Ever since the World War Z machine took over George Square, I have been there every day – at least once. I think I may well be obsessed by the whole event. Should I be worried about this? Being a film set novice, one thing I have noticed is that film sets seem to attract some stange people, and why do they always want to speak to me – that’s what I would like to know?

Tour URL: http://www.pikodesign.com/tour/worldwarz/

My film set diary so far….

01-09-11: Two more video clips uploaded. That is it. No more World War Z until December 2012 and George Square is now a shadow of its former Zombie self. Fun while it lasted……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lnRJiDzfdY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNVUyQyUWJg

31-08-11: One video uploaded of several shot today. Finally zombies! What is the collective name for a group of zombies anyway? A bunch of them around the set today. Enjoy the clip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma8l5udOlvc

All videos are now on our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/pikodesign360vr

30-08-11: Three new videos uploaded. First one is of the main characters body doubles hanging around waiting to shoot, the second shows the Channel 2 News chopper hovering over the action, and the third one is the body doubles filming a scene. There is a fourth but I’ve used up my Vimeo upload quota for the week. Feel free to comment….

24-08-11: Another virtual tour shot this morning, although it is difficult to get close enough when filming is taking place. Strategically positioned I finally managed to get some Brad footage. When the action starts, he appears from the right. After the cut Mireille Enos can also been seen exiting the camper van. Check out the guy the grey hoody right at the end of the clip in the immediate foreground. Is he being mauled by a zombie – or will he be CGI’d into one?

23-08-11: Couple of shots plus action crash scene video involving ambulance and volvo estate at the corner of George St and George Sq. The footage is a little shakey at times as I was balancing on two traffic cones at the time.

22-08-11: With grateful thanks to the location manager, I was allowed into the closed area of the set this morning. Awesome! I was able to get a number of shots showing the aftermath of the weekends stunts and the now ongoing clear up operation. It’s going to take a while to process the images….

20-08-11 & 21-08-11: Break required!

19-08-11: I could be mistaken for thinking this was a shoot for Groundhog Day. Arrived last night full of hope and expectation  – same time, same location, same security, same answer.  Hmmm, doubly unfortunate. But hey, everyone is busy, it’s an oversight, these things happen, etc. etc. Do you think I should give up? We’ll see what today brings.

18-08-11: More shots today of some action on Cochrane street (one new one online now) and a couple of others elsewhere still to process. Also recorded some audio to tag on to the footage when time allows. Last nights efforts to get on set were thwarted by security who knew nothing of the arrangement. Hmmm. Unfortunate, but I will try to have it resolved for access this evening.

17-08-11: Got another couple of shots today on route home, understandably however the main action was some distance from the areas that remained accessible to the public. The good news is that I am being allowed access to the set this evening for some after dark shots…

16-08-11: In between showers today I managed to shoot three virtual tour images, two of which were unaffected by the rain; the third , well you’ll see what I mean. But fear not fans of all things zombie, I will be there again tomorrow to sort it out!

I understand that filming will start tomorrow so I am hoping to catch some zombie action in 360 degrees. Enjoy the rough and ready shots taken today, click on the icons in the bottom left of the screen to change views and click the “fullscreen” icon in the top right hand corner of the screen for the best 360 degree viewing experience. More tomorrow….and the day after that….

15-08-11: Set slowly taking shape so not a huge amount to report on. Took some shots on the mobile and carried out some recon for virtual tour shots later in the week.

Tour URL: http://www.pikodesign.com/tour/worldwarz/

22-08-11: With grateful thanks to the location manager, I was allowed into the closed area of the set this morning. Awesome! I was able to get a number of shots showing the aftermath of the weekends stunts and the now ongoing clear up operation. It’s going to take a while to process the images….

It was not so long ago that when looking for a new home, potential house buyers had to make a trip to the high street estate agents and register their interest in an area or type of property. Estate agents armed with this information would in turn eventually mail printed copies of property schedules in the post. If you liked the look of a property a viewing would then be arranged.

Thankfully in recent years, electronic versions of traditional schedules together with photographic stills were made available online in vast search-able databases of properties for sale, making the whole process a little easier.

