By Jason Snell
October 10, 2024 3:04 PM PT
“Submerged” brings immersive narrative to Vision Pro
I just watched “Submerged,” the new immersive short film directed by “All Quiet on the Western Front” director Edward Berger, on the Apple Vision Pro. It’s the first scripted, narrative-driven piece of immersive video on the platform, and after the failure of Apple’s MLS video highlights, I was curious to see what choices Berger would make in using a medium with a very different grammar than traditional filmmaking.
By the time I was done with “Submerged,” I was convinced that Berger is a very talented director who knows how to adapt his skills to a different format. There are no quick takes in “Submerged”—I’d wager the average length of a shot is multiple times longer than your regular 2024 blockbuster—because quick takes are disorienting in the immersive format. Instead, Berger allows shots to linger, occasionally toggling between one shot and its reverse angle, which allows a perspective shift without a complete loss of the understanding of the scene’s geography.
In a format that can’t really use century-old tricks for focusing a viewer’s attention—like focus shifts and zooms and pans and close-up cuts—Berger tries a few different approaches to focus our attention. I was struck by his use of extreme close-ups, which get us very close to the actors a few times—and make it impossible to look at anything else. There’s also a lot of short depth of field, allowing the out-of-focus background to drop away from our attention—or even to entice us without distracting us.
I wondered if “Submerged” would be a series of static shots or if the director would find a way to be a little more dynamic, and Berger seems to have figured out that pushing in or pulling back (on a smooth track) is not as likely to trigger motion sickness as a completely handheld shakycam would. (I will admit to feeling a little bit of vertigo during one shot, which was a very fast-paced pull-back down a corridor.)
Still, most of the shots are more static, and seeing actors performing in those shots reminded me much more of a live theater performance than a film. This is not a bad thing, but it sure felt different. It was all on the performer, in those moments, and on me as the viewer to observe their performance. Similarly, the sets in “Submerged” are intricate and beautiful—and because of the immersive nature of the project, I think that was a necessity. It felt like looking at an amusement park experience, with detail in every corner you look.
The film also makes excellent use of Spatial Audio to further immerse you in the scene of a submarine during World War II. It’s got a score, which I didn’t expect but which didn’t feel unwelcome, even though I was watching immersive scenes—mentally, I knew I was watching a movie, just one playing by some very different rules.
Obviously, the film was short—there’s really just a prologue for us to meet some key characters, one long action set piece, and a brief denouement—but it worked for me. It also left me wanting more. I’m not sure the world is ready for an immersive feature film, but I could absolutely imagine what a feature-length version of a taut submarine thriller would look like, and it would be extremely fun.
Apple’s got a making-of video on YouTube, and in a press release it touts some forthcoming Immersive content, including highlights from the 2024 NBA All-Star weekend (which took place eight months ago!), an intimate concert with English singer Raye that is destined to make me just as uncomfortable as Alicia Keyes did, an immersive story about a free diver who is swimming under ice (just in case “Submerged” wasn’t enough underwater for you), a spotlight on a free solo climber, and a travelogue soaring over Maine.
I’ll watch it all. But “Submerged” has made me really interested in the next immersive narrative film, whatever it might appear.
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