'Behind the Mac' videos show work process of James Blake, Tyler Mitchell

Apple is adding to its "Behind the Mac" ad campaign with two more videos, one continuing with James Blake making music at home accompanied by a second showing photographer Tyler Mitchell working on a portrait series.

On July 8, Apple released a video under its "Behind the Mac" series featuring James Blake working from his L.A. home studio via Logic Pro X on his MacBook Pro. The followup, published on Saturday, offers a longer look at Grammy Award winner's process at the keyboard and the Mac.

The video takes viewers throughout a 24-hour period with the musician, showing him creating a melody at the piano before looping and pitching it in Logic Pro X. Layers of instruments and vocals are added on the MacBook Pro, with the final track completed just after 1am.

The second video features Tyler Mitchell, a New York-based photographer best known for his Vogue cover photo of singer Beyonce. Shot in a similar way via remote cameras over 24 hours, Mitchell is seen searching magazines and documents for inspiration and to compile a mood board for a new portrait series.

Notes for the intended series are made on a MacBook, which is also used for selecting final images from a shoot and editing them within Photoshop. Again, Mitchell is shown working until very late at night to finish the portraits.

Debuting in 2018, "Behind the Mac" is a series that intends to showcase creative people using Macs to produce their work. For 2020, the series has so far included Grammy-nominated music producer Warren "Oak" Felder and the director of the Japanese anime film "Your Name," Makoto Shinkai.

10 Comments

thinkman@chartermi.net 173 comments · 18 Years

About 4 years ago

These new ads are among the worst Apple has ever aired! Given the plethora of award-winning ads produced for Apple over the years, I hope this doesn't reflect a new direction for them. Also given the superb production of WWDC 2020, I have to give them a pass on these 2 new ads.

GeorgeBMac 11421 comments · 8 Years

thinkman@chartermi.net said:

These new ads are among the worst Apple has ever aired! Given the plethora of award-winning ads produced for Apple over the years, I hope this doesn't reflect a new direction for them. Also given the superb production of WWDC 2020, I have to give them a pass on these 2 new ads.

I agree!

But too: Increasingly Apple seems to be pigeon holing the Mac line into use by professionals and power users and abandoning the little guy -- the normal guy -- the guy who gave them their start. The Apple II was one of the first computers usable and functional for non-techy users. And, the Macintosh carried that even further: making a computer easy and friendly enough (and capable enough) that anybody could use it and benefit from it.

Conversely I do not know ANYBODY who has even the slightest desire to emulate what the guy in these videos is doing -- and certainly not to that scale.

Compare these adds to Apple's "What's a computer?" iPad ad (with a college student using her iPad throughout the day in a wide range of day-to-day activities):
Could it be that Apple is positioning the Mac line toward specialized professional & power users while the iPad will be positioned to be the computer for "everyguy"?

fred1 1131 comments · 11 Years

I agree that these ads don’t have the “punch” that other Apple ads have. The subject matter is interesting, but the pace is just too slow. OK, these activities take time, but the ad doesn’t have to. Oh well.

MacAwesome1984 9 comments · 5 Years

AGREED.... How Friggin’ LAME! TRULY AWFUL! They Could have gotten way better examples on The Logic Producer's Facebook Group!

fastasleep 6450 comments · 14 Years

GeorgeBMac said:

thinkman@chartermi.net said:

These new ads are among the worst Apple has ever aired! Given the plethora of award-winning ads produced for Apple over the years, I hope this doesn't reflect a new direction for them. Also given the superb production of WWDC 2020, I have to give them a pass on these 2 new ads.

I agree!

But too: Increasingly Apple seems to be pigeon holing the Mac line into use by professionals and power users and abandoning the little guy -- the normal guy -- the guy who gave them their start. The Apple II was one of the first computers usable and functional for non-techy users. And, the Macintosh carried that even further: making a computer easy and friendly enough (and capable enough) that anybody could use it and benefit from it.

Conversely I do not know ANYBODY who has even the slightest desire to emulate what the guy in these videos is doing -- and certainly not to that scale.

Compare these adds to Apple's "What's a computer?" iPad ad (with a college student using her iPad throughout the day in a wide range of day-to-day activities):
Could it be that Apple is positioning the Mac line toward specialized professional & power users while the iPad will be positioned to be the computer for "everyguy"?

I do not know ANYBODY who wants to see what you do with your computer.