Now this is a “Shot on iPhone” ad we can get behind. Director David Leitch of John Wick and Deadpool 2 fame was tasked with putting together Apple’s latest iPhone 11 Pro commercial, and he chose to film an epic “snowbrawl” fight.
Controversial as these videos tend to be, Leitch isn’t trying to convince anyone that the iPhone will replace the high-end cinema cameras he’s used to using (he’s literally wearing an ARRI fleece at one point…). What he does say—implicitly through the final “snowbrawl” video and explicitly in the BTS video below—is that being able to shoot high-(enough)-quality 4K/60p video in a camera this portable opens up creative possibilities.
“We’re getting creative with the flexibility of the camera, how light they are and how mobile they are,” says Leitch. “Things that are hard to simulate with big film cameras, [for example] we were able to make this classic Kung Fu composition very quickly and easily.”
Check out the full BTS video below:
When it comes to Shot on iPhone ads, long gone are the days when anybody was “fooled” into believing they were shot using “only” an iPhone. There’s lighting, and gimbals, and a whole crew there to make sure the footage looks as professional as possible. But Apple doesn’t seem to be trying to hide that from anybody either.
If you remove the branding, the videos become less about gear and more about embracing creativity despite constraints.
“You don’t need all the equipment I have on these big Hollywood movies to tell a great story,” opines Leitch. “Hopefully this piece can inspire filmmakers to take the device out and be as creative as we were here.”
That’s a message we can get behind, no matter what smartphone the ad happens to be pushing.
(H/T Anthony Quintano)
