by Jason Snell
Vision Pro goes to the dogs
I got a chance to watch Apple’s new “Top Dogs” immersive documentary this week before its release Friday. It’s about 30 minutes total split into two 15-minute episodes, and takes you behind the scenes (and out on the main floor) at the world-famous Crufts dog show.
It’s a pretty good example of all the issue that creators of immersive video are still working out. There are some amazing moments in “Top Dogs,” mostly when you’re watching a dog and their handler close up, or when you’re in the arena in Birmingham, England, watching the dog show. Unfortunately, there are also a bunch of pretty shaky moments: distracting quick cuts, some vertigo-generating dramatic camera moves, and a reliance (albeit understandable) on non-immersive footage in order to make the narrative make sense despite the lack of the right immersive camera angle.
The more I watch immersive content, the more I realize that it requires patience to help immerse you in the scene. “Top Dogs” lacks patience, even when it pads the main dog-show narrative with side quests to Flyball and agility competitions. I found myself wanting to watch Flyball or agility for a while, just to understand how it worked, but the documentary isn’t really interested in lingering on anything.
So, does “Top Dogs” have some fun fluffy dog action? Yes! I enjoyed watching some remarkable speciments of various dog breeds, even if there was not a single Boxer in sight. But as an immersive project, I found it more representative of a style that’s probably not the right way forward for this style of video.