January 29, 2002 10:17pm
World’s First 360-Degree Adult Movie Most Advanced DVD Ever
Source: Butterballs McFadden, LLC
by: Company Press Release
(GRANADA HILLS, CA) -- Butterballs McFadden LLC, a Los Angeles based adult photography company may have just started the next trend of high-tech entertainment by introducing the world’s first 360-degree movie—an interactive DVD with an image that has no sides.
“Butterballs McFadden’s Panerotica 1” is the first movie that allows viewers to navigate through its video image by panning, tilting, and even zooming in to the most interesting areas. The resulting experience is like sitting in the middle of a room in which a scene is taking place all around you, and being able to turn all the way around in your chair—360 degrees—to watch what you want to watch, when you want to watch it. Essentially, you could watch the movie time and time again, each time seeing things you haven’t seen before.
Using a state of the art camera system that shoots video in every direction, Bmp took on the daunting task of creating a consumer-friendly 360-degree product back in September of 2000. “Shooting and watching the movie was the easy part—if you had about $300,000 worth of rare high-powered equipment,” says Bmp president Brandon Elsey (a.k.a. Butterballs McFadden),”Making the whole thing viable for the consumer was a difficult 16 month process”. The final product—a two-disc DVD-Video and DVD-Rom set that gives viewers two ways to watch the movie.
Viewers with a Pc-based DVD-Rom drive can enjoy all the bells and whistles—smooth, real-time panning, tilting and zooming through the seamless video image. Plus DVD-Rom users can get Head Mounted Display glasses (HMD’s) that allow them to watch the movie hands-free just by turning their head in the direction they want to look. While HMD’s are a bit costly, they do create an immersive 3-D experience that makes the old Virtual Reality look like Atari 2600. Plus they make for an impressive conversation piece placed strategically on the coffee table right before your big Superbowl party.
The DVD-Video disc lets people who only have a normal DVD Video player to watch the movie by choosing from 6 overlapping angles, each with its own directional multi-channel audio.
“You think of a DVD as being this ‘limitless’ thing,” Elsey says, ”but our application was actually a little too advanced for the existing system—we had to invent ways of “tricking” the disc, not to mention your player, into performing some of the operations that it does.” Among the groundbreaking features on “Panerotica 1”; of course the DVD-Rom version is the first of its kind with a 360-degree image. To make it work on a common Pc, Bmp had to put together its own Panerotica Player program, since no existing program could handle such an image. The immersive audio tracks actually blend from one to another as the viewer moves around. Whichever direction you are looking in, the sound from that direction is the most prominent; the sound from “behind” you is sent through your rear surround speakers.
The DVD-Video disc isn’t without its own firsts. Viewers can choose their angle four different ways, including using the arrow keys on their remote previously only useable in menu navigation. Watching the DVD-Video on a Pc or Mac, viewers can even navigate by clicking on superimposed numbers that pop up on their screen when they move their mouse. No other DVD has ever been equipped with such features.
While “Panerotica 1” is the first and only movie of its kind, Bmp certainly realizes the possibilities of their new interactive medium, and have already considered expanding into mainstream 360-degree movies, video vacations, and live-video supergames for the general public. Says Elsey, “Since the technology is now here, I’m excited to think of all the types of immersive media we can create with it...What am I saying...how do you top a 360-degree orgy?”
Initially, “Butterballs McFadden’s Panerotica 1” will only be sold from BMP’s main website, www.Panerotica.com, which is also the only place, Butterballs boasts, to see his entire gallery of high-resolution web images, and other interactive adult content. Retail price for the two-disc collector’s edition: $39.95. $24.95 for Panerotica.com members. For more information, or to request a free press kit with demo, contact Brandon Elsey of Butterballs McFadden, LLC at (818) 363-9172, or email webmaster@panerotica.com.
|
