The upcoming film F1 has all the thrill possible. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the person behind High Gun: Maverick, the manufacturing used IMAX cameras, drove actual race vehicles at 200mph, and guarantees to be a spectacle on the massive display screen.
However what if I instructed you the digicam they actually relied on might be in your pocket proper now?
That is proper, the iPhone performed an integral half in capturing the film. YM Cinema just lately did an enormous story on the topic, and we now have the highlights.
Let’s dive in.
How The iPhone Solved A Drawback on the ‘F1’ Set
F1 vehicles are notoriously quick and light-weight. They whip round corners and hit prime speeds and g-forces that actually solely fighter jets can match.
So when Joseph Kosinski was employed to direct the F1 film coming off of High Gun: Maverick, he had a very good basis for the right way to seize one thing shifting at these speeds.
Kosinski’s filmmaking philosophy is constructed on authenticity. Once they had been doing High Gun, he strapped six IMAX-quality Sony VENICE cameras contained in the cockpit of an F/A-18 Tremendous Hornet with a purpose to get what it was actually like for the pilots and actors as they zoomed round.
However an F1 automobile presents a fair better problem: how do you get a digicam in there to shoot the folks driving, and have them actually drive?
- House & Weight: An F1 automobile is a masterclass in aerodynamics and weight distribution. Each single gram issues. Mounting a cumbersome cinema digicam, with its lenses, energy sources, and information cables, is just inconceivable with out compromising the automobile’s efficiency and the driving force’s security.
- Vibrations & Forces: The vehicles endure excessive vibrations and big G-forces throughout braking and cornering. Any digicam system have to be strong sufficient to deal with these situations with out failing or shaking right into a blurry mess.
- Mounting: The place do you even put a digicam? The driving force’s helmet, the chassis, the steering wheel—all these potential places require a digicam that’s impossibly small and light-weight.
The Answer: The iPhone
As iPhone know-how will get higher and higher, I believe we will see main films capturing epic scenes with this tech an increasing number of.
We noticed them use 20 of them in 28 Years Later.
The F1 manufacturing workforce wanted a digicam that was small, mild, and produced a “cinema-grade” picture that could possibly be seamlessly edited alongside their main cameras.
That is why they went with the iPhone 15 Professional.
- ProRes Video: The flexibility to shoot in Apple’s ProRes codec is a game-changer. It supplies a high-quality, information-rich video file with better shade depth and fewer compression. This permits the filmmakers in post-production to color-grade the iPhone footage to completely match the look of the first cinema cameras.
- Unbelievable Stabilization: The mix of optical picture stabilization (OIS) and superior digital stabilization (what Apple calls “Motion Mode”) is essential. It smooths out the extraordinary, high-frequency vibrations of the F1 automobile, delivering a usable, dynamic shot relatively than an unwatchable, shaky mess.
- Unmatched Kind Issue: Its tiny dimension and weight meant the crew may mount it in locations no different high-quality digicam may go. They might affix it to the aspect of a helmet, contained in the footwell, or on the chassis to seize distinctive angles that convey the sheer violence and velocity of the game.
How They Collaborate With Apple
Now, it in all probability helped quite a bit that Apple is the studio behind F1, which allowed there to be conversations concerning the tech contained in the telephone.
However there are a number of different causes these had been picked.
It seems Apple and F1 had been working collectively up to now, so it was a pure match.
There have been already customized cameras fitted into the cockpits of actual F1 vehicles used through the 2023 and 2024 seasons. These cameras used an iPhone digicam sensor powered by an A-series chip.
Whereas Apple did not disclose the particular sensor or chipset, it is believable they utilized the identical A17 Professional chip and 48-megapixel main digicam discovered within the iPhone 15 Professional. The module additionally integrated an iPhone battery and a impartial density filter to regulate mild enter, offering in depth publicity management for movie editors.
When it got here time to do the F1 film, they determined to make use of the identical system and take the 15 Professional to the subsequent stage by creating a module to guard it from shock, vibrations, and warmth.
Based on experiences from Wired, that exceeded System One’s specs. The module ran on iOS with customized firmware particularly for the digicam. Movies had been captured in log format utilizing Apple’s ProRes lossless video codec.
This delivers a “flat” picture, providing editors superior management for shade grading and seamless visible integration with different movie footage. This practice firmware immediately led to 2 important options within the iPhone 15 Professional: log encoding and help for the Academy Colour Encoding System (ACES) shade workflow, which had been talked about above.
With out built-in radios, filmmakers relied on a customized iPad app related by way of USB-C to make real-time digicam changes. This allowed them to change settings like body fee, publicity acquire, shutter angle, and white steadiness, in addition to begin and cease recording. The footage captured with these modules is featured all through the movie.
The iPhone Revolution
Smartphone filmmaking has been round for a very long time, however solely lately have the decision and energy been excessive sufficient to shoot and edit on the Hollywood scale.
And now, we’re not solely utilizing smartphones on indies, however we’re additionally utilizing them on blockbusters.
This shift to utilizing the iPhone on costly tentpoles of this scale marks a big second in cinematography. It proves that the hole between skilled tools and high-end shopper gadgets has all however disappeared for particular, problem-solving purposes.
Now look, these telephones will not be changing the Sony VENICE or ARRI ALEXA or IMAX as main cameras. It is about augmenting them. It is about artistic problem-solving, the place the most effective software for the job is not essentially the most costly one.
To me, that is extremely longing for the long run.
Summing All of it Up
The enjoyable factor about going to see F1 is realizing the little particulars that they used to get among the finest pictures within the film. Kosinski is a grasp of spectacle, and I am excited to be viscerally engaged with this film and check out to determine precisely which pictures had been captured on the iPhone.
Let me know what you suppose within the feedback.
