Flying limits: Meta's 3D 360-degree film lets you experience great flying sports
The VR film "Touching the Sky VR" shows spectacular wingsuit and paragliding flights. The filming conditions were at least as extreme as the flight maneuvers.
Touching the Sky VR offers risky sports from the safety of your armchair.
(Image: Jonathan Griffith Productions / Red Bull)
The approximately one-hour film accompanies wingsuit athletes Fred Fugen and Vincent Cotte into the Italian Dolomites and documents two daring plunges into the depths. The second jump is particularly spectacular, as it leads past rocks through a narrow canyon.
The flights were filmed at close range with a drone carrying a heavy 360-degree camera. The system was controlled by a drone pilot from a helicopter, who had to maintain visual contact with the drone. During a later shoot at a different location, this did not work and the drone and camera crashed into the ground. The recording was not repeated.
Life-threatening filming
The second part of the film documents an expedition to Pakistan by paragliding athletes Aaron Durogati and Matthias Weger. With the help of thermals, they climb to an altitude of several thousand meters and glide along the imposing mountain ranges of the western Himalayas.
(Image:Â Jonathan Griffith Productions / Red Bull)
This part of the filming also proved to be technically complex and risky: VR documentary filmmaker Jonathan Griffith, who was inexperienced in flying, operated the camera in tandem flight with a paragliding professional. The 15-kilogram 360-degree camera rig dangled below the flyers. Once the team was in the air, there was no turning back and no way to pause the recording, Griffith explains.
VR recordings with a rarity value
In terms of image quality, the 3D 360-degree film is not the best that has been seen in this area to date. This is also due to the subject matter: With wide landscape panoramas, the resolution and depth effect of current VR cameras reach their limits. Nevertheless, Touching the Sky VR is a must for film enthusiasts who own a Meta Quest, not least because the shots are almost unique in their kind.
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The same applies to the earlier collaborations between Meta and Jonathan Griffith"Everest VR: Journey to the Top of the World" and"Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR". All three films are available via the VR app Meta Quest TV. We recommend buffering the 360-degree films for slightly better image quality.
A 30-minute 2D making-of shows the challenges and dangers faced by the film team during filming.
(kbe)
