Skip to main content

Apple’s new shot-on-iPhone movie offers vertical take on classic film genres

Vertical videos on a TV screen or computer monitor may still cause a part of our brain to twitch in irritation, but the popularity of smartphone apps like Snapchat and TikTok, and the growing use of mobile video calls, have gently coached us into embracing the once-condemned format.

Even Apple has jumped on the bandwagon with the release this week of a movie that really makes the most of the alternative framing.

Recommended Videos

The nine-minute film (below) was made by Academy Award-winning director Damien Chazelle — best known for hits such as La La Land and Whiplash — using an iPhone 11 Pro, and released as part of Apple’s ongoing “Shot on iPhone” series.

“Watch as classic genres are flipped on their side, from action movies to silent films, spy flicks to westerns, reframing and modernizing the movie magic we know and love,” Apple said in a message posted with the video.

Shot on iPhone by Academy Award® Winner Damien Chazelle – Vertical Cinema

The tech giant also released a behind-the-scenes video (below) revealing how the director approached the project.

Making Vertical Cinema — Shot on iPhone by Academy Award® Winner Damien Chazelle

“Part of the fun of this was to try to think purely in terms of the vertical aspect ratio and what that does,” Chazelle said.

Costume designer and crew member April Napier adds, “You’re thinking about how things are moving in an elongated fashion — you’re not thinking about landscape, you’re not thinking about panorama.”

Stunt actor Tom McComas, who appears in the movie, said his scenes “worked really well in the vertical format.” And he’s right, in fact, as you might expect with an acclaimed director behind it, the entire movie makes full use of the format, using some clever framing to create powerful shots that really pull the viewer in.

Of course, the videos are more about promoting the iPhone 11 Pro rather than singing the praises of vertical video, with Apple noting that Chazelle made full use of the device’s extended dynamic range capabilities, video stabilization, and ultra-wide lens.

Apple has released a number of videos in its “Shot on ‌iPhone‌” series, though this latest effort is the first vertically shot movie in the collection.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Apple could finally fix Siri on iPhones with help from Google’s Gemini
Gemini Live on an iPhone.

“Find me a decent coffee shop where I can sit and get work done?” I uttered into my iPhone’s mic. 

“I’ll need to use ChatGPT to write that.” That was Siri’s response in my interaction with Apple’s voice assistant just over a week ago. Google’s Gemini assistant helped me the way I expected it to. 

Read more
iPhone prices are increasing, but not for the reason you think
Apple Invites on iPhone.

The average sales price of iPhones is increasing, but it isn't for the reason you think — or at least not entirely for that reason. According to new data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), the average price of an iPhone has increased by $18 to $971. That's up from $953 in the fourth quarter of 2024.

While many are quick to point to tariffs as the cause, the impact of economic factors isn't clear yet. The current trend towards higher-priced iPhones lies entirely in Apple's recent decision to end the iPhone SE and iPhone 14 lines. Analysts use metrics like the U.S. Weighted Average Retail Price (US-WARP) to determine the average sale price, since Apple stopped publicly reporting those numbers at the end of 2018.

Read more
The iPhone 17 might see a huge RAM upgrade
Alleged render of iPhone 17 air in silver color.

We already expected the iPhone 17 to be a big step up, but a new rumor suggests it might be an even bigger technical leap than first thought. According to well-known tipster Digital Chat Station, the entire series will use Apple Intelligence on a "large scale," and every phone in the lineup, from the base iPhone 17 to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, will have 12GB of RAM.

This leak corroborates earlier suggestions from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, giving it even more credibility. Considering all current iPhones max out at 8GB of RAM, this represents a 33% jump — not something to scoff at. Digital Chat Station goes on to say the phones will use the TSMC A19 Pro, the most powerful chip in an iPhone yet. When you put all of that together, it's likely the iPhone 17 lineup will be much faster than current models.

Read more