Following this morning's debut of the "1.24.14" Mac 30th anniversary video filmed exclusively on iPhones and edited on Macs, Apple has also released a new behind-the-scenes video that details how the original ad was made.
"Capturing the essence of the moment and it being truthful as seen through the prism of this device is really rather lovely."
The video depicts the camera equipment used to film the ad, which included several different iPhones attached to special mounts able to rotate in any direction. A narrator explains that individual filming crews were sent to locations around the world to obtain simultaneous footage, with each crew using an iPhone to capture video that was then sent to a receiver in a backpack.
Receivers used by the crew members allowed footage to be sent instantly back to director Jake Scott, son of Ridley Scott, in the U.S., and FaceTime on iPads allowed for seamless communication while filming.
Apple's 1.24.14 video was filmed for the 30th anniversary of the Mac. It was distilled from more than 70 hours of footage captured by camera crews on five continents in 15 different locations, including Seattle, Aspen, Maryland, Brookhaven, Puerto Rico, Botswana, London, Lyon, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Pompeii, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Melbourne.
"The making of 1.24.14" film is now online as well http://t.co/8buyt1lmlf #Mac30 — Philip Schiller (@pschiller) February 4, 2014
Top Rated Comments
The "point" is simple - who would have thought, 30 years ago, that this was even remotely possible?
And, if Apple hadn't done it - who would have?
Unlike the generation of under-20's that can't communicate with the outside world other than through anonymous tweets, I wasn't born with an entitlement to these wondrous creations. Making a phone call meant a stinky, diseased phone booth reeking of urine. Today you can make a call from your wrist phone, just like Dick Tracy did when I was a kid. I don't take that for granted, because half a lifetime ago it was only a dream. I see newborns getting iPods today.
No.... my generation had to dream these up, and then make them come true. Only one company had the foresight, engineering, and derring-do to put these to life rather than simply show them as props on a movie set. And that company is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first device that truly set that creativity free.
These devices have changed the world - perhaps at a magnitude greater than the airplane and automobile did two and three generations ago. These devices bring the world closer together, without needing the massive infrastructure of a highway or an airport. These devices can be anywhere, anytime, capturing or delivering information and sights that would never have been celebrated outside of their own back yard. And now they are in your shirt pocket.
That is amazing. Sorry you can't see it for what it is - a celebration of the wonder.
Who else did this? Nobody. Just Apple. Because if someone else had done it, they would have done it.
Thank you, Apple, and happy anniversary.
Here's the point: Fifteen crews on five continents shot 70 hours of footage on 100 iPhones, many of them taking pictures of people using iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs in various ingenious ways, the whole worldwide shoot directed in real time from one location in L.A. by Jake Scott—using FaceTime, Apple's own system-wide network—then presumably digitally sent it all in for editing using MacBooks, iPads and iMacs, and then delivered to us fully edited IN TEN MEASLY DAYS.
And the thing is interesting, exciting, beautiful and good, and there was enough behind-the-scenes crew photography to deliver a "making-of" movie at the same time.
This is historic, and it will be picked up and used as a lesson in film schools. It could not have been done two years ago. It will be done over and over again in the future.
It wasn't about the iPhone. It was about the media-aware ecosystem that appeared with the first Mac 30 years ago, which Apple has been working on ever since. The equipment you design and add to the system is the economy that springs up around any genuine technological revolution.
I don't mean to be a downer, the iPhone is fantastic as a camera and getting better each generation, it has opened new possibilities, but I feel this video (the original one) is somewhat deceptive.