How is editing for Apple Vision Pro different from a flat screen?

On a flat screen you control exactly what the viewer sees. In a spatial headset the viewer sits inside the frame and can look anywhere, so you edit to guide attention rather than dictate it — using depth, motion, and sound to lead the eye instead of the cut alone.

What is 'What If…? An Immersive Story'?

'What If…? An Immersive Story' is an immersive experience made by Marvel Studios and Apple for Apple Vision Pro, directed by Dave Bushore. I served as its editor, working in a spatial medium where the audience is placed inside the story rather than watching it on a screen.

Does pacing change when you edit for immersive media?

Yes. Immersive pacing gives the viewer time to orient, look around, and absorb depth before the story moves on. Cuts that feel snappy on a flat screen can feel abrupt or disorienting in a headset, so you often hold longer and let motion and sound carry the rhythm.

Do traditional editing skills still matter in spatial media?

Absolutely. Story, rhythm, and continuity still decide whether a piece works. Spatial editing adds new variables — depth, gaze, and viewer freedom — but the core editorial judgment of what to show, when, and for how long is the same craft applied to a wider canvas.

← Writing/May 19, 2026·3 min read

Editing for Apple Vision Pro: Spatial Lessons from 'What If…?'

What changes when you edit for a spatial, immersive medium instead of a flat screen — attention, depth, pacing, and where the viewer chooses to look.

By Wayan Palmieri

Editing for Apple Vision Pro means editing a space the viewer lives inside, not a rectangle they watch. On a flat screen I decide precisely what you see in every frame. In a spatial headset the audience can look anywhere, so the job shifts from dictating attention to guiding it. That single change reorders almost everything I know about pacing, depth, and the cut.

I edited What If…? An Immersive Story for Apple Vision Pro — a Marvel Studios and Apple project directed by Dave Bushore. Below is what genuinely changes when the frame stops being a window and becomes a room.

What changes when you edit for a spatial medium

On a flat screen, the frame is a hard boundary. Everything outside it does not exist, and the edit owns the viewer's eye completely. In a spatial medium that boundary dissolves. The viewer has agency: they can turn, lean, and choose where to rest their gaze.

That means an editor can no longer assume the audience is looking where the story is. You design for attention, not for a fixed composition. The tools become depth, motion, light, and sound — the cut is still there, but it is one instrument among several.

How do you guide the viewer's attention in immersive media?

You lead the eye instead of forcing it. A few of the levers I lean on:

Depth staging — placing the important action at a comfortable distance and clearing the space around it so it reads first.
Motion — the eye follows movement, so a subtle move can pull attention across the space before a beat lands.
Sound — directional and spatial audio tells the viewer where to look before the visual does, which is often the cleanest way to reorient them.
Light and contrast — the brightest, most resolved area of a scene naturally draws the gaze.

The goal is that the viewer chooses to look where the story needs them, and never feels handled.

Why pacing changes inside a headset

Pacing is where flat-screen instincts betray you fastest. On a screen, a quick cut reads as energy. In a headset, the viewer needs a moment to orient after every transition — to understand where they are and where the space extends.

So I hold longer. I give beats room to breathe and let the audience explore before moving on. A cut that feels crisp on a monitor can feel like a jolt in immersive space, breaking the sense of presence that makes the medium work. Rhythm still matters enormously; it just runs at a different tempo, and motion and sound often carry it more than the cut does.

Flat editing vs spatial editing at a glance

Dimension	Flat screen	Apple Vision Pro / spatial
Frame	Fixed rectangle	Space around the viewer
Viewer attention	Dictated by the cut	Guided, not forced
Depth	Implied	Real and load-bearing
Pacing	Can run fast	Needs room to orient
Primary tools	Cut, composition	Depth, motion, sound, gaze
Sense of presence	Optional	The whole point

What stays exactly the same

For all of it, the foundation did not move. Story, continuity, and rhythm still decide whether a piece lands. The questions are the old ones — what do I show, when, and for how long — asked on a wider canvas with more freedom handed to the audience.

That is why a decade in the edit bay transfers so directly. Spatial media adds variables; it does not replace judgment. The same instinct that tells you a flat scene is a beat too long tells you an immersive one has not given the viewer enough time to arrive. There is a family history here too — my great-grandfather painted mattes in Hollywood's Golden Era, building depth and space into a flat plate. Different tools, same problem: convince the eye it is somewhere real.

If you are producing for Apple Vision Pro or another immersive format and want an editor who has shipped in the medium, I consult on spatial and AI-native production. For a broader look at how I work across new formats, see selected work.