Apple tapped Deadpool 2 and John Wick director David Leitch to direct a 90-second iPhone advertisement called 'Snowbrawl.' As its name suggests, the video features high-action footage of a snowball fight filmed in cinematic style using the iPhone 11 Pro.
It's not uncommon for Apple to publish video and image ads shot using its latest iPhone models. The company has increasingly embraced short-form storytelling as part of its ads and 'Snowbrawl' is no different. The commercial shows off the iPhone 11 Pro's camera capabilities while telling the brief story of children engaged in an epic snowball fight to save a kidnapped teddy bear.
Creatives have been producing works shot using the iPhone for years. The 2018 movie Unsane was shot entirely using the iPhone 7 Plus, for example, though it should be noted that a variety of gear, including stabilizers and external lenses, are often used as part of these projects.
I saw the video yesterday. It looked great. Content is what makes a great video or still. We get hung up on gear, but in the end, a seasoned pro can do very well with a smartphone.
Good story, but to sell the picture quality, it would have been better if they didn't have the high-frequency snow detail, causing macro-blocking artifacts everywhere.
Video motion compression just doesn't work well with these noisy details, like snow or confetti or fireworks/sparks.
It's the same as with film grain in videos that increases the bitrate or makes the video look worse than if you'd apply a smoothing filter before.
I know AV1 video codec has a feature to remove noise and then add "artificial noise" back in on playback. Noise that is equivalent to the original one. I haven't seen that yet.
I do wonder if you could do something similar for snow. Or rain, or confetti.
I've also wondered if an ai algorithm could separate a video into multiple layers that get composited together again on playback, so can get compressed separately and have much less visual complexity on their own.
Actually, believe it or not but my videos look better but I have to admit that they are shot entirely under very good lighting conditions (sunny, blue skies, etc.). The new iPhone 11 Pro Max (the one I have and use) delivers excellent photos and even better videos, in my opinion the best videos you can (currently) get from a smartphone.
Seems to me the iPhone camera contributed the pixels, which was like 10% of the project. The rest was pre and post production. This was externally lit and the video was extensively post produced with color grading, and all that magic stuff. Totally useless, because they are subtly implying that "the iPhone shot this", so all you have to do is point your phone and press record. Total misrepresentation.
Sure looks interesting but really, it’s total misrepresentation when one takes into account the massive resources thrown at this project. Plus, how good would it really look in larger projection. For full transparency they should reveal the details behind such an extensive production and not pretend that the average user of this device could obtain such results.
Orson Wells (Citizen Kane) liked Deep-Depth-of-Field. Watch the opening of "A Touch of Evil" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhmYY5ZMXOY It couldn't have been without lotsa DOF.
The video is mostly fine, but the shutter angle is horrible. The snow falling almost looks like white noise on the old TV, because the shutter speed is way too fast.
Among other things it gives you an idea of the type of rigs they have encasing their iphones.
Why not emphasize the "how" instead of just another variation of an "I took a picture!" post????
In other news I've always thought these advertisements are a bit misleading as folks are led to believe that any bloke running around with an iphone can generate this content.. No where does it state "shot on the iphone" with the help of many $1000's of extra gear and some pro post processing.......
The extra gear primarily seems to consist of gimbals and mounts and small rig cages to hold and protect the iPhone. I was actually surprised that there wasn't more extra stuff.
What really makes any video though is the pre production planning and storyboarding, actually having a story to tell, some tight editing, and in this case, the music soundtrack.
There's some apps on iOS fully capable of editing this, if there's no additional lighting and visual FX or microphones then this is really could be done by some bloke, not “any bloke running around” but a bloke with some experience and interest in photography or videography.
> The extra gear primarily seems to consist of gimbals > if there's no additional lighting
Of course there's additional ligthing, lots of it. There's no way the iphone could handle that dynamic range of the lighting in those backlit scenes.
Neither of you watched the video or payed close enough attention. Freeze the video at 32 seconds and you can see the huge continuous lighting rig shining on to a 10 foot tall reflector. Not the sort of thing "any bloke running around" will have in his back pocket.
Then there's the fact that there's at least four phones, probably more and gear I can't even figure out what it is (what's the HDMI out on the phone going to? A data recorder? External monitor? What's that huge rig with all the antenas at 1:38? What's that long box at 38 seconds etc).
