APPLE | Shot on iPhone, Vertical Cinema | 2020
I underestimated vertical video, and I'm sorry / APPLE "Shot on iPhone, Vertical Cinema"
This is a 9-minute short film that gets you to watch all the way through while holding your phone vertically the whole time. The director is Damien Chazelle, the Oscar winner behind "La La Land." The idea of having a true master of film smash the idea that vertical video is lame is just brilliant.
The problem
With the rise of Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, vertical video had become the standard format in everyday life. But it still carried a cheap, thrown-together reputation, and people in the film industry looked down on it. Apple needed to stand up for vertical video, which had long been treated as second-class.
The insight
Rather than proving the limits of vertical video, it's more powerful to prove that when a top filmmaker commits fully, vertical can be cinema too. The clever approach here was taking classic film genres—action, silent film, spy thriller, western—one by one, and reimagining each in a vertical frame. It turns the constraint of "vertical" into a tool for creative direction.
The idea
The main character is a stunt double, always swapped in for the real actor right before the big moment. From his point of view, the 9-minute short film "The Stunt Double" travels through film history's genres, all shot vertically, using an iPhone 11 Pro. The cinematographer was Oscar winner Linus Sandgren, and the music was by Grammy winner Lorne Balfe. A behind-the-scenes video was also released showing how it was filmed, encouraging everyday users to try shooting their own vertical videos.
What happened
The campaign won a Gold Pencil at The One Show, Silver at Cannes Lions, and Silver at Clio Music.
Afterthought
Every time I shot video vertically, I used to wonder, "Is this really okay?" But watching this film made me realize that vertical isn't a limitation—it's just a different way of holding the camera. And the fact that the stunt double finally gets to be the real star by the end? That's when you know this was truly a film.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2020
