I have always believed that the best way to market a product is by showing potential users examples of what it's capable of creating. Apple has always been great at this, and although the 'Shot on iPhone' campaign has been referenced in countless memes, its most recent example is nothing short of impressive.
¡Suerte! is a short film developed for Apple TV that follows a young musician's journey through Mexico in search of inspiration. The 13-minute Mexican film includes intimate moments, dynamic action sequences, and close-up portrait shots, all filmed in various environments using an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Above: The making-of video for ¡Suerte!
This is not the first film to be shot on an iPhone, with renowned movie director Steve Soderbergh shooting High Flying Bird on an iPhone 8, however, the iPhone has gone through many evolutions in this time and the technology has improved dramatically.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is considered, at present, to be one of the best camera phones for photography and video. It's hard to disagree with this claim, especially after watching the impressive visuals ¡Suerte! has to offer, and better yet for us crazy about the process, there is a making-of video explaining how the iPhone's features were utilized.
Cinematic mode was used to quickly rack focus between the foreground and the background with just the touch of the screen. Extremely talented directing duo Cliqua explains, "This was something that would have only been available to do on a cinema camera in the past, but now you can do it in the palm of your hand."
The new optical 5x zoom feature of the recent iPhone also played a part in creating dynamic camera movements and transitions. Director of Photography, (known as) Mr. Liu, states that the 5x zoom offers flexibility throughout production, he adds, "It gives you the opportunity to swap lenses really fast".
Mr. Liu also praises the ability to shoot in log color encoding (Apple ProRes) as it gives more flexibility in controlling the color, highlights, and contrast, all of which play a pivotal role in creating the film's aesthetics and setting the mood.
The making-of video goes on to showcase the iPhone's ability to capture impressive low light captures and action with Action Mode.
It must of course be highlighted that on top of using the iPhone, many professional sets, lighting, and gimbals were used to capture a clean cinematic video, however, there were also many examples of them making the film where the director or DOP was just shooting with nothing but the subject and the iPhone.
I highly recommend checking out both the behind-the-scenes video (above) and the short film itself on Apple's YouTube channel, as it really does showcase the power of the iPhone, a truly impressive video camera option that many of us carry with us in our pockets every day.
You may also be interested in our guides to the best iPhones, the best camera phones, and the best phone gimbals.
