Condition One

The film kept rolling. You chose where to look.

Condition One grew from filmmaker and photojournalist Danfung Dennis’s frustration with the limits of conventional footage. How could a screen convey more of what it felt like to be there?

We collaborated on an immersive video experience that made the device part of the storytelling. Viewers could move their iPad or swipe across the screen to explore the recorded scene while the film continued playing. The camera captured a wider view; the audience decided which part to follow.

Beyond the edge of the frame

A conventional shot leaves much of a scene outside the picture. Condition One opened up that surrounding space. Viewers could explore different parts of the recorded image, noticing people, movement and details that a fixed composition might leave out.

Movement became the control

The film kept rolling while you decided where to look. Tilt or pan the iPad and the frame followed, so the viewer rather than the editor chose the angle, the person to watch and the moment to look away.

Reporting from inside the scene

The early experience included films from Libya by veteran conflict photographer Patrick Chauvel. His reporting gave the technology a concrete purpose: showing more of the circumstances surrounding an event and letting viewers examine that context for themselves.

A different relationship with film

The filmmaker still chose where to record, when to cut and how the story unfolded. Viewers gained freedom within that structure. Condition One explored how cinematic storytelling could accommodate an audience that wanted to look around, bringing an unfamiliar viewing experience onto a device people could hold in their hands.