Apple has encouraged director Lulu Wang to showcase the movie features of the tech company’s latest iPhone.
Wang, who wrote and directed the 2019 feature film ‘The Farewell’, directed a new short film for Apple in celebration of the Chinese New Year, ‘Nian’, which puts a new twist on a well-known Chinese folk tale. (See above or at this link.) The 11-minute film was directed by Wang and her team from “The Farewell” and was shot on an iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Apple, which just reported a standout holiday quarter of 2020 with a record $ 65.6 billion in iPhone sales, named the iPhone 12 Pro models as the best smartphone ever made for filmmakers. These are the first iPhones that can record HDR videos in Dolby Vision, as well as the ability to edit 4K video at up to 60 frames per second directly on the phone. During the launch event last fall, Apple showed a 60-second movie in HDR video featuring Dolby Vision on an iPhone 12 Pro by Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (check out this link.)
With the release of the iPhone 12, Apple’s sales in Greater China rose to an all-time high of $ 21.3 billion for the December quarter – and with the promotional short “Nian”, Apple’s fourth annual Chinese New York movie , the technology giant wants to keep the momentum going.
Wang and her crew worked on a ‘Nian’ in the US with a mirror crew on the ground in China due to COVID travel restrictions. The team used the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s Dolby Vision, ultra-wide lens with low light, telephoto lens, stabilization and time-lapse features. The production features difficult night scenes and scenes in a cave where space and lighting were limited.
“Nian” tells the story of a brave young girl’s determination to find and confront the widely feared Nian animal. When she comes face to face with him, she discovers that Nian is not scary at all, and the two forge a beautiful friendship based on acceptance.
“It’s really exciting to have the opportunity to retell this ancient story, to capture these incredible movie footage with the iPhone, this very versatile device,” Wang said in a behind-the-scenes feature accompanying the film. She said the ‘Nian’ team ‘had a lot of fun just figuring out where we could put the phone differently so we could just be a little more unique to perspectives and perspectives. ‘
“We thought, ‘Oh, why don’t we just put the phone in Nian’s mouth?’ “I think its size allows us to get all kinds of cool, special shots that would be much harder to get with the traditional camera,” Wang said.
Wang, whose parents emigrated from China to the US when she was 6, added: ‘As a child, my parents wanted me to go further than they ever were. And yet there is also this fear that I would commit the unknown, which is why I wanted to bring the theme into this film. ”
‘Nian’ was produced by Iconoclast in collaboration with Apple Advertising Agency TBWA Media Arts Lab (Shanghai). The film contains an original score by Alex Weston.
Apple’s previous films with the Chinese New Year are “Daughter” (2020), “The Bucket” (2019) and “Three Minutes” (2018).
Watch the behind-the-scenes track from the production of Wang’s “Nian”: