GoPro catches the video array wave
For those times when the Director says they want something a bit special, GoPro has released a new video for international surf brand Rip Curl that uses the first ever mobile, waterproof 48 camera array.
The video, which features two time world champion surfer, Mick Fanning, doing what he does best in the warm waters of the South Pacific, highlights the capabilities of the GoPro Camera Array and was shot in conjunction with the pioneers of camera array photography, Tim and Callum Macmillan (aka The Brothers Slice).
“At GoPro we’re always looking for new ways to use our cameras, new ways to leverage them to do something that’s never been done before in digital imaging. As an example, GoPro is the first consumer camera company to enable people to combine multiple like-cameras together to form a new type of camera. We first did it with our 3D HERO System which allows you to combine two GoPro cameras together to form a 3D camera, and now we’re experimenting with combining 48 cameras into a unique multi-camera array that enables entirely new forms of content capture. The results are stunning and it’s another great example of how the HD HERO truly is the world’s most versatile HD camera,” said Nicholas Woodman founder and CEO of GoPro.
GoPro has a bit of a history of this sort of thing, releasing the 35mm film HERO wrist camera for surfing and the 3D HERO System, an expansion kit for GoPro camera users that allows a filmmaker to connect two 1080p HD HERO cameras together with a synchronization cable to essentially genlock the cameras together for 3D video and photo capture. This same camera synch technology makes it possible to connect and combine a potentially unlimited number of GoPro cameras into a GoPro Array of cameras.
“We are always looking to lead the way when it comes to camera array effects and identifying new ways to push the limits for creativity and to acquire unique shots,” said Tim Macmillan of Time-Slice Films. “We’ve been waiting for the ideal camera technology to come along to do the video array. It’s like waiting for a wave. You see the wave coming, you start paddling before everyone else and then it hits you and it is GoPro.”
The result was an astonishingly innovative development – the GoPro Array. The world’s first video array, which could be submerged underwater, operated by one man, and withstand the enormous waves at Cloudbreak, Fiji.
“The results and footage compiled from this campaign shoot is unlike anything anyone in surfing has ever seen before,” declares James Taylor, Rip Curl’s Global Creative Director. “We had the best surfers in the world surfing one of the best waves in the world in the ultimate performance boardshort and all captured by the most versatile water cameras in the business. It was an unbelievable experience!”
“No other camera could have enabled this shoot,” continues Tim Macmillan. “What makes the GoPro Array revolutionary is shooting actual video, not still pictures arranged sequentially. Multiple cameras shooting 720p at 60 frames per second all synched together opens up a multitude of possibilities.”
GoPro is fast becoming a standard in professional content production, with technologies ranging from it’s well known cameras and mounting accessories to its GoPro Cineform codec, an industry standard intermediary codec widely regarded as the best codec for streamlining post production workflows. Increasingly, GoPro is enabling many of the production industry’s most innovative content creators.