Strong Point of View: How a Milan-Based VR House Made A Name Immersing Viewers in Luxury

Have you ever had to sell a Maserati?

Guido Geminiani is CEO and Director at the immersive video house Impersive, and unlike most of us, he has.

When Maserati began looking for a creative mind to help bring its Grecale SUV model to Asia for the first time, it reached out to Geminiani and his Milan-based team — because Geminiani clearly had a keen understanding of the psychology of the luxury consumer.

As Impersive’s imposing client list makes clear, luxury brands as diverse as Prada, Maserati, and Dior all share a common challenge: How do you put someone in the shoes of a luxury goods consumer? How do you instantly show a potential buyer what it would feel like to go from being an admirer to a driver?

Strong Point of View

In 2014, Guido Geminiani started to explore the nascent world of VR film production. Since that time, Impersive has developed a signature style of hyper-realistic, immersive POV content that solves a key problem for luxury brands: letting would-be buyers feel the fantasy in a way that’s as close to firsthand as possible --short of putting a key in the ignition, or walking down the runway themselves.

The team’s name for this technique, Impersive, is the namesake for the company, and they’ve made attempts to capture what it means in language, describing their style as a “360° – stereoscopic 3D – full body – in motion” production technique.

But Impersive’s basic appeal is simple: They create next-level POVs befitting legendary brands.

Perfecting the details, however, is anything but simple.

We caught up with Guido Geminiani and his team to learn how they pull it off, and what they’ve learned about immersive content production after nearly a decade of serving detail-obsessed clients in the luxury industry.

What do you shoot with?

Since 2014, we’ve been through every possible solution, including a huge range of custom rigs. Today, we shoot with Insta360 Titan, Insta360 Pro 2, and Insta360 X3 for our aerial shoots.

What do you like about Insta360 cameras?

The workflow really sets them apart. They’re versatile enough for us to use them in our custom stereoscopic rigs, but the stitching and editing flows are still streamlined and fast.

In luxury and fashion, detail is everything. Insta360 cameras let us combine premium image quality with efficient workflows, which is what allows us to deliver as many projects as we do without ever compromising our vision.

You’ve completed a wide range of projects. You capture live events like fashion shows, challenging outdoor shoots, and also highly produced brand promotions. Do you use different gear or workflows for these different types of jobs?

Every job is unique but our core tools don’t vary too much from job to job. It’s typical for us to deploy the full Insta360 lineup on a shoot – we use Titan or Pro 2 for the most important shots and when lighting conditions are tough, but we also get a lot of use out of the X3, especially when mounting and placement are a challenge.

We were able to film a skiing experience at less than 0 degrees Celsius and in the Dubai desert at more than 50 degrees. We even did an underwater shoot to promote Prada’s Luna Rossa fragrance (we used the Insta360 Pro 2 in the Sphera360 underwater cage from Easydive) and a drone-mounted shoot to film the Fondazione Prada Milano building.

What are some of the brands you’re most proud of working with?

We’re coming up on 500 commercial projects, and we’ve been very fortunate to work with top brands and organizations across luxury, fashion, automotive, sport, and tourism. Some of the highlights include Prada, Armani, Dior, Gucci, Tod’s, Maserati, and the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Tourism. Coming up, we’re delivering an opera experience for the Arena di Verona and we are going to shoot RedBull Prada Skate in Barcelona next week.

You’ve worked with Prada frequently. Where do they showcase your projects? Can readers check them out?

Viewers can enjoy the Prada VR experience in-store, during Prada events, and thanks to a collaboration with L'Oreal, it was available in many airports with a free headset. The entire library is also available on the Meta store, Veer, and YouTube.

Which software do you use for producing, editing, and stitching Prada VR content?

We use Insta360 Studio, Autopano, and Mistika for some complex stitches.

Have you run into any memorable challenges on immersive shoots?

Crowd control can be a real problem with immersive video – they’re all in the shot! We just ended a production in Barcelona filming a pro skater. We had to find a way to film in the most beautiful location of the city without being surrounded by tourists and curious onlookers trying to catch a glimpse of these insane tricks. Thanks to Titan, we managed to steal a few moments amidst the chaos and get the 50 FPS shots we needed.

Ready to get started capturing your own immersive experiences? The quickest way to start is by picking up the Insta360 Virtual Tour Kit, which comes with everything you need to give viewers a front-row seat to the next experience or event you capture.

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