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Apple’s new iPhone ad offers shooting tips for budding filmmakers

iPhone 12 Pro — Make movies like the movies

Budding filmmakers might want to take a quick look at Apple’s latest commercial (above) for the recently launched iPhone 12 Pro handset.

Titled Make Movies Like the Movies, the 70-second video blazes through a ton of short scenes showing different ways to nail a dramatic shot for your next movie effort.

While the ad touts the new iPhone’s ability to shoot, edit, and play back in Dolby Vision, the content is still useful for any amateur filmmaker — with any kind of smartphone or camera — who’s looking for inspiration on how to liven up their shots.

The ideas are mostly action-oriented and include moves like getting down low, using monopods and gimbals, tracking subjects on different wheel-based contraptions, and even utilizing miniature model cities for impressive “aerial” shots.

Apple’s video also shows how a dramatic viewpoint can also be achieved by attaching your handset to a fishing line and dropping it through a relatively small space, though if it’s the pricey iPhone 12 Pro you’re using, you may want to check that your AppleCare plan is still valid.

For more framing fun, this time in vertical format, check out another movie-style production released by Apple earlier this year.

The nine-minute film is the work of Academy Award-winning director Damien Chazelle — best known for hits such as La La Land and Whiplash — who used an iPhone 11 Pro to capture some compelling imagery for this Shot on iPhone commercial.

Of course, if your phone or camera is properly waterproof, you have even more ways to get creative, as London-based filmmaker Frederic van Strydonck demonstrates with this whimsical effort.

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Trevor Mogg
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