Opabinia Films captured The Running of the Bulls with the 360Heros H3Pro7.

Opabinia Films Runs With the Bulls in 360°

View exciting content like Opabinia Films' Running of the Bulls via the Oculus Rift.
View exciting content like Opabinia Films’ Running of the Bulls via the Oculus Rift.

Opabinia Films is offering viewers, among other interesting projects, a taste of Spanish culture via their 360° video productions. Their marquee projects include capturing the Running of the Bulls in 360° with the H3Pro7 and producing a music video for Estopa, one of the world’s most popular Spanish-speaking musical groups.

Opabinia Films is using 360Heros tech and 360 video hosting to produce interactive spherical content.
Opabinia Films is using 360Heros tech and 360 video hosting to present interactive spherical content.

The name Opabinia is derived from the name of the now-extinct opabinia regalis, a five-eyed aquatic organism boasting an expansive field of view. Opabinia Films’ founding partner Iñigo Chalezquer explained the way in which his production company is using 360Heros technology to emulate this ancient creature’s panoramic perspective in their work:

“The philosophy was to create an attractive production company which deals with projects differently. A production company that merges creativity with the new emerging video tools. We were always fascinated by the idea of shooting in 360º so we began to investigate how to do it. We quickly recognized the 360Heros project and immediately understood the incredible potential of this new medium. Without a doubt we saw that 360° video should be the symbol of Opabinia Films.”

Founded by Iñigo and his partner Mikel Urmeneta, the Opabinia team also includes talented freelancers such as Juliana Lasunción (video editor and the translator for our interview). Together, this team is pursuing 360 video’s potential via a mixture of commercial production and exciting creative endeavors.

Estopa

One example of this pursuit is the production of a music video for Estopa’s “Corazón Aerodinámico”. The spherical video has over 30,000 views on YouTube and served as another fine example of the impact that 360 video can have in the world of music and film production.

The Running of the Bulls

Aside from their success in the music industry, the Opabinia team films a wide array of content highlighting different facets of Spanish culture. The epitome of this theme thus far can be found in their 360 video productions capturing The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Basque Country, Spain (maybe next time a bull will be kind enough to wear our video gear for the run??).

360 video
Image: Opabinia Films.

“The project of the running of the bulls is the opposite of the Estopa video. What we wanted was to represent reality by allowing the viewer to feel as though they were on a balcony in Estafeta Street (a very famous street where the running of the bulls takes place in Pamplona) watching the bulls passing by. Viewers could hear the real sounds, and observe a moment of maximum tension.”

While striving to present this historic event in a never-before-seen fashion, the Opabinia team was also under an intense time constraint during production:

“We also needed the videos to be prepared as quickly as possible, as they were published daily on the front page of El Pais (the digital Spanish language newspaper with the highest number of readers in the world) a few hours after the event.”

Their features in El Pais brought a great deal of publicity to their work and 360 video as a medium. The interactive content allows viewers to experience the Running of the Bulls remotely and serves as the first panoramic footage ever captured at the historic event.

Technology and Hosting

360 video
Opabinia Films has the H3Pro7 in its arsenal of 360 video gear.

In order to capture and present their 360 video content, Opabinia Films is relying on 360Heros technology. In terms of filming, their team has been working with the 360H6 and the H3Pro7 models of 360Heros holders:

“Of all the various supporting media tools we have seen, the 360Heros one exceeds in design and quality compared to the rest of the technology out there. In addition, you get to be the only ones with different versions; 6, 7, 10 cameras and even 3D models. Without a doubt it is the best solution around. The quality achieved thanks to the multiple GoPros surpasses other solutions on the market that use a single camera.”

Image: Opabinia Films
Image: Opabinia Films

As for sharing the content, these 360 video projects can be viewed via the 360Heros hosting center where their team uploads and hosts their professional work:

“It has been the fastest solution that we have found to present some of our work [360Heros hosting]. It greatly simplifies the publishing process of work and we hope your hosting ends up being the “youtube” of the 360º”

Opabinia Films has achieved an impressive impact with their 360 video content. Their content library has been viewed by thousands of people across the globe only a few months removed from their first upload.

oculus riftAside from streaming their content on the web, users can also experience the videos in an immersive environment via the Oculus Rift. By playing the content locally on a computer, Opabinia’s 360 videos can be viewed with up to 4k resolution. As if their web content wasn’t impressive enough, our technology’s compatibility with the Oculus Rift makes the viewing experience even more realistic.

The team was kind enough to share some exciting future plans with us that include working with more renowned musical artists, filming international events in 360 and commercial work in the tourism industry. 360Heros is excited to have a production company creating such quality work and exciting projects using our technology! While we eagerly await their next panoramic adventure, check out their content here and stay tuned for more updates!

© 2011-2014 360Heros™ is a 360Heros Inc Company. GOPRO®, HERO® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Woodman Labs, Inc. in the United States and other countries. 360Heros, Inc. is not an affiliate of GOPRO® or Woodman Labs, Inc. 360Heros is a very proud user of GOPRO® cameras! 360 Heros creates 360° Video using GoPro Hero2 and Hero3 cameras. Check out our gear, sign up for updates, and explore the 360° videos and 360° panoramic photos created with the different 360 Plug-n-Play Video Gear.