EMvrGdsY5Q

For the past two years I have been a part of the sailing team. We sail on a lake nearby called Cazenovia. We sail small boat called FJ’s and they hold typically two people. We have a fleet of eight boats and we go every weekend (weather permitting) to sail and practice. The setting would be within the boat with the sailors. I would also like to get a good perspective of the lake from the dock and then maybe one more shot of all the sail boats from the coach’s launch. The lighting style we would use for the scenes would be natural light. It would be very difficult to get the best lighting where everything is clear and the viewer can see it all but I would do my best to pick a sunny day and then have us constantly in proper sunlight. The audio for the sailing video would be a bit of an undertaking because you need wind to sail and wind and microphones don’t typically mix well. I would have to diminish the wind interference in editing or maybe if there was some sort of boom I could mount in the boat to capture the communication between the skipper and the crew it would really add to the immersion.

There is nothing better than experiencing what it is like to sail in a boat that is going at full speed with the wind whipping by you and a beautiful day as your background. I want to immerse the viewer to have those euphoric feelings. I want to give the viewer an experience of sailing and potentially use it to recruit new people in the future for the team. This needs to be a compelling experience for everyone that watches it. People will be interested in it because not many people know how to sail nor ever get the chance to.  This is an experience everyone needs to have because it is not only a nice leisure sport but it is also a competitive lifestyle. It was disorienting at times because of a moving boat but overall interesting and immersive experience. Certain people may avoid watching this VR experience because of a fear of water or drowning. You get wet in sailing and more often then not boat tip over. But we always wear proper flotation devices and dry suits, this may help change their mind about the sport.

The sailors are definitely be the main focus of the story. How they sail and all of their techniques would be using. The boat would be the entity. The plot of the VR story would be from the Launch of the boat until they dock at the end of practice. The viewer would watch drills and understand the basics of how to sail through this video. What moves the story are the different drills and races the crew of the boat need to perform. The water would be one anchor of the viewer as well as the communication between the skipper and the crew would draw the viewers’ attention back with in the boat. Not many people know how to sail and the viewer could possible learn some tips and tricks from watching this video. Understanding the passion for the sport and possibly inspiring someone to give at try themselves.

The viewer will get first hand experience of what it takes to be a crew in a competitive sailing boat. Being able to see how intense it gets and how hyper focused the sailors need to be to succeed. If not then the camera would be firmly mounted to the front of the boat. The video camera would be suctioned cupped to the bow of the boat to capture the viewer of the skipper and the crew. We would obviously need to be extra careful with all of our equipment because not only are we dealing with a water sport we could potentially loose it as it sinks to the bottom of the lake. The equipment will be safely mounted to the boat where I can keep an eye on it at all times either while I am sailing or following along in a coach’s launch. Overall I think this would be a really great video to produce. Fun and educational.

This was an amazing experience. I never thought that I would use a 360 camera in my life. I honestly didn’t even know what they looked like before this course. The whole process was a great learning experience and I feel very comfortable now creating a 360 video from start to finish.

We got so lucky the Saturday we went to film. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was sunny and had light wind so there was action in the water but it never interferes with filming. Big thanks also goes to my sailing team. They were so helpful and perfect for the video. There was really no human error at all. We did eventually run into technical problems in the beginning and for some of the shots the camera may not have been perfectly stable.
Our first shot starts out on the dock. A beautiful panoramic view of the lake and the yacht club. Unfortunately the stitch line for the camera runs right down the dock and is very obvious if you look for it. To the untrained eye it’s a little harder to see. We had slight action in our video when a curious seagull came right up to the camera to look at what was going on. The viewer can see him fly in but he immediately gets enveloped by the stitch line. He takes off and you can see him fly away. After that shot a crew of guys comes in with a beautiful sail boat. They look at the camera and are also as curious about what is going, like the seagull. The dock shot is one of my favorite because it shows the beauty and the 360 really picks up the simple beauty of water. The next shots were a little more difficult to capture.
Thanks to one of the commodores on the team we had immediate access to the coaches launch and they some of the pivotal shots. It was a warm day so we got people jumping in the water capsizing the boat and a very dynamic shot of boats circling the camera. I think it was a unanimous decision that our favorite scene was in the boat on the GoPro arm. We found the proper attachment for the camera and it fit just right. We not only get a great shot but we get an instructional moment on how to roll tack, one of the hardest things to do.
Editing was also a pretty painless process. We were able to import all the video without a problem and then we just basically placed and chopped what did and did not want. Very simple and not time consuming at all. I think a big thing we all liked was the fact we didn’t have to setup a shot. We basically placed the camera and let it record. It got a lot of dynamic moments and I am so pleased with the end result.
All in all the video filming went off without a hitch. We have a lot of extra footage which I will pass on to the younger members of the team if they ever eventually want to use it. I have already posted it to the SU sailing YouTube page and it has over 200 views as of writing this post on Saturday. I am really proud of my team for filming such excellent shots and I’m really happy we have a new recruitment video to use in the coming years to get people interested in sailing. I can’t wait to continue to make 360 videos.

Filmed By: Glen Wolyner, James Groh, Matt Mulcahy, Anqi Yuan