Camera distances and shot sizes in cinematic virtual reality

Abstract

This paper describes the impact of different camera distances in cinematic virtual reality. For our findings, we took a closer look at proxemics, the study on how humans behave regarding space and distances. We explored the four proxemics distances (intimate, personal, social, public) and adapted them to camera distances in cinematic virtual reality. For the user study, a stereoscopic movie with a speaking person was produced for four different distances. The results show that different distances cause different feelings in viewers similar to shot sizes in traditional movies. In our scenario - a person in a museum is speaking about an exhibit - the personal distance was preferred by the participants. As an outcome of this work, the proxemics distances were put in relation to well-known shot sizes used in traditional filmmaking.