On Wednesday, June 18, Apple unveiled its latest Shot on iPhone movie, “Big Man”. It is a short film starring Michael Omari, better known as music icon Stormzy in his first leading dramatic role, at a stylish and glitzy screening in London — you can also watch it on YouTube.
Stormzy, Klevis Brahja, Jaydon Eastman, the main cast in “Big Man”.
It was shot entirely on a series of iPhone 16 Pro handsets, and the more you learn about the film, the more it made the use of the phone inevitable. The film is about Tenzman, a musician whose star has been on the decline for some years and an encounter with two teenage boys. The short film covers a lot of emotional distance in its roughly 20-minute length.
A question-and answer session followed the premiere of the movie at BFI Southbank, at National Film Theatre 1, a gorgeously comfortable and effective cinema, as well as a prestigious location.
Director Aneil Karia (himself already an Academy Award winner) talked about the improvisational nature of the film. On its own, that makes the tiny iPhone a better bet than the “30-kilogram” Hollywood movie cameras, as Karia put it. The iPhone was better to get up close and capture subtle moments without overwhelming the actors. Especially since two of the protagonists are teenage boys, both of whom are brilliant and utterly natural, by the way.
A small, handheld iPhone is much less intimidating — though the array of around half a dozen iPhones positioned around the car that’s the setting for much of the film might have been more noticeable.
Stuart Bentley, Director of Photography, talked about the set-up, which for the most part was the iPhone in a handheld gimbal unit, with the addition of different extra lenses as needed to permit long tracking shots and so on.
Even with these additions, the iPhone 16 Pro would have been much less intrusive than other cameras, allowing the director a more elegantly informal approach.
Bentley also said, “We’re pushing the camera to the very limits of what it’s capable of, and we’ve found it to be really resilient. And obviously it’s tiny so you can get the camera into positions where you may not be able to get a traditional camera which has been really liberating for us and in ways that allow you to be really inventive and creative with your camera choices.”
The movie is well worth seeing, from a dramatic perspective alone, but the use of the iPhone 16 Pro makes it a technical marvel as well.
