Bellator have achieved the impossible.
They have successfully managed to repackage footage of the worst MMA fight ever in a way that makes us actually want to relive that experience. Do you remember Kimbo Slice v Dada 5000? That’s no mean feat.
However, the promotion have released a new immersive behind-the-scenes experience of the event from inside Kimbo Slice’s locker room and it doesn’t make you want to gouge out your own eyes and run into oncoming traffic like the fight did. Dare we say, it’s pretty damn cool.
Check out the 360 degree virtual reality footage of the event in the video embedded below. To view on desktop, simply click and drag your mouse on the video to look around the arena/dressing room. If you’re on mobile, and it tells you that you need something called a Google cardboard viewer, you don’t. Simply hold your phone on its side perpendicular to the ground and you should be able to look around by moving it from side-to-side.
Bellator released the following statement to explain how this footage was captured and edited together:
“To shoot the VR footage, Bellator used three separate six-camera rigs using GoPro cameras including one that was fully spherical, attached to a stabilized, mobile monopod. This camera was used for capturing fighters as they left their locker rooms and entered the arena.”
“Two rigs were tethered to a monitoring command center, which allowed producers to monitor the cameras from each rig. Bellator also used Kolor’s Autopano software to stitch together the footage from the GoPro rigs and Adobe Premiere and After Effects to edit and apply graphics to the final stitch.”
