Post written by Joseph Andrews, Research Assistant at SixerVR and JJK.FYI

Check out more posts like this on the SixerVR blog: https://www.sixervr.com/blog/

On Friday 9th November 2018, SixerVR did the filming for the first 360 music video in Nigeria. So far, we believe it may be the first in Africa as well (or at least we cannot find any others on YouTube).

The set was Mitsubishi Motors showroom at Ijora, Lagos. It is a large expanse of land, filled with automobiles. The air smelled of grease.

Before meeting the artist we met his manager, the very professional and organized Laverne Thomas. Her vast and comprehensive knowledge of the industry kept the conversation going till he arrived.

The artist Ladipo Eso, better known by his stage name Poe, is a Nigerian rapper and recording artist signed to Mavin Records. The song was Double Homicide featuring Ghost. The track was really hip and had us humming “is this about to be a double homicide”.

The video was truly hip-hop, complete with fog, SWAT guys, guns and lasers and a trunk scene. We had two 360 cameras that we were doing the shoot with, and we took time between each scene to position them carefully, out of sight of one another. Seeing as this was new and a bit foreign. We had some challenges unique to 360 video production. As opposed to a normal setting with traditional cameras, where everyone is concentrated on the area the camera is shooting, we had to sensitize the crew to be aware of the entire 360 field of view. There were several things to keep track of: how to keep the viewers engaged, how to have the artists to always moving or doing something interesting at every angle while the recording was going on.

On December 13th, Ladipoe will be hosting a premier in the same location. People will be able to view the final product on 360 headsets, which they will experience while sitting inside of the same cars used to film the original video. Through this, we hope to add a further level of immersion by combining real-world and VR elements.