As part of its long-running Shot on iPhone series, Apple recently handed acclaimed Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition, 13 Assassins, The Happiness of the Katakuris) an iPhone 15 Pro to shoot a short film.
The 19-minute movie (top), called Midnight, brings to life a manga by legendary artist Osamu Tezuka in which a mysterious taxi driver helps out a young woman being pursued by assassins.
As intended, the action-packed flick showcases many of the iPhone 15 Pro’s capabilities when it comes to capturing an array of movie-style shots, and it has to be said, the results are stunning. Low-light shots look great, as do the colors, tracking sequences, and slow motion. Interestingly, the iPhone 15 Pro’s LiDAR feature was also deployed for some of the visual effects that appear in the movie.
But it’s worth noting that Midnight is not the result of Miike simply showing up with an iPhone 15 Pro in hand and a shot list scrawled on the back of a beer mat. As “the making of” video (below) shows, the pricey-looking production had the backing of a highly trained movie crew equipped with cranes, trolleys, and dollies, along with a post-production team comprising expert editors and special-effects wizards skilled at sprucing things up.
“As we were shooting, I naturally began to challenge myself to think about how we could make a work unique to iPhone, beyond the usual approach to a film,” Miike said in a statement shared by The Hollywood Reporter. “I truly felt that the iPhone has the power to do things that a conventional movie camera can’t.”
The director praised the iPhone’s Action Mode, which enabled him to “accurately capture the facial expressions of subjects in a scene in a dynamic way, while reflecting their emotions and thoughts,” and said he was impressed by how you could adjust the focus after shooting.
Miike added: “I hope that game-changing features like this, that are impossible with regular photography equipment, will be added more and more, and that it will break the conventional thinking of filmmakers.”
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