Welcome to the big show...

Every day a couple thousand people I would suppose walk through St. Peter’s Basilica. Most, if not all of them equipped with still cameras, video cameras, cell phones with cameras, or some other type of visual recording device. They walk around the enormous building snapping photos of every square inch they can see. So what makes a group of students and professors from Villanova University, armed with a bunch of cameras, so special? Two things:

First off, there’s a difference between what the public sees and what we get to see. Anyone walking around St. Peters can see the main altar, look into the apse, walk through some of the small chapels on the sides, and walk down the side of the main corridor. Some areas are blocked off for different reasons, leaving you to take pictures with your zoom lenses and hoping they can get in close enough. With permits in hand, these barricades were not much of an obstacle for us. We were allowed into any part of the Basilica we wanted, except for one chapel that is used for perpetual adoration. Taking cameras in there would disturb the adoration, therefore rendering it non-perpetual I suppose. We were able to enter roped-off areas like the center of the main hall and other closed side corridors. We were also able to go into a chapel closed off to the public, and only used when the Pope says mass with the cardinals. To walk around that chapel was an experience in itself. As people looked on from the iron gate entrance (as close as the public can get to see it), we walked around inside inspecting everything from the ceiling to the wooden benches the cardinals sit in when attending mass there. We were able to get into these different places with the help of a Vatican Security officer.

A little known fact (or at least I didn’t know it), is that while the Swiss Guards protect Vatican City, they do not actually go inside any Vatican buildings or directly protect the pope. The protection of his Holiness is actually a job for the Vatican Security department. There are a handful of select officers who directly protect the pope. Manuelle, our Vatican security officer/escort for the day, is one of these select few. You must be elected by a Cardinal to be considered for the job, which is surely no easy task. Manuelle began serving when he turned 18, which was two years ago. He sees the pope every day and when the Pope is out in public he is with him (Jackie remembers seeing him next to the pope at the Papal Audience). He is not yet old enough, and has not been on the job long enough to travel with the Pope outside of Rome, but after working for ten years he will be able to travel with him. Manuelle had to learn English and Spanish for the job, and it will be his job for the rest of his life if he chooses. He was really awesome guy with a ton of information, who was really helpful the entire day with getting everything done.

The second reason we’re different from the public besides getting into areas no one else has access to is that we show up with a custom computerized rig that records 360 degree panoramic images. You’ve already heard about the rig, and I have some better footage of it in action, but you are going to have to wait to see the pictures and video because I have to check about the legality of posting them online (Some of it has been posted now, like above).

Setting up the rig in the middle of a basilica open to the public was very entertaining to say the least. People are allowed into the Basilica in waves, so with each wave brought tourists curious to see what we were doing. As the rig did it’s thing, it was fun to watch the people try and figure out what was going on. Moving people out of the way when the camera was pointed in their direction though was not as easy as in St. Mary Major. Luckily the security officers at the Basilica were happy to help us out in this regard.

My favorite part was probably standing in the Apse of the Basilica, just us, with it completely lit up(normally they have all the lights turned down or off). To watch the camera capture every inch of it was incredible and I cannot wait to see it all stitched together.

We took 360-degree panoramas from about a dozen spots today, which was a whirlwind of work, but one of the best projects I’ve ever been a part of.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/ramlax13/StPeterSBasilicaVirtualRealityShoot?feat=directlink

Video coming soon (once my internet starts going faster than a crawl).