A three-part series Making The Soloist VR takes a look behind the scenes of a daring climbing film shot exclusively for VR headsets. The conclusion: you can't just be a climber or a cameraman - to make a film like this, you have to do it all.
Alex Honnold's fingers are trapped in a small crack in the granite of the Italian mountain range Tre Cime di Lavaredo. His big toe is on a tiny little knob of rock. Below him, many metres still separate him from the valley floor. Of course, he is wearing neither harness nor rope, as is typical for him. At his side is a heavy-looking black camera on a stick, equipped with various lenses and seemingly pointing in almost every direction.
Capturing this daring endeavour, Jon Griffith's film brings the viewer up close and personal with what it feels like to climb a cliff or mountain with some of the best climbers in the world. Of course, you can't do this in 2D. Viewers will need a Meta Quest VR headset for The Soloist VR, as the film was filmed in 360-degree virtual reality.
Complex and dangerous
Honnold's daring style is not the only risk taken here. The use of a 360-degree camera is a great challenge and makes the shooting even more complex, especially when hanging on the side of a massive vertical wall.
Due to the unprecedented nature of this film, Griffith and his crew had to invent new equipment and build special rigging to handle the 5.5 kg VR camera during filming.
Since filming in the mountains means uncontrollable circumstances, everything revolved around the crew's ability to navigate complex and often dangerous situations. While documenting the stars of the climbing world, the team itself had to have a high level of mountain knowledge and assemble a support crew that could keep up with Honnold.
Swiss professional mountaineers with us
Director Renan Ozturk was responsible for the artistic vision of this series behind the scenes, and Nico Hojac, a professional mountaineer, helped the team navigate the high mountains. Ozturk works to take great pictures - both on film and in photos, while Hojac's main task is to mount the cameras and get the team to safety.
"It's much safer to have a small team," says Ozturk. "That's why it's so helpful to have people with you who can multi-task, like Nico - turning, rigging and climbing."
The Bern-born former ice hockey player is at home in all kinds of mountains - be it sport climbing on vertical walls or reaching for crampons and ice axes in the high mountains to set speed records on peaks like the Eiger. This made him the perfect all-rounder to accompany the crew to the mountains. "I'm a pretty good all-rounder in alpine terrain, fit and fast, a good sport climber," says Nico. What was really important was to keep up with Honnold's speed on the rock. Few can say that about themselves, but Nico Hojac can say it with pride: "I don't slow him down!"
In the three episodes of Making The Soloist: VR, viewers get an up-close look at all the challenges they faced: Weather, scheduling, logistics, planning. You experience first-hand what the people who shot the film went through to bring it to VR.
You can see the video here: https://www.redbull.com/int-en/making-of-the-soloist-vr
Source: Redbull
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