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Apple Shares Singaporean Food Documentary Shot on iPhone 13 Pro

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Apple recently shared a short documentary film about Singapore's hawker food culture that was shot entirely on the iPhone 13 Pro.

The video revolves around two food stalls competing over chicken rice, a popular dish at open-air food courts known as hawker centres in Singapore. The documentary showcases iPhone 13 Pro camera features such as Cinematic mode and time-lapse video.


"Big ambitions clash in tiny kitchens, all in the name of Singapore's beloved hawker dish — chicken rice," the video description reads. "Apple presents a documentary about hawker pride and conviction, set against the backdrop of the famous Maxwell Food Centre. From the creator of Chef's Table and director of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, David Gelb."

Apple also shared a companion video that provides a behind-the-scenes look at how the documentary was shot on the iPhone 13 Pro.


All four iPhone 13 models feature a new Cinematic mode that lets users record video with a shallow depth of field and automatic focus changes between subjects, while iPhone 13 Pro models also feature a Macro mode for close-up shots.

Article Link: Apple Shares Singaporean Food Documentary Shot on iPhone 13 Pro
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/25/apple-poached-video-shot-on-iphone-13-pro/
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Does anyone call it “chicken rice”? That could be anything. It’s called Hainanese chicken rice by everyone who actually eats it.

guide.michelin.com

Behind The Bib: Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice

The charm of a good plate of Hainanese chicken rice lies in the combination of piping hot rice and cool poached chicken eaten with spicy chilli sauce, dark soy...
guide.michelin.com guide.michelin.com
 
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JPack said:
Does anyone call it “chicken rice”? That could be anything. It’s called Hainanese chicken rice by everyone who actually eats it.

guide.michelin.com

Behind The Bib: Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice

The charm of a good plate of Hainanese chicken rice lies in the combination of piping hot rice and cool poached chicken eaten with spicy chilli sauce, dark soy...
guide.michelin.com guide.michelin.com
Click to expand...
Yes. In Singapore and Malaysia chicken rice is assumed to be Hainanese chicken rice.
 
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JPack said:
Does anyone call it “chicken rice”? That could be anything. It’s called Hainanese chicken rice by everyone who actually eats it.

guide.michelin.com

Behind The Bib: Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice

The charm of a good plate of Hainanese chicken rice lies in the combination of piping hot rice and cool poached chicken eaten with spicy chilli sauce, dark soy...
guide.michelin.com guide.michelin.com
Click to expand...
speaking from someone who lives in singapore, it's called chicken rice.
 
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Realy well done. It's still obvious that this was done on a phone camera with probably heavy compression and a tiny lens/chip. Especially the color science looks just as crappy as on 2015's "Tangerine". But while the movie could have looked better, if it was shot on a proper camera, it's not in anyway detrimental to the story. An iphone is everything you need for this kind of content nowadays and while you don't have as much control over the image than on a dedicated camera, in certain conditions it might even look better than the typical "porncam" handheld camcorder.

I even know newspapers who use iPhones for their news pieces. As long as you don't have to zoom in, don't need to adhere to standards and don't need to plug in audio, it's already enough for cheaply produced content.
 
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Excellent! Demonstrates that, like making compelling photographs, making interesting movies and documentaries has little to do with gear. It's about story, imagination, creativity, vision, etc.

Steven Spielberg's first movie was made with his dad's super 8 movie camera and a bunch of neighborhood kid friends. When he was 13 years old.
 
Unami said:
Realy well done. It's still obvious that this was done on a phone camera with probably heavy compression and a tiny lens/chip. Especially the color science looks just as crappy as on 2015s "Tangerine". But while the movie could have looked better, if it was shot on a proper camera, it's not in anyway detrimal to the story. An iphone is everything you need for this kind of content nowadays and while you don't have as much control iver the image, in certain conditions it might even look better than the typical "porn"-handheld camcorder.
Click to expand...

Yes - I could see some of those compression artifacts as well. I couldn't decide if it was the footage or YouTube though.

With that said, we have to remember that this sort of content is largely consumed on small screens so these sorts of flaws aren't going to matter to most. What does matter is that they took the time to get good sound.

