When I slipped on the Apple Vision Pro for the first time, I was sitting in the middle of a cafe with immersive filmmaker Charlotte Mikkelborg. But within seconds, I was no longer in a cafe; I was transported to the Arctic.
The landscape stretched out before me, the wind howled around my ears, and I was blinking away snowflakes that seemed to blow into my eyes. That’s when I realized that immersive storytelling isn’t just a cool tech demo any more – it’s the next frontier in how we experience entertainment.
I was shown Adventure, and the experience was unlike anything I’ve previously encountered. The Apple Vision Pro’s 180° field of view and stunning 8K visuals (yes, that’s 8K in each eye!) make you feel like you’re inside the action.
It’s as close as you can get to human vision, meaning the usual ‘uncanny valley’ effect disappears quickly. My brain barely needed to adjust. The detail was so rich and natural that it was almost as if I could reach out and touch the environment.
A key part of the experience was the spatial audio, which is fantastic on the Vision Pro. I didn’t need to wear headphones, yet the sound felt so real that it completely immersed me in the scene. It’s hard to explain, but the audio perfectly matched the visuals – making it feel like I wasn’t just watching a film, but I was in it.
Now, while Adventure was filmed with Apple’s proprietary camera designed specifically for immersive content, the release of equipment like the Blackmagic Ursa Cine Immersive is a huge step forward in making immersive filmmaking more mainstream.
This camera captures 8K in each eye through two lenses, each with separate sensors, making it possible for creators to film their own 180° immersive content. The Cine Immersive doesn’t come cheap, at $30,000 in the US, but it certainly makes this level of immersion more achievable.
[Editor’s note: Canon‘s investment in 3D VR lenses makes it even more achievable, in the form of the $2,000, 8K-capable Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8L Dual Fisheye for full-frame cameras and the $1,000 Canon RF-S 3.9mm f/3.5 Dual Fisheye for APS-C bodies.]
It also doesn’t just stop at the capture. Blackmagic’s immersive workflow, which covers everything from data transfer to post-processing, will enable more storytellers to create immersive experiences that were once reserved for a select few.
This, I believe, will include both fiction and non-fiction. Imagine sitting among a herd of elephants in the savannah or sitting courtside at a Lakers game. We are already starting to see more immersive acceptance with the Sphere in Las Vegas, so it’s only a matter of time until it enters the household.
I was fortunate to interview Charlotte Mikkelborg, the series director of Adventure, where she provided some incredible insight into the world of immersive filmmaking, stating her long-term optimism about immersive content: “I’ve believed for ten years, and I still very much believe, that the future of entertainment will be immersive.”
In my opinion, her belief is spot on. After just a few minutes with the Vision Pro, I was already hooked. I’ve started researching how to create my own immersive stories for the platform. This is the future, and it’s already here.
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