Fast forward to today. House buyers want easier ways to review larger numbers of properties more quickly than before, and don’t want to waste time actually viewing properties that are of no interest. House sellers and house builders want to be able to market their properties more quickly and more effectively than ever before.

Cruden Homes, one of Scotland’s largest independently owned house builders had to ask themselves that very question. How do we reach as many potential house buyers as possible online? Recognising that still photographs of properties don’t give the viewer a real appreciation of what a property actually looks and feels like, they sought out the best way to present properties online – virtual tours.

When asked why virtual tours are important to the Cruden Group, they said:

“virtual tours allow buyers to browse the showhomes outwith opening hours and will provide a visual aid for the sales department to use between phases when no showhomes are available to view on site.”

Recognising that online virtual tours are an important part of a developments marketing strategy, they have found them to be of great benefit to both potential buyers and the group sales team. Cruden’s showhomes are now open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As well as being online on their own website, the Cruden Homes virtual tours are available to view on RightMove and S1Homes which means their virtual tours are accessible by a vast number of potential house buyers.

Cruden considered several companies before making their final choice on virtual tour provider:

“We wanted to use a local firm to allow flexibility in booking each development as and when they were ready for photography. I had received several quotes with portfolio samples and the product from pikoDesign stood out as a local firm with a high quality finish and intuitive, user-friendly navigation. Fitting our developments in to a tight schedule, they provided a friendly and helpful service to both ourselves and the web design agency and turned the products around really quickly.”

“The final result was high quality, cost effective, professionally constructed and very worthwhile. We are looking forward to organising the next showhome tour as soon as the next one is complete and ready for photography and would thoroughly recommend this service to others.”

With more property developments to follow, we are delighted to be working with Cruden Homes. The final tours can be seen on the Cruden website or in our virtual tour showcase. Also in our showcase is the Westchurch showhome development for Modus Estates.

More details to follow….

OK. I was initially asking for AYRSHIRE, since that is nearest to me….. but it seems that there are requests for all over Scotland.

The people have spoken!! No Promises though ! Get your request in for your favourite Scottish location and we’ll try and shoot the most popular ones.

Thanks for posting.

PS. Top of Ben Nevis is not an option…..

Recently I have had a number of individuals contact me to question my opinion on one shot lenses – usually anonymously – so without evidence to the contrary, I assume one shot providers themselves.

Well t0 those who I have obviously upset, what can I say but sorry…..

But the fact remains, one shot lenses – they’re not that good. If the limitations were at least recognised it would not be so bad but they are constantly marketed as something they are not. When I go into a music store to buy a CD I would not expect to be sold an audio tape with the promise of CD quality.

In their defence – albeit extremely limited, they do have their use; for example in a fast moving crowd scene where it would be more difficult (but not impossible) to capture stitched multiple shots with a fisheye lens.

As always don’t take my word for it, do your research and make up your own mind.

To help promote the plight of the historic Gaiety Theatre in Ayr, up for grabs is 24″x24″ framed panoglobe print of the theatre taken only a few months before its closure.

The winner will be informed via email or telephone on or shortly after 30th September 2009.

[contact-form 1 "Contact form 1"]

*** Your details will not be passed on to any third party ***

Encounter One
It was a dark and wet winters evening in Kyle Street in Ayr, outside “Ayr Central”, a shopping precinct. I was out experimenting with my new camera lens trying to capture the Christmas lights with varying degrees of success. OK, one last set I thought – minding my own business and standing on the public footpath with tripod in hand, not a soul in sight.

I became aware of a malevolent presence over my right shoulder, I feared the ghost of Christmas past! but thankfully it was just a security guard in a yellow fluorescent jacket.

A young chap, “What are you doing” he asked. It is at this point I thought, my answer here will dictate how the rest of our conversation goes, so, I replied politely along the lines of “taking photos of the street lights”.  I was told I couldn’t. Asking why not, I was told that I needed the precinct manager’s permission as I could be a competitor or something – taking photos of Debenhams store front…Eh? Go Figure…

Now that’s hardly a dramatic example, but I was hindered from going about my business in a public place and all within the law.

