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Recently we had the privilege of shooting cubic panoramas for ZDF German Television and Big Motion Pictures on the set of "The Sea Wolf" - an adaptation of Jack London's classic 1914 novel by the same name. It's a story about a young man taken aboard a sealing vessel helmed by the cruel master Wolf Larsen. The production stars Neve Campbell and Tim Roth.
A working film set can be one of the most rewarding subjects for any VR photographer to tackle, but it can also be one of the most demanding. Crowded sound stages, conflicting schedules, inflexible deadlines, and complex lighting arrangements can all take their toll on even the most seasoned pro. Add to that the pressure of knowing you generally only get one chance to get everything right - and the prospect of doing this kind of work can seem daunting to say the least.
The reward in doing movie work comes in having the opportunity to shoot fantastic environments which simply don't exist anywhere else - or would be totally impractical to shoot even if they did. For instance, this project was divided into two major full scale replicas of a 120 foot turn of the century schooner - built completely indoors on a massive sound stage and historically accurate in every detail; right down to the grimy patina on her hull and even the seamen's "tags" carved into her woodwork.
Technical Notes:
8 images horizon
8 images each at -45º and +45º
1 cap and 1 nadir
Nikon D200
Sigma 10-20
Manfrotto 303SPH
Since we knew in advance that we only had one session per node to capture everything we needed (the sets were being dismantled the same week), we bracketed the exposures wildly on each side of average for a total of roughly 156 shots per scene. We then chose the best overall exposures from each set to arrive at the final 18 images used for each node. After that, some judicious exposure blending in Photoshop® to give it a more realistic "below deck" feel overall, and that's pretty much it.
