Apple’s evening of October 30th Scary Fast Mac event generated a lot of buzz (it was Monster Macs as we called it here at PVC). But it wasn’t just for the new M3 chips, new M3 MacBook Pros and iMacs that were introduced it was a little end card as the video wrapped up: This event was shot on iPhone and edited on Mac.

This was Apple’s first evening event that I can remember and at a half hour, it was short and to the point with no big surprises that hadn’t already leaked … other than that info above.

And Twitter talked about it!

I’ve always said that I wouldn’t take iPhone video seriously until Apple themselves took it seriously enough to shoot their product events on it.

Well, here we are. https://t.co/up5M9qOmEB

— @[email protected] (@restlesspix) October 31, 2023

It’s often been talked about how the iPhone and the video quality that the device can shoot has made for some radical changes in both amateur and professional workflows. But Apple has put its money where its mouth is and made good use of both iPhone ProRes Log capture as well as recording directly to an SSD via USB-C on the new iPhone 15 Pro.

They even produced a behind-the-scenes video about it.

While high-end corporate video production (and even a BTS video about high-end corporate video production) isn’t anything new, I think the care and production value that Apple puts behind these launch videos is unrivaled in corporate America. And because they make a lot of the tools that can go into this production, it’s of great interest to us in the production and post-production community. Especially those of us who use Macs.

Quality in = Quality out

Now, this wasn’t just any iPhone video shoot.

The production treated the iPhone just like any other piece of cinema gear when it came to capturing those images.

By capturing high-quality log images during production, you set yourself up for much better results in post-production. And Apple didn’t skimp on the post.

And notice what camera app is being used in the BTS images that Apple provided:

It’s no surprise that the new Blackmagic Camera app was used to capture the video that was sent on to post-production. The question I was wondering was what came first, the Blackmagic Camera app or Apple decision to shoot this low-light, evening event on the iPhone? My bet is they both kinda evolved together.

Don’t discount the high-end post-production in making this work

The other thing that was as important as ProRes Log capture itself is the high-end post pipeline that this video ran through. You can have the most pristine image in the world, but if it isn’t handled properly, edited carefully and color-graded well, you’d never know. The BTS video has Company3’s CEO and legendary colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld on camera commenting on this iPhone capture process as well as shots of Sonnenfeld grading footage behind a DaVinci Resolve panel. We can assume it has some of the best color grading that money can buy, right? And the end result looks really good.

And if you haven’t seen the actual finished event video, then give it a watch now, especially if you watched the BTS video.

That looks really good, doesn’t it?

And thank you for not skipping over the editorial process of this piece

The actual creative/craft editorial process of any event video like this often gets completely skipped over in favor of the gear porn that is the shooting process, the flashiness that is the visual effects or the final polish that is the color grading, but I salute the producers for giving a nod to the editor and actually featuring the lead editor, Liz Orson, on-camera to comment on the process (at about 1:45 in the first, BTS video embed). I don’t know Liz, but it looks like she moved up to lead video editor at Apple after a few years as an assistant there and many years of self-employment. As a self-employed person myself working freelance a lot in a corporate environment prodcution, congrats as that’s a big promotion working in the corporate video world. It’s not all boring CEO talking head videos and there is some real creative stuff going on in corporate video.

Sometimes there’s not a lot to say about the creative/craft editorial process of a video like this. It’s often days spent behind the computer, referencing notes, trying ideas, rendering clips, sending out cuts and collaborating with way too many “creative directors” to get to the end result. What can you really say about that? But it is important to note what is one of the most important parts of any video production: the actual editing. And I’m sure it wasn’t by accident the comparison to an ARRI Alexa and Sony Venice where left in there. But that’s part of the beauty of ProRes video; it’s an editing dream if you’re capturing a ProRes codec.

There was/is a bit of controversy that had a lot of the post-production community abuzz after the video aired. It said “edited on a Mac” in the end card, and many were incensed that it didn’t say edited on Final Cut Pro. 

The Macbooks are great, but the event was a slap in the face to FCP users I think. @Apple showed Logic, Da Vinci, After Effects, Premiere and even Adobe Animate, but not once did they show FCP, and barely even mentioned it. I think I’m finally going to fully switch back to Avid.

— Vlasta Stevanovich (@vlstastevanovic) October 31, 2023

Once I saw that end card and realized they were going to lean into the actual production of this event video, I was actually quite surprised it wasn’t edited on Final Cut Pro, and that FCP wasn’t in the spotlight at least somewhere in the video. It really was the Premiere Pro and Resolve show. And looking at the BTS video, it does look like it was edited on Adobe Premiere Pro.

Perhaps Apple didn’t want to take away from the fact that the BTS highlight was more a Shot on iPhone iPhone moment than it was to pump up their Pro Apps. But then again, Logic Pro has a great segment on bringing musical ideas to life in the event. Perhaps it was just letting creatives use the tools they wanted to use to create their work. But then again, they were told to shoot on an iPhone.

It’s good to see sensible heads also prevail when thinking it through.

Honestly, not worried at all. Apple’s hardware marketing team thought they’d sell more Macs by showing Premiere and Resolve, that’s it. It’s harder to make meaningful performance claims about FCP when 8K was possible a couple of generations back.

— Iain Anderson · @[email protected] (@funwithstuff) October 31, 2023

And Apple is part of the Final Cut Pro Creative Summit happening next week, so I don’t think they would be working in association with that event if they weren’t behind FCP.

The FCP discussion aside, Apple did have some of the best production and post-production money can buy for the Scary Fast event video. These are very accessible tools, available to most anyone out there. You could take a lower-end iPhone 15 Pro, a $150 SSD, a 14-inch MacBook Pro and the free version of DaVinci Resolve and get pretty darn close to what they were using to make this video. Sprinkle in some time and talent, and the sky’s the limit.

That though it reflected in this quote that comes from the Scary Fast event video editor mentioned above, Elizabeth Orson:

“I think what’s beautiful about this phone is the opportunity for so many people to be able to use it to make the films that they’ve been dreaming of making. You know, it opens it up to up and coming filmmakers, people who are just getting started, but it’s also super pro enough that a professional filmmaker on a set, on a movie set or a TV show could use it and could make something beautiful. And people wouldn’t even realize that it was shot on a phone.”

That’s quite a device that is useful, practical, and a lot of fun to use.

I guess the real question is, what will Apple shoot the next event video on?