PS. Ayr Central now have a virtual tour, it’s sooo bad it’s not true. Why do people do that?

Encounter Two
Braehead shopping centre. Now to be fair I should have gotten prior permission to take photos – I just thought I would get a couple of sample shots to prepare a demo VR tour. Overlooking the ice rink was a good spot to capture the centre’s bustling activity. I had just finished the last shot when I was apprehended by security.

The FIRST question asked was “are you taking photos of your own children on the ice rink?”

!!!WHAT!!! Oh great, I’ve been flagged as a possible pedophile on the premises, the police will be here any minute. I was somewhat shocked.

Fortunately my young son was with me and my wife and daughter were nearby so I was able to explain myself and apologise for not having permission to take photographs inside the shopping centre.

What troubled me though was the first line of questioning – not – do you have permission to take photographs today or what are you doing or who are you etc…, but are you taking pictures of your own children.

Again hardly dramatic but I thought it a bit confrontational at the time. Not that I blame the security guard or centre staff, sadly it seems to be the way the world is today…

Got any encounters to share?

Then what happens?

You are browsing the web one day and you are struck with the feeling of  “hmmm, that looks familiar” – then you realise what you are seeing on someone else’s website is actually yours or at the very least bears a striking resemblance to your original creation.

Well there have been a spate of incidents recently: “inspired” derivative works, use of copy without permission, use of entire virtual tours without permission.

For example the image on the left is that of a competitor less than 70miles away and the image on the right is a sample of our tour interface which has been in existence for some time.

Now, all I am saying is it looks very similar. You can make up your own mind.

To add insult to injury, Alex Thompson Photography states that their tours are easy to use with “Bespoke control buttons and instruction box which appears every time a tour is loaded”. Eh, should that not be “Piko Design’s  control buttons and instruction box appears every time a tour is loaded”? The fact of the matter is the “bespoke” control buttons are actually on license from a stock image shop which takes an extremely dim view on copyright infringement. We hold a license for use however.

Another example is being hosted here to the best of my knowledge by GHA Design. I was in Bath Street in Glasgow this week and to the best of my knowledge The Fat Buddha Store has not moved to Montréal.

Now I am told be flattered someone has, ahem, taken inspiration from your work. That’s all well and good but to some I have spoken to, it becomes an all consuming annoyance which ultimately distracts from what is really important and worth spending time and effort on.

Most of the time it is not really worth the hassle (and expense) pursuing these people unless there is compelling demonstrative reason to do so.

So in the absence of a compelling and demonstrative reason, I can happily move on. In finishing all I can say is…

RIP OFF MERCHANTS ! COME UP WITH YOUR OWN IDEAS!!!!

WHILE YOU ARE AT IT VISIT http://www.plagiarism.org/

Feel better now :^)

Seen any blatant web rip offs lately? Let us all know so we can collectively gasp in horror !

You get great restaurants and you get great locations, but not always together. Not so with The VU – it is both in abundance.

We recently completed their virtual tour to showcase The VU as both a first class contemporary dining experience and a stunning location for wedding ceremonies.

The virtual tour was shot on two separate days a few weeks apart. The first photo shoot captured The VU prepared for regular dining and the second photo shoot was literally a couple of hours before the bridal party and wedding guests arrived!

The VU owner Angela McLeary said, “Our customers are raving about the virtual tour – we really do feel it has made a huge impact to our company.”

We are happy, they are happy, everyone is happy….

See the tour on their website.

Estate agents and house sellers hate really nosey people  because they waste time booking house viewings they have no intention in buying. All they want to do is have a good old poke around your house – in fact for some it is a almost a hobby.  When selling our first flat I recall being able to tell those who were interested and those who obviously were not.  The worst part is you stay in all day hoovering and dusting and for nothing.

So what has this got to do with virtual tours you ask? Well a virtual tour (one of ours that is) does two things – both positive. Firstly for those genuine buyers, it consolidates their interest in a property – it has been known for a purchase to be made on the strength of a high quality virtual tour without even seeing the property in person. Secondly it satisfies the curiosity of the nosey neighbour and cuts down the number of time wasters passing over the door.

There it is.  Two more good reasons to get a virtual tour!