Groundworks

This project involved capturing documentary footage of Dancing Earth’s creative process as they developed a piece that was meant to premiere on Indigenous Peoples Day on Alcatraz Island.  They are still looking for funding to complete the film.

Identified “Best Practices” for Mixed Reality Production:

• For projects that require artists to use technology that they have not used before, it is recommended to allow them some time to spend some time with that technology in a simulated environment. This would allow artists to get used to the technology and diagnose some glitches and technical errors before needing to operate the technology in a professional creative context where the cost of error is much higher.
• Artists should develop the vision of their work with some level of understanding of the technology and the skillsets at their disposal. Technical operators are often asked by artists to do things that are impossible within the limits of the technology and their skillsets. From the perspective of technical operators, these kinds of asks make the job feel like a customer service job.
• Technical operators should render 360 video as soon as possible so that they can show it to the artists the next day. This provides important information for artists as they continue to develop their work. Without being able to see the recordings, artists are effectively working in the dark.
• In addition, technical operators should do as many takes as possible within a given timeframe. Because they do not have immediate access to the footage, it is not possible to know immediately whether they shot a usable take, so it is best to do multiple takes.
• Because 360 video recordings take up so much memory, it is important to have many memory cards if the project requires a lot of recording.