It's also a great lesson that content is king. A well produced video on cheap camera is often more compelling than poorly produced content on expensive equipment. Not that this was a cheap production of course. They had lighting, rigs and a full crew. It's not like you could just pull a phone out if your pocket and get even close to this quality.
 
I've probably clicked on every "...made on an iPhone..." posted on MR. Its a good camera, but I've seen fantastic stuff shot with much lower tech. So not one who cares, and most iPhone shorts are strained re: making something interesting because "...of the iPhone."

This short though... Reed please watch this. The plot lines here beat 95% of Netflix originals. E.g. I tried watching the latest from Shondaland, and could not make it past the first few episodes.

This is something I would like to see developed into a "...based on..." story. The short presented here is super interesting to me (USA citizen). Who knew re: rice & chicken. Just make the subtitles bigger next time please. Thx.
 
CalMin said:
Yes - I could see some of those compression artifacts as well. I couldn't decide if it was the footage or YouTube though.

With that said, we have to remember that this sort of content is largely consumed on small screens so these sorts of flaws aren't going to matter to most. What does matter is that they took the time to get good sound.

It's also a great lesson that content is king. A well produced video on cheap camera is often more compelling than poorly produced content on expensive equipment. Not that this was a cheap production of course. They had lighting, rigs and a full crew. It's not like you could just pull a phone out if your pocket and get even close to this quality.
Click to expand...
I mostly meant the color-compression, that kind of featureless, plasticky skin-color that's usually a sign of video shot on a phone. But you're right, content is king and the camera is usually pretty far down on a list of important things you need for a film. That Sachtler tripod-head that he uses on the slider is probably half the price of the iphone pro.
 
Daum said:
Does anyone else notice the slight pause every second?
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Yup - it's either recorded in a variable frame rate (although I don't think the iphone does that natively) or there was a frame mismatch in editing. Singapore is a PAL country with 25fps, but iphones are by default set to 30fps (US-TV - but it is finally possible to change this since iOS 14).

The video looks like it was converted from one frame rate to another. Or it might be an artifact of how the iphone pro processes video - it's especially noticeable in the pull-in slider shots.
 
Unami said:
I mostly meant the color-compression, that kind of featureless, plasticky skin-color that's usually a sign of video shot on a phone. But you're right, content is king and the camera is usually pretty far down on a list of important things you need for a film. That Sachtler tripod-head that he uses on the slider is probably half the price of the iphone pro.
Click to expand...
Funny - I didn't even notice that before. I probably won't be able to unsee moving forward. Ignorance was bliss.

I'm glad they did the behind the scenes stuff. The 'Shot on iPhone' is a slick marketing campaign but, as good as they are, clips coming off the phone using the default camera app don't look nearly as good. The real name of the campaign should be 'Shot on iPhone with $000's of dollars of additional equipment and a film crew' - but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
 
That was a fun and delicious short documentary. Apple should produce foodie series for Apple TV+.

On a technical note, the documentary was shot using Cinematic Mode, which is 1080p Dolby Vision. Apple should offer Dolby Vision version on Apple TV+ for punchier vibrancy and contrast, as well as their signature high bitrate.
 
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rcread said:
Chicken and rice is just a perfect combination. It's a shame that rice is bad for you.
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That’s false.

White rice is a simple-clean carb and it’s not bad for you. (FYI..Too much of anything is ‘bad for you’.)

When you look at rice in general, it’s a carbohydrate, and almost all carbohydrates primarily are assimilated in your body/broken down into sugars. Small amounts of rice is virtually harmless, large amounts of it (Any thing over a cup), wouldn’t be recommended. Again, too much of anything for you is not good.
 
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Relentless Power said:
That’s false.

White rice is a simple-clean carb and it’s not bad for you. (FYI..Too much of anything is ‘bad for you’.)

When you look at rice in general, it’s a carbohydrate, and almost all carbohydrates primarily are assimilated in your body/broken down into sugars. Small amounts of rice is virtually harmless, large amounts of it (Any thing over a cup), wouldn’t be recommended. Again, too much of anything for you is not good.
Click to expand...
I think @rcread maybe referring to arsenic, which usually comes from the soil and water. Washing them thoroughly can reduce the arsenic level by 10-25% and rice from certain region (e.g., California) and certain crops (e.g., basmatic and jasmine) have lower arsenic level.
 
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