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Some Scenes In The Avengers [Not] Filmed On an iPhone [Updated]

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Updated: It turns out that Seamus McGarvey was misquoted. From The Hollywood Reporter:
"I was talking about how up and coming film makers have access to a whole range of new technologies which expand our options as filmmakers. I mentioned that the iPhone and the Canon 5d Mk2 were devices currently used on many Hollywood productions. I used the Canon on some shots on Marvel's The Avengers movie," he stated to THR. "Unfortunately, this was edited to read that I shot some of the film with the iPhone. This is not true."
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The original story follows:

The iPhone 4 has a great camera built-in -- but it is good enough to film a movie? According to cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, who worked on the upcoming Avengers movie, the iPhone works just fine as a cinematic instrument. In an interview with the Irish Film & Television Network:
The beauty of photography or cinema is that you make every choice based on the content at hand. On The Avengers, I did a couple of shots on the iPhone and they are in the movie. In fact, they are in the trailer! I understand that sometimes there is no choice and you have to go for the cheapest option, but if you are limited for choice, you can still make poignant decisions that will effect the look of the film.
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McGarvey gave no details about exactly which shots in the trailer were taken with an iPhone. It's a testament to the iPhone and McGarvey's abilities as a cinematographer that we can't figure it out.

Watch The Avengers trailer on Apple's movie trailers website.

Article Link: Some Scenes In The Avengers [Not] Filmed On an iPhone [Updated]
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/21/some-scenes-in-the-avengers-filmed-on-an-iphone/
Xenc

Xenc

macrumors 65816
May 8, 2010
1,043
290
London, England
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

It'd be great to see which shots were taken on an iPhone. Amazing that it's not obvious!
 
M

macbookairman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 15, 2008
901
9
Nebraska
I believe the iPhone was used for the shot of Thor at roughly 44 seconds in. Pure speculation though, but it definitely looks like it.

EDIT: Perhaps 1:04 as well...
 
sukanas

sukanas

macrumors 6502a
Nov 15, 2007
684
1
wow...

edit: do you think he just did this for sake of using an iPhone?
 
WatchTheThrone

WatchTheThrone

macrumors regular
Aug 2, 2011
239
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Should of waited for the 4S's better camera....
 
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ELA2

macrumors member
Apr 21, 2011
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

0:46 Thor with hammer
 
C

cvaldes

macrumors 68040
Dec 14, 2006
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somewhere else
sukanas said:
do you think he just did this for sake of using an iPhone?
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I doubt it.

A good craftsman will consider all the tools at his disposal and select the one best for the task at hand. A chef won't always reach for the $300 commercial food processor; sometimes a $20 paring knife is the best tool.
 
GFLPraxis

GFLPraxis

macrumors 604
Mar 17, 2004
7,152
460
Unless he had an early release 4S, that means there will be 720p scenes in the movie, which might stand out on the 1080p Blu-ray release...
 
D

Duel

macrumors regular
Jul 31, 2011
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240
ELA2 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

0:46 Thor with hammer
Click to expand...

i Thought same too, it has different colour world, not that saturated and vivid colours. But if there's something else filmed with iphone too, it's very difficult to say.
 
B

brianbobcat

macrumors regular
Aug 13, 2003
165
14
Illinois
Definitely the scene at :49-:50 second of Thor holding the hammer in the air with the white strobe light in the corner. When I watched it originally, I couldn't tell it was any different, but once I went frame by frame, I could see some of the issues with it's CMOS sensor like rolling shutter. They're clearly done a lot of post-processing to diminish the effect, but it's still partially there. I could also see them putting iPhones in places where a camera might get damaged or destroyed as a couple hundred bucks is nothing whereas $50K for their main cameras is not an insignificant amount.
 
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scottrichardson

macrumors 6502a
Jul 10, 2007
698
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Ulladulla, NSW Australia
GFLPraxis said:
Unless he had an early release 4S, that means there will be 720p scenes in the movie, which might stand out on the 1080p Blu-ray release...
Click to expand...

Not entirely - There's oodles of 1080p blurays out there that dont come close to saturating the resolution detail of 1080p due to camera MTF and focus. Only if the cameraman can fully focus the camera, and it is 3k, 4k or 5k, will you get a fully detailed 1080p image. Most of the time the actual visible resolution is somewhere around 720p. Yes there's 1020 x 1080 pixels on screen, but the image is so soft it could as easily be a focused 720p image scaled up.

Scott
 
Thanatoast

Thanatoast

macrumors 65816
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X; en_US) AppleWebKit (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile [FBAN/FBForIPhone;FBAV/4.0.2;FBBV/4020.0;FBDV/iPhone2,1;FBMD/iPhone;FBSN/iPhone OS;FBSV/5.0;FBSS/1; FBCR/AT&T;FBID/phone;FBLC/en_US;FBSF/1.0])

Okay, you hav to admit that's pretty cool.
 
S

shurcooL

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2011
939
118
scottrichardson said:
Not entirely - There's oodles of 1080p blurays out there that dont come close to saturating the resolution detail of 1080p due to camera MTF and focus. Only if the cameraman can fully focus the camera, and it is 3k, 4k or 5k, will you get a fully detailed 1080p image. Most of the time the actual visible resolution is somewhere around 720p. Yes there's 1020 x 1080 pixels on screen, but the image is so soft it could as easily be a focused 720p image scaled up.

Scott
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It is so nice when you're not the only one who understands these things. Completely agree.
 
L

Los

macrumors regular
Jul 5, 2010
223
0
One of the scenes has got to be the one where Thor strikes Captain America, just look at the amount of noise and the lack of detail on the trees in the background. It looks like something you'll find in an iPhone 4 or 4S.

Then again when Thor is about to hit something during the city scene. That's the only two I can make out, both seem to produce noise similar to what you'll find in an iPhone.
 
M

Mak47

macrumors 6502a
Mar 27, 2011
751
32
Harrisburg, PA
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'd put money on them being the shots of troops and cops running to an event early in the trailer. Those are the kinds of things a bystander would hypothetically capture on that kind of camera.

That would t be lost on the guy who did the 9/11 movie.
 
N

Nepiller

macrumors newbie
Oct 21, 2011
2
0
Not surprisingly I was on set in Cleveland for the avengers in August the stunt coordinators would take video of the stunts on a iPad 2 an play it back for the stunt men an actors to show them how it looks an how they want the shot to look I love apple!
 
Y

YeahBuddy

macrumors regular
Aug 31, 2011
173
5
Boston, MA
I think that's crazy that a movie with that kind of budget would actually resort to shooting some shots with an iPhone, but I love the fact that they did it. Awesome.
 
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