Fresh off his Oscar-winning German-language film “All Quiet on the Western Front” and currently receiving high praise and awards buzz for his latest thriller, the Ralph Fiennes-led “Conclave,” director Edward Berger is looking to break boundaries with a new short film shot specifically for Apple Vision Pro. Titled “Submerged,” the short follows a group of young Navy men working a submarine during World War II that suddenly comes under attack. The first scripted short to use Apple Immersive Video, “Submerged” aims to place viewers inside the horrifying experience, but also has a larger goal of creating a new form of entertainment.
“It’s a wonderful new medium that just expands the horizon of storytelling,” Berger said in a promotional video for the short. “Because you’re not watching a movie anymore, you’re inside the story. It’s going to change the future of filmmaking.”
Speaking in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Berger explained how he was less called to this project by any plot detail than he was by the potential of the new technology, saying that the first Apple Immersive Video footage he saw “blew my mind.”
“We wanted to tell a story with this medium and see how far we can push it, see what barriers we can break, how much we can make you feel that you’re actually on this submarine,” Berger said. “And I wanted to experience that, I wanted to take myself on the submarine.”
Being able to place himself and his audience inside the story also forced Berger to be hyper-specific about details around the experience, as well action that would facilitate plotting.
“We thought okay, how do we create tension with this medium? And where do we have tension? There’s silence, there is silence and distinct audio, noises like creaking of metal that’s underwater in the submarine. And we can take the audience by the hand and place them right next to our heroes on this vessel,” said Berger to THR. “And the second is action we hadn’t really seen, because no one had made it, but we thought the contrast of tension is action. So to use the entire breadth of the medium of this technology, it felt like the best place to use it.”
At the same time, as much direction as Berger tried to build into the piece, he also wanted to allow viewers to have their own experience. It may not be a full build-your-own adventure a la “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” but it does let those with Apple Vision Pro users take in different aspects of their surroundings. As Berger shared, this was a huge benefit of the Immersive Video technology.
“You have a lot of freedom to create your own guidance, or to create your own design, to create your own visual experience,” Berger said. “Some people might look over to the right because of that sound, some people might be more interested on the figure that crawls around in the left, so outside of your field of vision, you have a lot of things that you can design, create, use, and really guide the audience’s gaze.”
In addition to “Submerged,” this week Apple will be unveiling a short film shot at the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend and next month, a music experience made to celebrate the release of The Weeknd’s new album “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” They also have new episodes of their immersive documentary series “Elevated” and “Adventure” releasing later this year, as well as an immersive concert experience series called “Concert For One” that will kick off with a set from singer-songwriter RAYE.
“Submerged” is now available to Apple Vision Pro users.
