CASE STUDY

Meet the VR Studio: Jaunt Inc.

Jaunt Inc., the leading producer and publisher of fully-immersive virtual reality experiences, recently launched its Los Angeles-based production arm Jaunt Studios to focus on producing original VR content. ShotGrid’s Pipeline Team was tapped by Jaunt Studios to develop a production management solution for their entire VR production pipeline, including features for tracking principle photography, editorial and review collaboration workflow all integrated into ShotGrid’s cloud-based production management and review software platform.

“Pipeline is crucial, and partnering with ShotGrid is helping us set up our production management workflow much faster” explained Buckley Collum, Jaunt Director of Production. “Not only do we have huge volumes of data to manage, but we also have at least ten different projects going on at any given time, so there’s a lot of coordination. The ShotGrid folks are experts in pipeline and together we’re building a solution specific to our needs while leveraging best practices.”

Collum and the ShotGrid Pipeline Team, along with Jaunt Production Technology Supervisor Curt Miyashiro and Production Manager Chris Blasko, are all guiding the pipeline development effort. The end goal is to develop a rich VR production management toolset – including editorial publishing tools and tighter integration with Jaunt’s cloud based stitching and rendering system – to compliment the studio’s existing workflow and tools including Adobe Premiere Pro and stereo VR plug-ins. Jaunt also makes heavy use of ShotGrid’s RV to review shots and is working closely with the team to build out support for head mounted displays (HMDs) from Oculus, HTC and Sony.

Jaunt's first content release was Sir Paul McCartney, playing "Live and Let Die" at the final concert held at Candlestick Park in August 2014.

 

Though Jaunt is still extending its ShotGrid deployment, the software is already being used to track shots internally, as well as for review with third party vendors. “A lot of people in VR have worked with ShotGrid before. It’s the industry standard for efficient production tracking, shot management and has a great set of tools,” explained Collum. “It’s nice being able to farm out work to other facilities and have access to that detailed level of shot tracking, so we know when we have final versions, where they’re going and how they’re moving through editorial.”

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It’s nice being able to farm out work to other facilities and have access to that detailed level of shot tracking, so we know when we have final versions, where they’re going and how they’re moving through editorial.

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Jaunt is also banking on ShotGrid to become a main hub for managing the data associated with terabytes of high-res footage from its VR productions. Jaunt ONE, the studio’s professional grade VR camera rig houses 24 HD camera modules, which capture 1TB of footage per hour. When that footage is stitched together for positioning, color and stereo pair entry at 60FPS, file sizes are typically 40 times larger than traditional productions. In the future, Jaunt anticipates working at even higher resolutions and frame rates and Collum believes ShotGrid and RV will remain crucial components to securely managing the data associated with all of these assets.

“We are proud to be working with Jaunt VR who is helping to lead the charge in the rise of VR,” said Don Parker, co-founder of ShotGrid Software. “We have always innovated by working closely with our clients, and we’re excited to be building up our understanding of the challenges VR studios go through while working shoulder to shoulder with Jaunt.”

Jaunt Studios has produced several VR experiences including “Paul McCartney: Live and let Die,” “Jack White: Third-D,” “The North Face: Nepal” and “The North Face: Climb”. The studio is also continuing to produce content with partners that include Sky News, NHL Films and ABC News, shooting most recently in Nepal, Syria, North Korea and across the United States.

For more information about Jaunt VR, visit www.jauntvr.com