Today we visit the 10-Forward pop-up bar experience by Paramount+ in Arts District LA!
As a long time trek fan, this was… ok. THE THING WAS, this event was to promote Picard s2 and the episode where you get to see Guinan’s earth-based 10 Forward hadn’t even aired yet! SO WE JUST THOUGHT THIS WAS A HALF-ASSED “STAR TREK” BAR lol… Cocktails were mid but all-you-can-eat pizza was worth it 🍕
Watch on YouTube
Best for Questies, Pico ppl, & flatscreens
Watch on DeoVR
Best for PC VR users. D/L DeoVR free on Steam
But if you just wanna watch a flat screen (not as immersive) version, here you go:
In preparation for this vlog, I wanted to experiment with moving the camera. I tried some test shots while doing morning walks and found that if I keep the camera on me as I walked, my body served as a visual anchor for the viewer and movement wasn’t too bad. I also figured that if I was able to keep my hand off the camera body itself and grip a monopod instead, maybe that would help with smoothing out motion?
So with my 10 Forward reservation coming up in a couple weeks, I bought an Ulanzi mini monopod/selfie stick and was excited to try it out.
And the result is: bleh.
There’s a reason why there’s a STRONG vr comfort rating on this video; because the camera essentially represents a viewer’s pair of eyeballs, any micromovement does not go unnoticed. Even with post stabilization, your brain can tell that your “head” is moving but you’re unable to control where you wanna look. It’s like your eyes are being dragged along by a head that’s wandering on its own. It’s an awful feeling. When I walked through the corridor in the beginning, I tried everything I could to mitigate motion sickness: I tried vignetting the scene to focus only on the woman as a visual anchor, I tried panning the camera to keep her in center, did horizon-stabilization… it barely works. Thank goodness that bit was only a few seconds.
The place itself isn’t that cool. Like, if you ever visit a movie set, you’ll find that from afar shit might look cool, but then up close you’ll see tons of overlooked details and uncanny valley things that just scream to you, “wake up, you’re in a simulation.” These sets are made for the camera as background filler; it is the cinematographer’s job to keep the viewer’s attention on action and the subjects, not necessarily the location (which just provides context). I wanted to get a good look at the space but with me running around faster and shakier than I should, and with my camera being complete shit in low-light, this capture was an overall mess.
And yet I still published this video. Why? I guess it’s both something I wanted to put out there as a trekkie and as a landmark of where I am in my VR videography journey. Key things I learned on this shoot:
- SLOW DOWN. You want to guide your viewer, not drag them by the eyeballs.
- SLOW DOWN EVEN MORE. You think you’re going slow, but nah son. Go even half that.
- Keep the camera at eye-level. There were times where the camera was low and I lost that immersive-connection with… myself talking
In the last bit of the video you’ll notice I placed the video within the viewscreen of the Enterprise. I did this as a last ditch effort to make all the motion from me walking around with my camera somewhat bearable. And honestly, I think the trick worked. I noticed in some VR games when there’s a cut-scene, they’ll have a letterbox window appear to keep the user focusing far. I also recall that monoscopic videos in VR tend to be way more forgiving when it comes to motion, because everything is fixed-focus and I guess your brain can handle that better motion-wise. So, I did the letterbox trick while keeping it Star Trek, and it works well enough. I’ll need to revisit this one day.
WELP. Hope yall learned something from this mess of a vlog. I know I sure did. Learn from my mistakes, dear reader. “Hov did that so hopefully you won’t have to go through that.” Stay immersed, yall.
