360 VR Video: Where will it succeed and where will it fail

Well, 360 Videos and VR technologies are becoming (or have already became) easily available to consumers. With Facebook and Youtube adding features for 360 VR, it is quite obvious that this technology will become the next big trend.

First let's sum up some technical sides, What is 360 VR? 360 is in degrees, it means that a photo or video shows everything around the camera used to capture it, and VR stands for Virtual Reality (Duh!)

360 without VR will result in a photo or video similar to the one featured for this article, add VR to it, and this picture or video will stretch into a virtual space and show parts of it according to how you move the device used to view the said picture or video, or by clicking and dragging it, like the video below:

Technically There is many ways to Film, stitch and Edit. Quite easy to learn for video editors and I promise to cover this topic in a future article. Photo on the side is a hint.

So, you are video producer just like me, and have been wondering where will 360 VR succeed more, and where it will horribly fail. 

If you Produce one of the next 4 things, don't waste your time thinking to take advantage of 360 VR

1- Weddings

A wedding is an event, and typically you might think that 360 VR is very successful in some event, so it should be successful in weddings. WRONG!
With the trending Cinematic, story telling style wedding videographers are following, it is hard to find a place for VR 360. Plus the couples want to see the best memories, not search for them, and it is kind of weird interacting with yourself through VR.
One or two photos might be cool, but not the wedding video.

2- Movies

The beautiful thing about movies is for a director to be able to deliver a message, a feeling, a story etc... The director knows and decides where he wants the audience to focus, he is the one deciding the point of attention to induce a certain feeling. VR 360 will just ruin that! 

3- Sporting events

During the last Olympics, I saw a lot of 360 feeds on my Facebook from the side lines or from the events, and the only thing I kept saying to myself was: "What the hell am I watching?!". The beauty about broadcast sporting events is that professionals show you up close and clearly what is important (most of the time). VR 360 is thought to give the same feeling of being there, but it's just not working for sporting events, yet!   Plus, who wants to give up the announcers enthusiasm?

4- Music videos

If there is a potential it would have invaded it by now, the music industry was probably the fastest to realize that VR 360 will not fit, except of concerts maybe.
Main reason is that people set up playlists on YouTube and play music videos to enjoy the music, a 360 VR video takes up a lot of bandwidth, and in most cases choreography, emotion and sexiness is what takes a music video far.

Now that we have covered the no-no's let's guide those filmmakers who really want to experiment or invest with VR 360 into something successful.

1- Gaming

That should be a no-brainer, Games are probably the better grounds for VR to succeed. The experience it will provide is just extraordinary, and the days are ahead to prove it.

2- Real estate

Real estate agents have been using 360 since quite some time, and With VR it will be more convenient to visit properties and real estates from the comfort of your own home.

3- Luxury retreats

It is the name of a Montreal based, international company specialized in Villa rentals around the world, but at the same time it is the title of this paragraph. Group travelers who are planing to rent a villa abroad instead of hotels will find it more easier to deiced which Villa to choose with the help of VR 360.

4- Touristic promotional videos

Governments will find VR 360 quite appealing to promote their touristic destinations through interactive, nicely edited videos.

5- Events and exhibitions

Family events like weddings and sporting events are ruled out of this section, and when Musical concerts might find some minor success, Art exhibitions are most likely to create an important demand for VR 360.

6- Action sports

When sports like basketball, soccer, football are likely less appealing for VR 360, Action sports like snowboarding, surfing, bungee jumping, parachuting etc will provide success for VR 360. I mean people have been strapping Go-pros to their heads for years now, the only logical upgrade to that will be VR 360.

7- Last but not least... Porn

Yup. We cannot ignore the elephant in the room. The Porn industry will witness a lot of success with VR 360, for obvious reasons. Also any interactive production will be solid ground for VR 360 to blossom.

Whatever your reasons and usage is, VR 360 is definitely an interesting field to experiment and have fun with, you can start by uploading a simple panoramic photo to Facebook, VR gears are available at 100$ or so, and some 360 cameras are available at 300-400$, we will be covering all of that in a future article.