For 17 minutes I felt trapped in a submarine. Edward Berger’s compelling short film Submerged arrives at the Apple VisionPropart of Apple’s latest effort to create content that will make you want to try the $3,499 mixed reality headset. Of all the 180-degree 3D video formats I’ve seen from Apple, this one feels the most polished and immersive.
Submerged takes place almost entirely aboard a World War II submarine, following just a few actors as they travel through tight corridors and wait for threats lurking above. The experience felt more theatrical than cinematic to me, partly because 180-degree 3D video means you can record a lot more detail from the environment. Additionally, the film has fewer quick cuts, relying on interactions in tight, detail-rich spaces that resemble characters in the film as much as the actors themselves.
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Scripted VR films are not new. Meta, Google and Samsung experimented with immersive video formats and funded creative content years ago. However, Apple’s use of video on Vision Pro looks particularly impressive. Still, unlike the 360-degree videos popular in the early VR days, 180-degree videos feel more like open stage stages, where performances unfold before you but you can still see around the edges of the theater.
Submerged is the Vision Pro’s first scripted film and one of its most visually impressive experiences.
Berger, who won an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2023 for All Quiet on the Western Front, had never worked in any other VR video format before. “I was completely innocent of this technology, I had never done stereoscopic photography before,” Berger told CNET in an interview. “A lot of the ideas came from experiencing the Vision Pro in a documentary environment or in a music environment. We saw how it felt to us as innocent viewers, and we noticed that suspense works very well,” which inspired him to create a film full tension.
Berger experimented with different types of shots for the film and required a special crane to shoot scenes with the large immersive video camera to prevent the camera from showing in the 180 degree shots. Ideas like camera shake, or how fast the camera could move down a hallway were all up in the air.
The submarine set in Submerged and its high level of detail (it was even submerged in a giant water tank for some shots) also felt more like a stage than a movie set as I watched it.
Berger agrees that it is more like theatre. “You can let the shots linger much longer, your eyes can wander and create your own experience. You look at Jordan’s face, you look at the pipe on the right… That’s what you do on the theater stage. But what I also noticed is that this camera doesn’t lie. It’s so real. You see every pore of the skin,” he told me.
“You have to be a really good actor, and you really have to get a perfect shot. Otherwise you know it’s going to give you away, you’re going to see it and it’s going to take you out of the experience. And you can’t edit it. Just like in a traditional film, because you want to take advantage of turning your head, exploring the shot and really creating your own experience,” he added.
For directing, Berger used multiple monitors to see a whole, wide, fisheye-like view of the camera’s entire canvas, and sometimes also wore the Vision Pro. Berger eventually got the hang of using just the monitors without needing the Vision Pro to “see” the recording, he said.
What interests me about Submerged is how far Apple is moving towards immersive video. Until now, movie releases shot in immersive 3D video have been distributed, hinting at a future with full seasons of shows or sports, rather than the occasional quick show or highlight clip we see now. At 17 minutes, Submerged is one of Apple’s longest efforts. Could longer projects follow?
I don’t mind spending an hour or more in a Vision Pro – I’ve watched entire feature films in it – but not everyone feels that way. Apple could very well be testing the waters and learning the limits as it works on a more affordable mainstream Vision headset that could launch alongside a more formal slate of regular immersive programming.
I’m certainly impressed with the visual fidelity of Apple’s immersive video format. It feels like you’re living in an all-encompassing Imax experience. Berger says it’s also a more challenging format to work in. “There are more elements to it that you have to create. And that’s also scary when you pick up the camera and start working with it, but it’s scary in a good way because it’s a challenge that you kind of have to overcome.”
But I wouldn’t want to buy a special expensive device to play these movies unless the entertainment industry at large started adopting the format as well. Apple is definitely trying to make immersive video possible, but it remains to be seen how many long-term players and other tech companies will follow suit.
