Mike Peterson
Apple on Wednesday shared a new short film by director Damien Chazelle that was shot on an iPhone 11 Pro entirely in a vertical aspect ratio.
The nine-minute "Shot on iPhone" short film, titled "The Stunt Double," is described as a "journey through cinema history." As mentioned, it was shot completely vertically — or in "portrait orientation" — by Chazelle, an Academy Award-winner who is known for films such as "Whiplash" and "La La Land."
"Watch as classic genres are flipped on their side, from action movies to silent films, spy flicks to westerns, reframing and modernizing the movie magic we know and love," Apple wrote.
Alongside the short film, Apple also released a behind-the-scenes clip showing off how Chazelle used iPhone 11 Pro features like extended dynamic range and the ultra-wide-angle lens to create a cinematic feel.
Along with Chazelle, the behind-the-scenes short also features director of photography Linus Sandgren, production designer Shane Valentino and costume designer April Napier, among others.
Although the short film marks Apple's first collaboration with Chazelle, the Cupertino tech giant signed a deal with the writer and director in 2018 to produce content for Apple TV+.
Apple regularly shares photographs and videos as part of its "Shot on iPhone" campaign, but Chazelle's contribution is the first to be shot solely in a vertical aspect ratio.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
12 Comments
At this point I have to accept that portrait mode is here to stay and maybe TVs need to be able to rotated at the push of a button to match?
Every shot was locked off to prevent jelly wobble from the rolling blind shutter presumably, and there was zero depth of field because the of the stingy size of the sensor does not accommodate such subtlety's, not to mention lack of variety of focal length as you expect in traditional film narrative, very long well made ad for Apple that unfortunately shows off the shortcomings of the iPhone as it currently stands.
This was less a "short film" and more of a demo reel for a college student who wants to show his skills with only a phone. And it was difficult to watch on a 27" iMac with the massive black bars on the left and right sides of the monitor.
Remember when content was just starting to deliver in 16:9 aspect ratio and we all had to put up with "letterboxed" videos until we could all afford widescreen TVs? Well, now we're going in the opposite direction and we'll get to absorb 9:16 content on 16:9 monitors until we are all forced to "upgrade" the hardware to screens that will swivel between horizontal and vertical modes.
This is utterly ridiculous when you consider that virtually every real-life setting is horizontally biased. Human beings are able to interact with their world pretty much only in two directions, so offering a video clip that eliminates everything to the left and right of the subject also removes nearly every other clue I could use to tell me what's going on and where it's happening. Shooting an entire movie like this one isn't a director being brave and forging new directions in filmmaking; it's only someone seeing if they can make a compelling film while overcoming the very real limitations of a vertical aspect ratio. He was able to make a film, yes, but whether it was actually enjoyable is another story.
Great. So now idiots that don’t know how to rotate a phone are legitimised 😞