First ever Phantom Highspeed VR shoot for BBC nominated for Jackson Hole Film Festival Award
We at Highspeedworx always try to break the boundaries. We perform at our best, when clients ask us to do the near impossible. The result: WE HAVE BEEN NOMINATED by JACKSON HOLE FILM FESTIVAL in the “Best Interactive” category.
This time round, BBC wanted to showcase the illusive caracal’s flight in slow-motion, however, in a 360 video. Hiring that many Phantoms can rack up quite a bill. We had a solution, and the end-product shows. Here is a 2D teaser of the magnificent shots captured by Falk Eggert on our Phantom Flex 4K.
If you have an Oculus Rift set-up, please visit this site HERE.
Otherwise, here is a youtube video that showcases the 360 Video in all its glory:
Discovery Project CAT: Phantom Flex 4K and VR meets Tigers
Highspeedworx is proud to showcase our latest work with our Phantom Flex 4K for Discovery in an effort to conserve nearly 1 million acres of protected land across India and Bhutan to help protect wild tigers. A century ago 100,000 tigers roamed the wild, but habitat destruction and poaching has reduced the number to just 4,000 today.
Highspeedworx worked with Triosphere and Discovery early September 2016 on a very ambitious project. We were asked to not only shoot these beautiful cats on our beloved Phantom Flex 4K, but to also shoot Virtual Reality. As you can imagine, this can be an incredible challenge working with dangerous cats, especially the elusive tiger. With three separate VR rigs, some hidden away in bushes, others rigged into trees, we tried to capture the animals in their natural behaviour. I think we nailed it quite well. We would like to thank Triosphere and Discovery for letting us be part of such an important cause.
You can watch the VR shots over here: WATCH TIGER VR
Highspeedworx Seasons Greetings
The commercial season is slowly but surely kicking in. Highspeedworx is equipped with the best all-round Phantom highspeed service in the country. The Phantom Flex 4K is a proven A-Camera as well as a highspeed specialised camera. Our Tech Johan Horjus will guide you through every shoot, and our back-end solutions are unrivalled with the fastest download speeds. Book an all-inclusive package with Highspeedworx now.
“Through The Thick” wins Best Documentary Award
We shot this documentary in the Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa over the course of 5 days. Highspeedworx teamed up with Nino Leitner from Cinema5D in co-operation with G-Technology and ZEISS as well as Foma Systems to highlight the plight of rhino’s in South Africa. We joined forces with a local production company Hungry Bison Films based in Shamwari Game Reserve, which handled the logistics and back-end of the shoot.
Our Phantom Flex 4K was mostly mounted on the new ARRI Maxima Gimbal, which allowed us to do tracking shots, as well as be more mobile and ready to shoot wildlife on the go.
So far, the documentary has racked up two awards for Best Documentary and we couldn’t be more proud of each crew member that put every effort into making this a reality.
Highspeedworx takes delivery of SpectR iCU
SpectR’s iCU is more than just a remote control for Phantom cameras. It revolutionizes high-speed camera control. The SpectR communication system effectively frees up Vision Research’s high-speed cameras, opening up innovative possibilities for all the Phantom cameras.
It’s an intelligent, user-friendly and intuitive device which allows for full remote operation of Phantom cameras.
The Spectr iCU communicates with the phantom flex 4k over long-distance at a range of up to a kilometer. At 2.4 GHz and with an ISM bandwidth, benefit from zero interference from other devices nearby.
iCU also features a RJ45 connector which means you can fix it directly to the camera, or even just to your computer, to upgrade, save and share your preferences.
Highspeedworx and Nike Behind the Scenes
Cape Town has one of the largest film industries in the world due to its incredible variety in topography, its seasonal variation to the northern hemisphere and additionally hosting some of the most skilled talents in the film industry. These factors draw a lot of clients to have their feature films and commercials shot in the design capital of the world.
The new Nike Golf campaign, drew some of South Africa’s finest HOD’s to accomplish the incredibly complex task set out by the U.S. based creative team. The South African production was handled by “Fly on the Wall” in association with Lucan TV, who handled the projection and the animation, used in the brief.
Johan Horjus, from Highspeedwox was asked to DOP four Nike commercials over the course of four shooting days. He explains:
“It was an interesting project, which required minimal CG, by doing a lot of in-camera effects”.
John Robson, director of the Nike commercials says:
“the idea was to create a world around the product that combined projection mapping to create a bigger environment, but to work on a smaller stage, using props by the art department to create that world”.
The usual filming set-up would have been a variation of cameras, with a couple of high speed shots.
“Every shot was basically a pack shot” John Robson explained, “We had to quickly be able to switch from a high speed shot to a regular framerate shot due to time constraints. Johan suggested that we should use the Phantom Flex 4K for all shots. At first, I was reluctant at the idea as in the past the workflow has been a bit tedious. However, Johan assured me the Phantom Flex 4K was lightyears ahead of its predecessor and would only benefit the shoot.”
With incredible 4K resolution and built in timecode, the Phantom Flex 4K has become a revolutionising camera with the ability to change frame rates on the fly.
“The new Phantom Flex4K brings true flexibility to set, with the ability to shoot at normal frame rates and an astounding 4K resolution at up to 1000 Frames per second”, DOP Johan Horjus, from Highspeedworx explained. He went on to add that: “The operation and workflow of this camera system is somewhat different to other cameras”, referring to the camera’s ability to capture incredibly high frame rates to its internal memory, before saving the shots on the removable, Cinemags, “however, when shooting normal frame rate, you shoot straight to the Cinemag, which isn’t any different to what other cameras would do”.
The Nike commercials were a sincere test to the Phantom’s A-camera capabilities on set and a true testimony that it has the ability to outperform most cameras in terms of being able to quickly switch from normal framerate to high speed with push of a button.
Director John Robson concludes:
“After shooting on the Phantom Flex 4K, it will be very difficult for me to go back to Arri or Red”.
These commercials may lead the move away from pure CG, incorporating effects and a visual imperfection, to create a mood which is impossible to attain in CG images. Since shooting the Nike Golf campaign began there has been a buzz in Cape Town’s commercials industry about this new genre of advertising spot. The crew that was assembled to work on these ground breaking spots, was made up of a host of specialists, where everyone from set build to table top effects handling and camera department was excited to be breaking new ground and at the same time doing something the “old school” way.
Here is one of the Nike Golf Commercials Highspeedworx was involved in: