Long-time friends and colleagues Alex Plapinger and Michael Ashton turned a shared interest in virtual reality (VR) into a fun, successful business. In the last year alone, the duo produced an Emmy Award-winning 360-degree video for FOX Sports, along with a lot of other cinematic, animated, and commercial VR and 360 projects that have been viewed by millions of people around the world.
Plapinger is a film and television producer and Ashton, a director and visual effects specialist. In 2015, they joined forces to launch PAVR, a production company specializing in VR and 360-degree video content. Their first project was an original, scripted story that helped them learn more about 360-degree video projection and post-production. What they didn’t anticipate was how popular it would be: YouTubers viewed the video nearly half a million times! It even inspired Samsung to launch Indie Gear, a channel devoted to 360-degree video.
Popcorn VR
From there, they went in search of clients who wanted to create what they call “popcorn VR” – bite-sized, immersive videos that people everywhere can share and enjoy. Success came fast, with the team landing big-name clients, including FOX Sports, who was excited about using 360-degree video to connect with fans. Together with PAVR, FOX Sports created a video to tell the story of the Kansas City Royals’ first World Series win in 30 years.
“FOX Sports wanted a story that showed the team’s journey and the thrill of winning from fans’ perspectives,” said Plapinger. “We interviewed long-time ticket holders, local business owners, and others in the community, and blended social media content and our own video to create a compelling story.”
Fast and furious
FOX Sports gave PAVR the go ahead to proceed with the project—with an ambitious delivery deadline of just over three weeks. Ashton flew to Kansas City, shooting everything he could over two days. When he returned, “It was a mad dash to the finish line,” recalls Ashton. “We captured a lot of material, and also had to figure out how to stitch together 65 pieces of content and 70 pieces of fan footage.”
Ashton knew they would need flexibility and the ability to communicate among various software to complete the project. Having worked with Adobe software since 2002, the team decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro CC to create a layout of the video, Adobe After Effects CC to fine tune footage, and Adobe Audition CC to edit and master various audio elements. They also used Mettle’s SkyBox 360 Studio, a 360/VR plugin for After Effects.
“The ability to start in Premiere and go into After Effects then back to Premiere Pro seamlessly benefitted our workflow process and tight timeline,” says Ashton. “It was a no brainer that Adobe Creative Cloud would have all the elements we would need to complete this project soup to nuts.”
A new medium to enjoy content
On December 31, 2015 FOX Sports released A Royal Reality to great fanfare. Fans shared the video across social media and once again, the reaction was tremendous. Plapinger and Ashton were surprised that the piece received a Sports Emmy nomination, and thrilled it won in the category of Outstanding Digital Innovation given the caliber of the other nominated work. For the duo, the fact that 360-degree video and VR as a whole is getting this level of recognition is a big win on its own.
“A lot of people don’t know that VR technology already exists in their phones and other devices,” said Ashton. “It’s really rewarding to watch people experience this content in an entirely new way.”
PAVR is currently in development and pre-production on a wide variety of live action and animated VR series with Hollywood talent.
A Royal Reality –adobe.ly/29Qtg87
Emmy Awards video “Outstanding Digital Innovation” –adobe.ly/29SLYvp