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Comment by MBCook | Hacker News Reader

Apple has been shooting all shows in 180° 3D since the beginning?

And editing for that? And doing the special effects? And set dressing for those areas not on screen?

And no actor or director or crew member ever leaked it? Or they didn’t notice despite the incredibly obvious camera pictured in the article?

No way at all.

Also, what’s the point? The entire job of the director and film crew is making sure the audience sees what they need. So now I can watch Ted Lasso and choose to look at scenery the entire time that was purposefully cropped out?

Come on. If you’re going to make up rumors do a better job. That camera may very well be real and the thing they used to film the demo videos they showed people.

But it hasn’t been filming all Apple TV+ shows for years. I’ll eat my hat.

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I won't be surprised if Apple announces later this year or next year closer to the launch of Vision Pro that select Apple TV+ shows will be available for the headset.

A recent series like Silo [1] would be a no-brainer for the Vision Pro, for example.

[1]: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3540173849

Side note, but Silo is one of my favorite shows in a long time. Up there with Severance. Watch it if you haven’t.

I actually bought the first book, Wool, because I liked it so much.

Yeah Silo is amazing. Characters, world-building, plot, pacing, casting, writing have all been top-notch. My partner generally dislikes watching tv, and it’s had her completely engaged. I’m so keen for the next season.

Good first episode. But drags from there on. IMO not even close to Severance.

Agree. A season of Silo could be a black mirror episode.

> The entire job of the director and film crew is making sure the audience sees what they need. So now I can watch Ted Lasso and choose to look at scenery the entire time that was purposefully cropped out?

This is precisely the reason why narrative storytelling cannot work in VR (other than a simulated movie theater). The reason is that a TV show or movie presents a point of view by its creator and you, the observer, isn't meant to interact with a story whose plot you cannot influence.

It certainly can work in VR - it just has to be done differently. Everything that's viewable in a scene should be interesting in some way. Something similar to Sleep No More[0] - it's some modernist Shakespeare's Macbeth but the cool part is it's in a giant multi-story venue where all the spectators walk around and watch parts of the play they want as they happen throughout the hotel. The environment is great and is a joy to just browse around. This is what VR needs to do. This is obviously very time consuming and expensive to create so much interesting content -and the storytelling has to be different than what we're used to

[0] https://mckittrickhotel.com/sleep-no-more/#/

> where all the spectators walk around and watch parts of the play

That works because viewers already know Macbeth. If was new to you, it would be frustrating because you would miss key parts of the storyline. This is why in TV and film, even if events happen parallel in time, they are presented linearly otherwise you would miss parts.

This is precisely the reason why narrative storytelling cannot work in VR…

This seems like a big claim. Is it possible that someone could come up with a way to make it work? I don’t know anything about this stuff but it seems to me that if the technology advances the storytellers will find a way to take advantage of the technology and create new ways of delivering their message.

The problem you would have to solve for is how do you present parallel events in a way that the viewer won’t miss? Otherwise they cannot follow the story’s plot. TV, film, theater, books, etc. do it by presenting it in a way where you consume it linearly.

I think "narrative storytelling" I think is too broad, that can absolutely work in VR, but it means creating a different experience from the ground up.

A "TV Show or movie" I agree is going to have a hard time of that, but just like theatre is different, and games have limited interaction, storytelling can take many forms ("narrative storytelling" doesn't have to completely avoid interaction or influence to tell a story/plot IMO).

I think good AR/VR could open up a different type, the way "Holodeck" writers in Star Trek were shown as a separate skill I think could hold true. Creating believable/rich characters with AI + related environments, and support adapting (even if it is just minimal) story lines will be challenging but I'm sure some people will create interesting experiences, they just need the tools to do so.

The article was about TV shows and movies.

The issue is that when key plot points are happening in parallel (common), then you’d miss most of it because you can only watch one thing at a time. Even something as simple as an explosion you might miss because you’re smelling the roses.

This is why in TV, movie, and even theater, parallel timelines are presented linearly; so that you can follow along with the storyteller’s point of view.

> precisely the reason why narrative storytelling cannot work in VR

Immersive theatre. (Just saw Here Lies Love, for example.)

How was Here Lies Love for you and do you think there is opportunity for the format to become a big volume of storytelling in VR?

It just works likes theater instead of like a movie. Or video games.

With Theater you still sit as an observer and it is choreographed such that you can follow the whole story. If significant things happened in parallel around you, you would miss key elements of the story and lose the plot. That’s why storytelling presents events that happen in parallel in time, not in that way but rather in a linear fashion.

I explicitly excluded games because that’s already a genre of storytelling that works. The article was about TV shows and movies.

> This is precisely the reason why narrative storytelling cannot work in VR

Typical HN comment, asserting that something cannot exist that already widely exists

Do you have a good example, other than games, which I excluded specifically?

Henry, Namoo, Space Explorers

I’m sorry but this is just a lack of imagination. Storytelling can work just fine in VR (or 180 video or 360 video), you just have to adapt to the new medium. This brings new possibilities, too.

I suggest you watch Tales From Soda Island for an excellent example of VR storytelling. Then check out Pearl and Alumette. For 360 video check out The Soloist.

Yes, not all old techniques work in the new medium. That is not a reason to write it off, as people with imagination have already proven by developing a new cinematographic language for it.

bookmarked

It was rumoured a few weeks back that Apple TV+'s "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" upcoming tv show has been filmed using this camera for Apple Vision Pro.

This is the series based upon the Godzilla / Monsterverse movies.

So, no-one should be saying that all Apple TV+ content has been filmed in this format. But, yes there will likely be at least one show that has been.

They didn't say Apple was definitely shooting all shows since the beginning.

It's quite possible it only started recently and this is now the start of the leaks.

That’s not the impression I get from the sentence in the embedded tweet. It didn’t say Apple had started.

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