Apple Shares Fascinating Developer Conference Focusing on Creating Immersive Content

Last week, Apple held what looks to be a pretty exclusive two-day conference in Cupertino on developing content in Apple Immersive Video, and the live stream replay on YouTube is awash with fascinating insights, tips and tricks.

Create Immersive Media Experiences for visionOS was a two-day conference held mid-October 2025 at Apple's HQ in Cupertino. "Learn how to create compelling interactive experiences for visionOS and capture immersive video in this multi-day activity," ran the blurb for the developer-focused event.

Thoughtfully, Apple livestreamed the main stage presentations from it. And, even more thoughtfully, it's kept it on YouTube as a replay. For anyone interested in producing immersive video, what follows is over 10 hours of fairly compelling content. Here's a summary...

Day One: Create Immersive Media Experiences for visionOS

Day One provided a platform overview, looked at the foundations of immersive video, and some of the things that you need to consider when designing interactive narrative experiences. There was a lot of good stuff here, and we were taken with Apple's Elliot Graves highlighting his four foundations of creating with Apple Immersive Video:

1. Presence – compose with depth/parallax, not flat-screen rules; keep horizon level; align camera height to subject eye-line.
2. Authenticity – minimize artifice; ensure actions stand up to scrutiny at life-like scale; preserve audience agency (guide with spatial audio, don’t “grab their head” with forced pans).
3. Proximity – think human spaces (Public, Professional, Private, Personal). Use true camera distance (not zoom) to manage comfort & emotion; reserve inside-arm’s-reach for special beats.
4. Connection – eye contact and purposeful movement deepen intimacy; but movement carries comfort responsibilities.

Oh, and when thinking of how much motion a viewer can tolerate, think of the water level in a bucket. Intense motion fills it, static and predictable movement drains it. And while people's buckets come in different shapes and sizes, balancing the level of water in it over time is the key to not alienating your audience.

The live stream was six and a half hours long, so you're going to have to do some scrubbing, but some of the content is well worth it.

Day Two: Create Immersive Media Experiences for visionOS

Day Two was more production focused and gave the floor over to deep dives into production, post-production, and creative workflows for immersive content. It starts with a detailed look at Apple Immersive Video and the Apple Spatial Audio Format, and a reminder that immersive storytelling depends equally on visuals and sound.

A whole host of Apple's partners in the Immersive endeavour pitch in and demonstrate how they fit into the AIV workflow, including Blackmagic, Colorfront, Spatial Gen, and more. And Austin Novi, who has filmed several Apple Immersive titles, shares lessons from shooting in extreme environments — from 12 m (40 ft) underwater in the Bahamas to icy mountain peaks. His focus: careful preparation, small-footprint kits, and reliability in remote locations.

Less remote by far is Technical Director Ivan Serrano's insight into capturing one of the most compelling pieces of immersive content yet shot, Metallica: M72 World Tour Live in Mexico City. Success in truly capturing the immersion here depended on access, and placing cameras on the stage and snake pit to truly feel part of the experience. To get this right, the crew mapped stage movement from 30 previous concerts, built a 3D previs in Vision Pro, and then deployed 14 cameras, including stabilized Steadicams and aerial Spidercams, to capture the experience in its entirety.

There's plenty more too, including such nuggets as success in filming wildlife relies on allowing for camera height (~ 1.3–1.5 m / 50–60 in) and distance (4–6 ft / 1.2–1.8 m) from subjects. Check it out below

Hat tip to Pro Video Coalition for surfacing the videos.