With Sony’s Project Morpheus and the Facebook-invested Oculus VR slowly working their way to market, a new avenue for virtual reality has opened up. It’s not just game developers working with the technology, but filmmakers are diving in as well.

New Deal Studios recently filmed a short piece for KickStarter-fueled camera manufacturer Jaunt in Petaluma, California, but used an interesting 360-degree camera set-up that utilizes virtual reality-like technology. As a result, everything but the actors had to be out of each scene, which changes the usual format we’ve come to expect when it comes to routine filmmaking.

The Jaunt camera. Image courtesy GigaOm

Pictured above, the camera was used to film a piece called The Mission, focusing on a World War II soldier who makes his way into Russia, but finds himself captured by German forces before he’s able to get picked up by his allies. It’s interesting how such an old theme can be remade with virtual reality-like tech.

“It puts the audience essentially in the movie,” said Matt Gratzner, director for the film. “As opposed to being completely first person or being interactive in a video game fashion, it’s as if somebody could essentially step into the movie and have the ability to look 360 degrees all the way around to see the action.”

Having crew avoid the camera’s angles was an interesting challenge, and one other studios will face as they attempt to enter the filmmaking realm with similar accessories.

“Your typical coverage in photography as well as just where somebody can stand and not be seen doesn’t necessarily exist,” said Gratzner. “Every perspective from top to bottom, 360 degrees, there has to be action and something going on at all times, otherwise the viewer can turn around and see there are people waiting for the take or turn around and see that basically nothing is happening.”

In addition, the set-up of lighting and sound equipment must be precise, and strategically placed outside the camera’s shooting range. To get one shot in a dark bunker, for instance, The Mission‘s crew had to rig giant mirrors and lights outside of cracks and small windows, to avoid being detected by the camera.

However, New Deal Studios is ready for such challenges, as it has worked in the past on virtual reality films for partners such as Disney, and will continue to adapt to the times. “We’re helping to build the visual language of virtual reality,” said New Deal Studios CEO Shannon Gans. “That we’re very excited about.”

Lights, camera, virtuality!

Source: GigaOm