Again, it is what it is, a movie production with enough gear to compensate for any shortcomings of the camera and not even close to what a bloke running around with an iphone could capture.
Sorry, I didn't watch the video XD Alright I saw that, I can think of a couple cheap alternatives for that :) The reflector and lights: A flashlight that goes up to 10,000lm could be less than $200, a rough guess is that a couple of them could work. Replace the reflector with styrofoam from packaging trash glued together, I know for a fact that that works because I used it before. The shotgun mic: Zoom H6 with shotgun accessory on a stick... Huge rig with all the antennas: I believe those are monitors...unnecessary. I don't think the phone could really take external recorders to output better codecs or Apple should have advertised about it...
@otto k - What you say is true to a point, but what this video also implicitly shows is that what is happening outside the camera is more important than the camera itself. That being said, a video like this does take more than talent.
In the "making of" video, there are dozens of people involved behind the scenes, specialized filming equipment such as gimbals, multitrack audio recorders with external microphones, snowmaking machines, not to mention the musical score which sounds like it was composed and performed specifically for this ad.
To imply that an average person equipped only with an iPhone, a vision and "talent" - without the creativity and experience of some of the best filmmakers in the world, and the thousands of dollars (mimimum) of extra gear required - could pull this off, is more than a little far-fetched.
No doubt this was a professional production with resources behind it.
But never doubt the creativity of the "average" person. I guarantee you that I could get together a group of talented teenagers or college students and they could come up with something really great. Perhaps it may not have all of the polish, but it would be very good.
Indeed, all of the pro filmmakers today started out as "average" people just playing around with very average equipment.
@biggercountry, for the TV series "Knight Rider," I had a GMC tractor with two 750 amp generators (either AC or DC was available from both) pulling a 40 foot trailer. The prop-man shared a 40 foot trailer with the effects crew. (which had one man with a dynamite license). The show had lots of automatic weapons and explosions. A car-carrier for all of the KITT cars, a painter/bodyman for quick repairs. "Snowbrawl" had more gear than most amateur-film-makers, but nothing like you would have for a TV series.
@Nikon1977k Trump is a moron. The whole world thinks he moron except for his intellectually challenged Neanderthal supporters. The sooner he is impeached and kicked out of office the better for the whole world.
You snowflakes need to grow some snowballs and stop whinging when people ever so dare disagree with you.
What a silly statement when there are tens of thousands of dollars of specialized gear and a staff of 20+ backing up the many simple iphones used in the making of. Yeah there's talent but there's also tons of gear.....
Pro photog cheap camera from DRTV on YouTube is sometimes silly but can be quite nice to see. Corridor Crew does what looks like great special effects with very limited funds.
High production cost projects are, IMHO, more about repeatability and certainty, not about art. Then again, I have been wrong before.
On the other hand, I speak from personal experience. I have luck to work with very talented young people. I am far more experienced and can produce technically proper photos and videos even in challenging environments, but they have so much better artistic output it's not even close.
It's not funny boom, imagine this as the other way around with a little white girl beating the big black guy? Would they do that now? IM BEING RACIALLY OPPRESSED BY APPLE!! PC WOKE BIAS IN THIS VIDEO!!!
Nikon1977k, it’s those kinds of generalizations that have us in our current predicament. I’m liberal but I also understand I share this country with people of different views. Let’s PLEASE stop labeling people liberal and conservative. It just hardens people’s already limited views. I know people of all views who still can’t handle race without losing their minds.
Nikon1977k. Bigsensor, who brought up race, is an ultraconservative... Read his posts yourself. No liberal brought it up. He thinks the girl is black because she has a tan, and can't stand the thought of someone who isn't white ever winning a fight.
A slightly long movie for my taste, but it does underline why so much of my image- and video-making is done on the iPhone. Sure, it won't outperform dedicated equipment, but for much of the time it's enough, and often more than enough, to get the job done.
One nice thing about the iPhone is its size. It was interesting to see it mounted on one of the shields to get a really dramatic shot.
So the iPhone allows for some really neat camera placement. Also, for a video production, the iPhone is not an expensive camera, and so one can have a whole lot of them and use them all around.
One nice thing about iPhone is you no longer need to care about image quality. You have surrendered already on that front, so you can focus on all the other aspects.
