In immersive video, there is no frame.

This is the hardest frame I've ever shot for, because there isn't one. I've worked on Apple launch productions including Vision Pro, and immersive video breaks almost every rule TV taught me. Let's talk about shooting for headsets. First, three formats. Spatial video is 3D in a window, like a memory you can lean into, and your iPhone can shoot it. 360 puts you in the middle of everything. And Apple Immersive is 180 degrees of 3D wrapped around you with spatial audio.

Why 180 instead of 360? Because people mostly look forward, putting every pixel in front of you makes it sharper, and it gives the crew somewhere to hide: behind the camera. Mostly, in 180, if you can see the lens, the audience can see you. The camera is two lenses spaced like your eyes, matched to the average IPD, the interpupillary distance. Blackmagic's URSA Cine Immersive shoots about 8K per eye at 90 frames per second.

That sounds like overkill until you stretch it across half a sphere. And here's why it matters. Headsets use eye tracking for foveated rendering, full detail only where you're looking, less in your periphery. Video doesn't get that shortcut. The viewer can look anywhere, so every pixel has to be there. And 90 frames keeps motion smooth, so nobody gets sick. Which brings us to the big rule. The camera is the audience's head.

Put it at eye height, keep people out of arm's reach, or you trigger vergence accommodation conflict. Your eyes cross for something close while focus stays put. And that's eye strain. And never whip pan or zoom, because when the camera moves, the viewer's stomach moves with it. Ready camera one... and PAN LEFT! Don't pan left. Immersive video is three degrees of freedom. You can turn your head, but leaning in won't change the parallax.

There's no frame to point people. So you direct with light, sound and movement, and you cut less. Hold shots longer and match the eye trace, so every cut lands where they're already looking. Lighting and graphics change too. Any light in front of the lens is in the shot, so you hide lights in the set. Graphics should be world locked, not head locked, or they follow your face around. And yes, it works live. Lakers games streamed to Vision Pro in Apple Immersive last season on live versions of these cameras.

So when you shoot immersive, remember, the camera is a person. Put it somewhere worth standing, don't move it without a reason, and get your crew out of the shot, especially you, craft services.