I just watched the new short MLS Apple soccer spatial/immersive video on my #VisionPro that came out tonight. Some scenes are viscerally great (e.g., crowds, shots on goal), some quick cuts in viewpoint are jarring since I feel physically disoriented / displaced from one location to another. No good plot since just separate scenes. I missed having slow motion / multiple viewing angle instant replay. Sports viewing is next level this way, but it needs lots of experimentation. I'd love to see various takes of the same sport, the same action.
@danb I agree. Some of the shots were amazing. But overall it was a little disjointed and felt too much like a short demo as opposed to telling a sports story.
@danb I found the cuts between shots aggressive/disorienting as well. Love the idea of some focus groups here. This felt like a tech demo relative to the other immersive videos they have released so far.
@danb In the history of visual media this is akin to the popularization of the zoom lens in the ‘60s where there were so many rapid, silly zooms (Laugh In, for example). The serious use of the zoom lens came with shots like the slow push to increase intensity of a scene with the audience not even being aware.
@michaelslade I wonder, Michael, if it's related to Edward Tufte's teachings about the disruption of context switching. You can switch quickly if it's a logical next step. If you are following a ball left to right and suddenly it's top to bottom without the right type of cues you have to stop and think and reorient. Slow zoom requires little extra thinking.
@danb Yes, in classical film production there is a 180 rule that says you stay on one side or the other of a motion axis. Confusing to switch sides w/o an anchoring shot, say on the axis. These rules avoiding confusion need to be established for the new media.
@danb I also wonder if older eyes like yours and mine are more susceptible to disorientation. Even if true, for an age agnostic event like sports, there needs to be a happy medium. Leave disorientation to popular music videos.
@michaelslade It may be what we have been trained on. Also, it's not just less-sharpness in vision, it's multiprocessing of cues from what we are seeing. In old graphical games terms, as I have found as we age, we can track fewer sprites simultaneously.
@danb What you say about sprites is interesting. Over the history of film and television it seems shots have gotten shorter and our acceptance of brief shots has increased. Younger audiences can probably process fast sequences I can’t or won’t.
#Apple should make a variety of takes at showing a sport on #VisionPro available with a discussion board for feedback. Involve all us early adopters. Get ideas from lots of sports fans. Do it in public so we all feel part of it. Host Zoom/FaceTime-like discussions or something.