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Apple Shares Short 'Shot on iPhone' Film Ahead of Chinese New Year

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Ahead of Chinese New Year, which falls on February 5, Apple has shared a new "Shot on iPhone" film created by Jia Zhangke.

Called, "The Bucket," the film was captured entirely on an iPhone XS, and it features a family wrapping up their Chinese New Year celebrations. A mother packs up goods for her son to take back to the city, equipping him with a heavy bucket to lug home.


The film uses iPhone techniques like slo-mo and Depth Control, with Apple uploading two additional behind-the-scenes tutorial style videos.



The full film shared by Apple features the ending line "The taste of home will always bring us back," while the other videos use the tagline "Capture the taste of home this Chinese New Year with iPhone."

Apple is hoping to encourage sales of the iPhone during Chinese New Year, a major holiday in China. Earlier this month, Apple dropped the price of the iPhone XR and other iPhones for its channel partners, allowing third-party vendors to purchase iPhones more cheaply to pass those savings on to customers.

Article Link: Apple Shares Short 'Shot on iPhone' Film Ahead of Chinese New Year
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/01/24/apple-the-bucket-shot-on-iphone/
Great story and cinematography using such a common tool that many of us have in our pocket every day. Unfortunately, Apple's sales and marketing objectives are being constantly thwarted by those in the Whitehouse, bad luck.
 
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If you look at the long list of production and direction crew at the end of the film, you’ll see that it’s no small task to make something like this. Many people might be under the misconception that all you need is an iPhone, and you can make lovely films like this. In fact, films are highly collaborative efforts involving dozens if not hundreds of people, and weeks and sometimes even months of planning.

I might even be tempted to say that while it’s impressive that they could shoot a film with an iPhone, that doesn’t mean that any of us could do the same and make it look as good as this, just because we own an iPhone. I like the message that creative things can be created with simple tools, but it takes so much more than owning a smartphone to make a decent, memorable film.
 
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thangnguyennhu said:
Apple is trying to please China again because it's Lunar New Year, not Chinese New Year. Every Asian knows it.
Click to expand...

ErikGrim said:
Yo. It's Lunar New Year and not only celebrated in China.
Click to expand...

Hmm... In the story of the short film the festival being celebrated is Chinese New Year. I know Apple haters are always gonna hate Apple for whatever they do but... what is the issue with this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_New_Year:

The following East Asian Lunar New Year celebrations are, or were historically, based on the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar (occurring in late January or early February):[1]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year:

Chinese New Year[a], commonly known as Lunar New Year, is a Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. The festival is usually referred to as the Spring Festival in modern China, and is one of several Lunar New Years in Asia.
Click to expand...
 
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The whole time watching the short film, I was thinking to myself, “I’m sure at the end they’ll show someone opening the bucket, but they won’t show us what’s inside.”

Then as he started unwrapping it, I immediately thought, “Oh, gosh. Don’t cry.” Before the music got sappy, I had a feeling it was going to get emotional. Sure enough, I cried.

Damn you, Apple! Always giving me the feels!
 
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tzm41 said:
Hmm... In the story of the short film the festival being celebrated is Chinese New Year. I know Apple haters are always gonna hate Apple for whatever they do but... what is the issue with this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_New_Year:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year:
Click to expand...
Indeed the festival referred to in the short film is the Chinese variant of the Lunar New Year. However, it can come off as ignoring other countries celebrating their own Lunar New Year holidays by referring it simply as "Chinese". My personal suggestion is that it should have been called the "Chinese Lunar New Year (Holidays/Festival)".

On a side note, the Korean Lunar New Year (Seollal) can actually differ from the Chinese New Year day by one day because it's basing the calculations on the Korean lunisolar calendar, which uses Seoul as the reference point unlike the Chinese counterpart that is based on Beijing. So occasionally, not all Lunar New Year is celebrated on the same day. The last time this has happened was in 1997. The next one will happen in 2027.
 
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It seems that iPhones are overpriced, Tim cook?
What happened, iPhones prices were so expensive that you needed to drop them?
Or now, late, you are realizing that a cheaper iPhone will sell more and help you get more market share?

Why price drops are only in China and Japan?
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SoGood said:
Great story and cinematography using such a common tool that many of us have in our pocket every day. Unfortunately, Apple's sales and marketing objectives are being constantly thwarted by those in the Whitehouse, bad luck.
Click to expand...

iPhones sales are only thwarted by the obscene prices and Apple's greed. It is kind of ridiculous that an iPhone cost the same or more than a Macbook Pro.
 
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Looks like they used some type of depth-of-field adapter for the iPhone (maybe Beastgrip) and external lenses.

Definitely not pure iPhone XS.

Hey Apple if you're listening if you really want to help out cinematographers add an additional ultra-wide angle lens for dramatic 2.39:1 cinematography (then later add a 100mm+ telephoto lens), add a standard lens/filter mount so we can mount external lenses & filters quickly, and add a built-in 2/4/8 stop ND filter.
 
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tzm41 said:
Hmm... In the story of the short film the festival being celebrated is Chinese New Year. I know Apple haters are always gonna hate Apple for whatever they do but... what is the issue with this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_New_Year:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year:
Click to expand...
Could you explain which part of my reply is hateful?

On the topic of New Year, Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year are not the same and cannot be used interchangeably.
By promoting the term Chinese New Year, Apple is ignoring a huge amount of Asian countries celebrating Lunar New Year.
I can reasonably believe Apple is favoring China.

Also, citing Wikipedia does not make your argument more credible than others.
 
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