Billie Eilish is levitating. Or so it seems. When the pop star first emerges on screen in Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), she is suspended above a cube built of LED screens, surrounded by a sold-out crowd of over 23,000 fans in the centre of the UK's largest arena — Manchester's Co-op Live. She launches into the midtempo Chihiro, a house experiment from her latest album, and the 3D magic begins. In the contemporary pop music landscape, Eilish is a rulebreaker, and so is this work.

The new concert film, co-directed by Eilish and three-time Academy Award winner James Cameron, was his idea. Cameron emailed Eilish’s mother, Maggie Baird — a friend of his wife through their shared interest in plant-based diets and environmentalism — and suggested that they shoot Eilish’s tour in 3D.

For Cameron, it is familiar yet uncharted territory. While his production company has worked on concert films—including one with Billie Eilish’s musical hero Justin Bieber—he hasn’t directed a project like this before. The 3D format adds technical complexity, a space Cameron thrives in, given his work on the Avatar franchise, and as industry outliers, the pairing proves successful.