"Shot on iPhone"
Apple created a really interesting post covering the “Shot on iPhone” keynote they did for Scary Fast. They also created a video accompanying it.
What I thought was more interesting though was the backlash it got from people saying that because it had so much gear and equipment required to get the look it had the “Shot on iPhone” claim was moot.
So because things like lighting, color correction, dollies, tripods, and a team of people were involved it negates that this was shot on iPhone? That’s absurd to me. There are some terrific films that were also shot on iPhone, some of which can be seen on Apple’s YouTube channel today.
Matt Birchler shared his thoughts on this “controversy” saying,
To be clear, Apple did shoot the event on an iPhone 15 Pro, and they used a free camera app to record, and a nonlinear editor (DaVinci Resolve) that you can also install right now for free and get 80% of its features. They did use lights and some tools to help move the phone around better, but like you could do all this as well with far cheaper hardware. The fact Apple had professionals make this video is not something any reasonable person should call misleading, and I'll eat my hat if there is some large contingent of people out there today who are mad at Apple because they thought they could shoot video that looks as good as Apple's chip lab set in their house. Eat my hat, I say!
Exactly. Just because money, time, effort, talent, and gear were used for this keynote doesn’t make “Shot on iPhone” less impactful, in fact it makes it more impactful. Will you be able to make something this immaculate by yourself? Absolutely not. Could you use your iPhone, a few lights, editing software, and some friends to make something really cool? Absolutely. Much like anything worthwhile in life you get out what you put in, and Apple put in a shit load to make this keynote look good.
