What can we learn from Apple’s first “Shot on iPhone” product announcement?

No one noticed

For me, the most interesting piece of Apple’s live stream was not the new MacBook Pro, it was the title card at the end of the stream that read “This event was shot on iPhone.” Had this not been revealed to the viewers, would we have been any the wiser? Probably not, and therein lies the real story here –  Apple takes great pride in having high production value for their events and this one did not disappoint. Nothing in the presentation would lead you to think it was filmed with anything other than very expensive cameras, so it’s sure to cause many of us in the industry to re-evaluate when we need to utilize high end cameras or when we can take the easier and far far cheaper route of using an iPhone or other lightweight camera option. But that’s also not the whole story – let’s analyze how Apple achieved such a high quality look with “just a phone”.

Lighting is everything

If you take a look at Apple’s behind the scenes video for the event you can see that the production crew used much more gear than just the iPhone Pro. State of the art gimbals, dollies, cranes, drones, etc. were all deployed for this shoot at Apple HQ. The iPhone is dwarfed by the rest of the gear on set, especially when looking at the lighting. Apple spared no expense on lighting design to make their phone footage look beautiful in a low-light night-time setting.

Blackmagic Design helped, but not with cameras

Interestingly, in the ‘making of’ video Apple does not shy away from the fact that they are using 3rd party software that competes with their own products. For instance, Apple used Blackmagic’s iPhone camera app for recording which allows for more control over functions like focus pulling, ISO, shutter speed, etc. Things that cannot be done in Apple’s native camera app.

For post production we can see Apple is using Davinci Resolve (also from Blackmagic) and not their own Final Cut Pro. The event was still “Edited on Mac” but it is interesting to see Apple openly showcasing professional 3rd party options that integrate with Mac & iPhone for this type of production. 

Made possible with USB-C

This “Shot on iPhone” production would not have been possible without the implementation of USB-C ports on all new iPhones – which is ironic because Apple has fought for years to keep USB-C off of their phones, but after the EU ruling that all smartphones should have USB-C charging as standard, Apple has now switched. Lucky for us USB-C brings many helpful upgrades for video production: 4K video output for the rest of the crew to monitor, recording ProRes to external drives for easy media management, and even timecode sync with other iPhones on set.

In equipping their iPhones with amazing camera capability, Apple has revolutionized the means of production – putting into everyone’s hands the ability to craft beautiful video at a fraction of the cost.

The latest Apple presentation achieves what it set out to do – to show that it’s possible to make high end video on an iPhone. But without all the other pieces that go into the look of a show – lighting, audio, editing software and the skilled technicians to go with it – it wouldn’t have been possible. Sure, it’s about the camera – but it takes more than that to make a great show.