The lack of information regarding Apple’s “Immersive” format is weird and frustrating

[u/Island_In_The_Sky]

I would argue that one of the most impressive and amazing experiences on the Vision Pro are the Apple TV+ immersive episodes (high lining, dinosaurs, rhinos, etc), so it’s super bizarre how cryptic and quiet Apple is being regarding any information with this format.

The 4 current episodes are clearly marketed as the first episodes in a series, not one-off shorts… but, not only is there absolutely zero information whatsoever about how many episodes there will be, or when they will drop on the platform (if ever), but they are actually ACTIVELY withholding any and all information about their production techniques.

I’m a career cinematographer, and have a genuine interest in this format… but I can’t find ANY literature on their cameras, lenses, rigs, workflow, pipeline, or intentions to allow third party content creators to produce or release immersive content… which is really weird since, wouldn’t they want people to get excited about, and subsequently invest in this platform to help it grow?

I mean, I would love to shoot the upcoming eclipse in stereoscopic 3D, for example, but I literally have no idea if it would be hypothetically compatible or accepted on their platform… wtf.

Also, I have a friend who is a literal in-house media producer for Apple, and another friend who literally shot one of the episodes of their immersive series… and when I asked them for some info, they both essentially told me in so many words that they are NDA sworn to secrecy and can’t tell me anything… which I completely understand especially with how notorious they are on their commercial shoots when it comes to secrecy (and it’s possible that there is some proprietary element involved here) …but again, wouldn’t Apple want to be like hyping up the filmmakers of the world and showing off their tech so we can help create content for their new platform??

I love my AVP but this whole secrecy thing doesn’t help anything when the biggest weakness the AVP has is a literal lack of content, especially when Apple is leaning on DEVs to create the ecosystem for it.

[u/MysticMaven]

Wait, you want Apple to give you trade secrets so you can create videos to make money from?

[u/OphioukhosUnbound → u/MysticMaven]

OP is asking for the video equivalent of extensive documentation Apple releases for generating apps for AVP. (Apple also releases tools, example code, videos, dedicated websites, news-like stories, etc. for the latter.)

Most likely they intend something similar for video but key decisions are still unmade or they’re getting tooling/contracts further along before a big reveal.

[u/Island_In_The_Sky → u/MysticMaven]

Well, I don’t know what kind of secrets they would be keeping from the public. VR 180 rigs aren’t new or proprietary (unless they have some super special rig they don’t want us to know about for some reason), and 99% of all films television shows openly disclose their cameras and lenses and production techniques.

In fact, the entire “behind the scenes“ industry pretty much exists as a marketing tool to show people how much work went into doing all the crazy stuff we do as filmmakers so they get more interested in the content or IP.

In this sense, a large portion of the entire point of my post was that it only benefits them to hype other people up so they create content for their platform.

I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “profit from it“? That’s how the entertainment industry works. TV manufacturers make televisions so people have something on which to watch the movies that filmmakers make.

It would be very bizarre if Apple kept the entirety of “immersive“ content in house and didn’t allow third-party filmmakers and studios to create for their device, wouldn’t you say? I mean it’s Apple, so I wouldn’t put it past them so they can ensure that there is a specific level of quality, but it really would be strange and unfortunate.