Here is a story I do not know if I ever shared on this site.
In December 2023, we visited Universal Orlando and watched their Universal Holiday Parade featuring Macy’s. Here are my photos of that specific parade:
I noticed Universal had a video crew set up just across the street from us. I also noticed they were using a large professional VR camera (a large black sphere covered in camera lenses) to record the parade. I was intrigued because I had brought my own VR camera and was set up to record the parade from the same location they had chosen.
Here are photos of the crew and their equipment, as well as my camera mounted on the railing.
I wondered what they were going to do with this VR footage. They had their camera surrounded by a crowd. That would allow a 360-degree video to turn and look at them rather than the parade. How were they going to deal with that?
The following year, we found out. Universal posted this “immersive 180” degree video about their Christmas event. Instead of a full 360-degree video, they posted it using just the front portion. This allows you to look up, down, left and right, but not behind. Here is their video (and be sure to use your mouse to “look around, up and down” while you watch it):
Near the end of this video is where they used footage they recorded that night. At about 4:17, you can see us across the street wearing our yellow/orange Wizard Quest shirts. My camera was on the railing directly in front of us.
And here is the view from my camera around that same time, with their camera crew in the background:
I never posted my video of the parade. There were already dozens, if not hundreds, of videos of it that year. But now that I think about it, I was there on a special night when Universal was recording footage for one of their official videos. Because of this, I decided to upload my video with notes about the camera crew being there.
And now you know (er, have seen) the other side of the story 😉