I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty blown away by the video quality on the latest iPhones. In good light, it has more detail and better dynamic range than most hybrid photo/video cameras. But this video isn't a great showcase of it. Why 1080p on something that's supposed to impress people with how good the quality is?
Kai's recent video on YT is a much better showcase of the real world video quality. I was seriously impressed.
Not nearly as applicable to video. Compared side-by-side, the iPhone 11's 4k video looks better than all of the 1-inch camera offerings except the Sony RX100 series.
Duh! 1080 is the world wide standard for broadcast. BBC or NBC could broadcast this short video. When Apple, or any other brand makes a commercial, they broadcast them on Network Television.
Because of the internet spreading knowledge we now also have Bokeh. Not just in Japan. Because of digital sensors Bokeh has become hot, because it just looks different than on film.
I think the iPhone 11 pro could be capable of much better than this. This is only a 1080p video, and the frame rate looks weird, plus the fake snow that’s falling in front of their faces (on a sunny day?) didn’t help. Some of this fake snow looks like it was added in post-processing.
I agree. It looks awful. If this was done by an amateur with $0 budget I would applaud it. But if this is the culmination of what's possible with this phone, then it just validates all the phone camera bashers, giving them eternal right to continue to do so.
=> Gmon750 .. heh, absolute true in my case. the worst thing is that even after spending fortune on gear I still remain mediocre photographer.. money cannot buy talent :-)
There's a few extras attached to the phone is say, but you like it because of the camera work; it strikes a good balance between action and stillness and drives the narrative with good use of tropes
I find it very refreshing to see storytelling > shallow depth of field. So much more to be told with a background vs a blur. Ever since I was a child none of the storybooks or fantasy paintings ever had blurry backgrounds. Smaller sensor with a fast readout time coupled with software of tech companies like Apple. Incredible. Long live the small sensors, especially for video.
Edit, interesting to see the making of this video too. It just goes to show that getting in right in camera is the most joyful, interesting and immersive way of photography and video. No need for massive shadow lifting when you have your lighting set up to tell the story before hand.
The obsession with blurred backgrounds drives me crazy. It is a mindless fad. Probably driven, in part, by a desire ' real ' portraits made with big lenses from those made with short focal length lenses (like phones).
For my argument, I present the great painted art (particularly portraits) in history. Backgrounds, while sometimes subdued a bit, were PART of the story.
All you need is an I Phone to make a home movie although it can’t hurt to have a good director, screenplay, film crew, cast and a few snowmaking machines. Good marketing on Apples part and reminds me of when Vincent Laforet made the Reverie video Canon used to market the 5D Mk II.
Great video, don’t forget that if shot with a regular camera, all that rigging would still be necessary. Heck of a difference between amateur and professional video and shows why pros will still get paid.
And so would everything else including script, lighting, sound, dollies, gaffers, grips, and talent. As if this commercial had all those things to make the camera look good but no other commercial shot with a high end camera has any of those things.
Excellent video. We have come very far very quickly, and I am continually amazed at the powerful potential of these small devices that fit in our pockets.
I do love my full frame camera, but I never hesitate to shoot photos or video with my iPhone, because I know I'll get great images.
The useful thing about the current phone cams is that they need so little attention. Point it, shoot it. I've grabbed shots where I've literally had a 4 second 'window' to get the shot.
That's why there are so many phone shots of cats. Cats (and children) will not sit still long enough to grab a shot with a conventional camera.
They forgot to mention the rest of the gear needed to create this video, cranes, gimbals, lighting, cinema lenses, CGI... not the regular “holiday family video” here!
Whether extra gear was used or not, certainly doesn't detract from the fact that it was shot on an iPhone.
Besides, it seems to me that a major portion of the impact is because of the quality of the shooting and editing, which goes to show what most of us here on DPR have known for quite some time..... that while gear is important (I mean, after all, this is a gearcentric forum), it's the person behind that gear who makes or breaks the image.
CGI is post processing, and the video only shows the actual shooting, so we don’t know exactly what was needed in order to produce this commercial. But agree, the camera is the iPhone which is pretty awesome.
