Apple today launched the 2022 Tiger Year Chinese New Year short film "Comeback" as scheduled.
Since 2018, Apple has invited well-known directors and actors to use iPhones to create New Year short films on the eve of the Chinese New Year for 5 consecutive years, and it seems that the Apple New Year short films on the eve of the Spring Festival every year have also become a sense of festival ceremony.
Different from the warm style of "Three Minutes", "A Bucket" and "Daughter" in previous years, this time's "Comeback" style is more witty and humorous, and the shooting scenes are more imaginative.
Directed by Zhang Meng, director of "The Piano of Steel" and filmed through the iPhone 13 Pro, the short film tells the story of a son with a broken dream in the movie, and his whimsical father, in order to save the village and turn the village into an Internet celebrity attraction, and shoot the Mars movie with the villagers. The whole film conveys people's persistence in their dreams and their love for their hometown from the perspective of small characters.
Under such a story background, the villagers' action of making a movie may be more "creative" than the movie itself with an iPhone: the stuntman and the old man in the countryside, plus a group of villagers use tricycles, donkeys, insulated buckets, washbasins and other things as props, in the harsh environment of yellow sand, after a series of twists and turns, finally this group of people at that moment, as if they really landed on Mars.
In the 23-minute short film, the iPhone 13 Pro doesn't have a strong presence, but in this run-down village, a state-of-the-art smartphone becomes the occasional bright tone of the film.
In the process of the villagers shooting the film, the only mobile phone played a crucial role. In the behind-the-scenes footage, it can be seen that the surface of Mars in the movie was achieved by shooting the bottom of the pot through the macro mode of the iPhone 13 Pro; the props such as the Mars rover were also filmed through the model.
Director Zhang Meng said that all the pictures in the film were shot natively with the three lenses of the iPhone 13 Pro, that is, there was no expansion of the lens, and some stabilization devices were added. "The iPhone is small and can be placed anywhere, and what can be thought of in previous shooting but not necessarily done, it can be done."
The iPhone 13 Pro's three rear cameras all feature new sensors and lenses, and are powered by a new image signal processor in the A15 Bionic chip, improving noise reduction and tone mapping. The excellent night video mode makes the night in the northwest region more spacious and lonely, and the anti-shake mode makes the action scenes extremely smooth.
Luo Dong, the film's shooting director, also said in an interview that through the iPhone 13 Pro's movie mode, macro mode and other functions, as well as the iPhone's excellent stabilization and portable volume, they have achieved many more complex shots in traditional shooting, making it easier to cope with bad shooting weather. Among them, the film mode also helps them express their emotions better, Luo Dong said: "The change of focus is also a change of emotion. ”
Looking back at the changes in Chinese New Year short films in recent years, we can see that the story of just a few tens of minutes has become more and more rich in emotional communication, and the shooting equipment has become more and more simple. The Chinese New Year short film can not only be the warm pulse during the Spring Festival, but also encourage everyone to hold up their mobile phones to record their lives and chase their dreams anytime and anywhere.