APPLE IMMERSIVE VIDEO/SPATIAL VIDEO
Proximity Tests
Apple Immersive Video studio tests into proximity, camera height and positioning




Synopsis
A series of Apple Immersive Video tests designed to explore how distance, height, and Apple Spatial Audio format shape the audience’s sense of presence. Conducted in a controlled studio environment, these tests provide a behind-the-scenes look at the grammar of Immersive cinema in its formative stage.
Goals
- Map how viewer comfort changes with proximity.
- Understand how height and eye-line alter emotional tone.
- Test Apple Spatial Audio format with ambisonic atmos, music and dialogue.
Innovation & Craft
• Filmed with the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera, using Apple Vision Pro previews to validate results in real time.
• Generated 1.2TB of raw data in just 16 minutes – showing both the resolution demands and potential of the format.
• Captured behind-the-scenes stereoscopic Apple Spatial Video to illustrate how the tests were run.
• Demonstrated how camera height subtly shifts emotional tone – a low-mounted hi-hat placement changed not just perspective, but the audience’s felt presence in the scene.
Why It Matters
Proximity Tests is more than R&D:
• It gives filmmakers a reference framework for staging actors and blocking in Immersive drama.
• It shows how audience psychology is linked to lens placement – presence is felt, not framed.
• It provides one of the first publicly shared AIV datasets ready for playback on the Apple Vision Pro.
Impact & Recognition
• Featured in fxguide as the first publicly available URSA Cine Immersive test footage.
• Used as a teaching and benchmarking tool for filmmakers learning AIV grammar.
• Forms the technical backbone for narrative projects like Thé Fine Dining Bakery and The Dobos Connection.
Credits
A Main Course Films, University of Sydney Motus Lab and fxguide collaboration
Director/Editor: Clara Chong • Writers: Clara Chong & Ben Allan • Producers: Ben Allan, Mike Seymour, James Shen • Cinematographer/Colorist: Ben Allan ACS CSI • Talent: Thomas Ah Kouoi & Elena De Brujne • Camera Assistants: John Katz, Gwilym • BTS Spatial Video: James Esson • BTS Photographer: Graham Davidson