I've got to admit, I'd love to see the rig they used for shooting this. It might actually be hard to see the IPhone nestled inside all the other contraptions needed this type of shooting : )
Meh, everyone's undies in a wad, but I thought it was a fun video :D
And besides - use it to teach photography neophytes that the sensor is usually the *least* important aspect of the craft -- the lighting, angles, composition, etc. are much more effective (and soundtrack)
@jl_smith you left out the far most important: the content, the story. Whatever great B-roll you make with excellent lighting sound and image quality, without content, story it makes no sense.
I don't get the point of this promo/ad. The message is... pro filmmakers buy an iPhone 11 for your professional filmmaking needs? Or regular people buy this iPhone and you can become an amazing filmmaker? I think the people who were going to shoot amateur videos already realize that they can use their phone to do it and pros aren't about to buy an iPhone to shoot their productions, so I think there is just no point to this.
It's marketing for people to buy an iPhone for the holiday season.
Snow = nothern hemisphere holiday season, buy someone an iPhone for Christmas
Children playing = Desire for fun from kids and also adults desiring their kids to be outside playing, buy an iPhone for christmas :D
They have another holiday marketing video for their iPad that shows how the whole family will benefit from the creativity you can do with it in the holiday season too. It's not aimed at professional filmmakers at all.
No doubt, but people don't buy it AS a camera. They buy it to do all kinds of things (like any smart phone), but it just happens to have decent camera, too.
The majority of smartphone owners acquire their phones in monthly installments via their carrier or the OEM (i.e. iPhone Upgrade Program). They see it as a part of their monthly expense to have a cell phone. The absolute cost is not part of the equation for this group. And even for those who buy it outright, the cost of a cell phone is seen as a necessary expense, much like utilities, as opposed to a dedicated camera for still photography and videos, which would be a hobby for most.
What Apple is trying to convey is "If you're creative, buy our latest phone." With the implicit understanding that a supermajority of the population already own a smartphone. They are probably pitching this to existing smartphone owners who may not have the latest and greatest model, including iPhone owners.
The phone is also information portal (internet) financial tool (charge cards, banking etc) communication (phone, email) navigation (gps, maps) entertainment (movies, music, games) security (connection to home security cameras etc, 911 capability)
Dunno, the pixelated version I just watched with obviously-faked 'snow falling' in the CUs was not a good look from a technical POV, despite the wonderfully-obvious talent behind the... uh... 'camera'.
On a wide shot in "the making of" I counted 43 crew plus 8 actors....that I could see....plus a few hundred years of skill and experience...equipment and support...yes it was shot on an iPhone....regardless I loved the link thanks for sharing! Very creative folks!
@Pete T. Excellent observation. I wasn't able to count, I was just guessing and estimated about a crew of 15 of professional movie makers for this project, plus the kids and young actors. How many days did you think they needed for the entire project? Storyboarding, planning, preparations, props, acquisition, post processing, publishing, and so on and forth. I have my estimated/guessed man-days number for a project cost calculation, I am very much interested in your estimation.
It is an interesting video... what it does show is that the lenses and sensor of the iPhone are not a limiting factor in making a professional quality short film. It does show that the limiting factor for pretty much all amateurs is everything that happens outside the camera... creativity, experience, supporting crew, and most of all - the budget to put all of that together.
"I counted 43 crew plus 8 actors....that I could see....plus a few hundred years of skill and experience. yes it was shot on an iPhone....regardless I loved the link thanks for sharing! Very creative folks!"
Which goes to show that the actual camera is relatively unimportant in this process. All the brand wars that rage here, while entertaining, are really rather meaningless in the end.
So fed up with this BS!!! This stuff is full of extras, lighting, rigs, lenses, stabilizers and specialists dedicated to getting the most out of this overpriced brick,
The usual misleading title Always better to show the complete rig with its extras than insinuating that he just grabbed a iphone and shot the video hand held.
Good girls beat the evil boys. Fun video. iPhone and Leitch are really sending it.
When I was a kid, it wasn't "boys vs girls"... It was "my neighborhood vs your neighborhood"... Meet in the woods and we'll settle it with a snowbrawl. Both sides had mixed boys and girls. Mom forced me to take little sister along.
Lets all go back to having fun like we did as kids. Creating story in our head where imagination grows so strong that you actually start believing the script is real. No time for depression, anxiety or bickering. Just fun :D
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