Apple Vision Pro is the missing link between cinema and theatre — and new short film Submerged proves it
If you’ve been waiting for a reason to give Apple’s spatial computing headset a try, Submerged is it.
With one of the biggest criticisms levelled against head-mounted displays being the potentially isolating nature of wearing the devices, it’s with no small irony that Apple Vision Pro’s debut Immersive Video short film, Submerged, is set on a submarine.
It may well be a claustrophobic’s worst nightmare. But for movie fans looking for more fresh experiences to indulge in, it may well be an immersive dream. And, surprisingly, it might even tempt theatre goers more used to a seat in a royal box than a sofa-bound streaming session too.
That was the resounding feeling I got after watching director Edward Berger’s 17-minute long thriller — that Apple Vision Pro can act as the missing link between the explosiveness of watching a movie or TV show, and the intimacy and physicality offered by theatre.
It’s more than just a 3D screen strapped to your face. Unlike a traditional 3D cinema experience, the action takes place in a peripheral-view encompassing 180-degree scene in front of you.
Yes, there’s realistic depth as with a 3D movie (elevated immeasurably by the quality of the Vision Pro’s 3,660 x 3200 pixel-per-eye displays), but you’re free to rest your eyes on whatever element of the scene takes your fancy. Sure, camera movements may guide you to the key narrative beats, but it’s more of an invitation or stage direction than a didactic camera cut usually is.
A submarine ends up being a surprisingly rich location to show off the potential of Vision Pro Immersive Video as a storytelling medium. Submerged’s taut 17-minute run time sees a WWII era submarine come under attack, and its crew forced to attempt to abandon ship.
Berger uses the sense of claustrophobia to his tense advantage – one moment you’re at floor level as a cockroach scurries by, the next in a rapidly-flooding chamber with the rising water line starting to obscure your view through the lenses. When a tiny sailor in the underwater distance emerges from the doomed sub and breaks the water line, you’d be forgiven for having held your breath the whole time.
It’s the intimacy here though, something like I’ve only ever felt from a tiny theatre production, that took my breath away. A dimly-lit scene at a mess hall table finds you basically sitting alongside the protagonists — I could focus my attention on the minute details of each performance, and was able to pick out even individual beads of sweat rolling down their brows.
And with every rivet there for you to scrutinise, the set itself has to be believable from all angles — the production required a full-scale 23-tonne submarine be used for filming. There’s no room for cutting corners, in either performance or set design.
Submerged also makes great use of Apple Vision Pro’s remarkably impressive onboard Spatial Audio speakers. They do an excellent job of giving the impression that sound is coming from all around you, and have enough low-end beefiness to deliver rumble when things go awry for the vessel and its crew.
They’re perhaps almost too good in this respect — during a tense opening scene, you hear a jumpy-inducing sound come from behind you. I instinctively spun around, expecting to see something creep up behind me, so engrossed in the idea of the space around me as I was.
But of course, turn away and the screen fades to black — Immersive Video takes place in front of you, rather than all around you in the same way that a virtual reality experience does. Even with this limitation, Submerged remained one of the most gripping headset-based experiences I’ve tried to date, the visual polish and obvious money-no-object budget thrown at the production doing more to captivate me than many polygonal playing fields have managed.
More immersion to come
If that all sounds a bit wet and wild for you, Apple is lining up a host of other Immersive Video content before the end of the year.
Travel series Elevated will give you a birds-eye view of some of the world’s most beautiful natural wonders; 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend will give you a courtside view of some of the biggest names in basketball; Concert for One will offer an intimate performance from six-time BRIT Award winner RAYE, and the next episode of Adventure will take viewers on an “Ice Dive” beneath the frozen waves with freediver Ant Williams. Each will offer the same 3D,180-degree visual immersion that Submerged offers.
Now, of course, there’s one big hurdle preventing most people from seeing Submerged and the rest of the Immersive Video content — it’s all been shot exclusively for Apple’s headset, and can’t be watched on anything other than the Apple Vision Pro.
And with a £3,500 price tag, there aren’t that many people out there that own them right now, creating a chicken-and-egg dilemma when it comes to the supply-and-demand for this type of immersive movie making. It’s about as convincing a reason to invest in Vision Pro as Apple’s offered yet, but unless more people buy into the platform, the nascent medium may not get many more opportunities to shine.
But you can still give it a spin, even if that three-and-a-half grand isn’t willingly spilling out of your pocket. Head to an Apple retail store and sign up for a Vision Pro demo, and Apple’s spokespeople tell me that Submerged will be part of the experience. Just don’t blame me if your bank account is £3,500 lighter when you leave…