GoPro Blog: Nottingham Riverside Festival – all the First Person fun of the fair!

To accompany my series of blogs set around the 2013 Nottingham Riverside festival and my spin-off thoughts caused by the event (Part 1 of which can be found HERE, and part two found HERE), I shot a few “First Person Perspective” videos on some of the rides we had a go on, using my GoPro Hero 3 HD Black Edition Camera.

There were partially for experimentation, partially for practice, and mainly because I really like watching “POV on-ride” videos on YouTube – I don’t know why, but I can’t get enough of them!

You Spin Me Right Round Baby…

We’ll start with a video of the Traditional .Victorian Merry Go Round (Carousel), which can be found at Riverside Festival every year – we were very disappointed to find that the other restored Victorian rides – including a “crazy shaker” moving floor ride – were for the first time not at the Festival this year… Hopefully that will change in 2014!

The Video was shot using a GoPro Hero3 HD Black Edition camera, attached to a Head Strap Mount, and set at 1080p, 30fps, and on-camera ProTune turned on.

I ain’t afraid of no… mask wearing carnie??

Next up we have an on-ride POV video of the “Ghost Train” found at Nottingham Riverside Festival in 2013 (and in many other places in the UK). Shot using a GoPro Hero3 HD Black Edition camera (set to 1080p, 30fps, ProTune turned on), this video shows off the rather fun and (surprisingly for it’s size) three story high (!) travelling Ghost Train.

The ride starts by spiralling up the side of the “Ghost House” (actually a large HGV1 trailer), before entering a dark area on the roof of the ride. You drop down into the second level of the ride, where a mechanical Ghost swings out at you from the right-side wall. You then make a sharp right-turn to the outside-front of the ride, where you go over a series of bumps, turning again 180 degrees into the trailer. Another drop in the dark to the ground floor of the trailer puts you into a large “room” with day-glo painted monsters on the walls on each side, with an “electric chair” in front of you. As you are distracted by the Electric chair, a ride operator jumps out of a hiding place behind you and tickles your head… you are then sent back outside to the start of the ride.

Smaug Got Tame In His Old Age…

Moving on, we take a ride on Dragon Roller Coaster – fast becoming a staple ride of the fairground section of Riverside Festival. This video is more “personal” as I tried to capture my Daughter’s reaction of her ride experience – which for the money is the longest ride in the Fairground due to the fact you are set round the track at least five times.

The video was again shot using a GoPro Hero3 HD Black Edition camera, attached to a Head Strap Mount, set at 1080p, 30fps and ProTune turned on.

Where’s Pat Sharp When You Need Him?

Next up is a quick video showing off the two-story high travelling Funhouse – one of two “Funhouses” found at the event this year. This video was shot using a Samsung Galaxy S3, set at highest recording quality (hence the rubbish looking digital zoom).

Real Life Mirror’s Edge…

Here’s something more “physical” – a First Person run along the local obstacle course- I was shooting this as part of YouTube’s recent “Geek Week” event – an attempt to recreate one of my favourite video games of this generation – Mirror’s Edge.

You can find a full write-up of this video and my spin-off thoughts on this generations video game offerings in general and AAA Vs Indie games HERE

A Lot On Our Plate…

Lastly, just for “completions sake”, here is a video article on “Pedro’s Travelling Show” – a circus skills show found in the children’s area of the Riverside festival. Again for a full write-up of this, see my main blog post HERE

GoPro Vlog: Real Life Mirror’s Edge – Indie Vs AAA game developers:

As many people who know me or follow me on Twitter/GamerDads, etc will know, I have one the one hand enjoyed certain part of, but on the other hand have been overall a little unmoved and unimpressed in general with the latter half of the current generation of Videogames.

As the years have gone by, I have leant more and more back on my Retro Videogame collection over the Xbox360 and have also embraced Android/iOS for similar reasons – tablets and phones have given a much easier platform to Indie developers and “bedroom programmers” – in my view the scene is as close as we are ever going to get to the glory days of the Spectrum, in which indie and single person developers released fun, original, well thought out games right alongside the bigger name companies.

An Exception to my rule…

With that in mind, there are still a couple games on the main consoles that really did capture my imagination – games that dared to stray away from the usual FPS/sports sequel that dogged both the main consoles –games that concentrated on FUN and playability first, rather than shiny-shiny graphics. Examples amongst others include Mario Galaxy (yes I know it’s a Mario franchise game, but believe me the level designs are astonishing!), Fez, and surprisingly for me a certain EA game – one which although gaining positive reviews and cult status, didn’t do as well as expected commercially at the time – Mirrors Edge.

One of the most enjoyable games of this generation…

I know I constantly go on record as saying that I usually treat FPS games with an air of indifference, but used correctly, this perspective can be very effective – Fallout 3 for example was a perfect fit for me in terms of immersing myself in the RPG storyline – I also loved how you could “freeze time” and select body parts to wound/incapacitate your attackers. However in my opinion the “Faith Connors Eye view” in Mirror’s Edge still to this day remains the most effective use of a First Person Perspective in any video game or movie for that matter, creating a true sense of urgency, peril, and vertigo as you jump from rooftop to rooftop, trying to avoid confrontation with the totalitarian Police force.

Doing it for real…

With the above in mind, I was experimenting with my GoPro Hero 3 HD camera + Head Strap Mount at the Nottingham Riverside Festival 2013 (see a previous post involving First Person Plate Spinning HERE) when we came across a wooden obstacle course – I therefore decided that I would attempt to recreate a Mirror’s Edge style sequence to upload for YouTube’s recent Geek Week.

Before you start with the comments and trollin’ – remember that I’m old and quite unfit… and I was “racing” my Daughter…. she won… 😉

(Video Shot using a GoPro Hero 3 HD Black edition camera, set at 1080p and 30fps, attached to a Head Strap Mount, with “ProTune” turned off).