Shot on iPhone - Vertical Cinema / directed by Damien Chazelle (2020) 9:16

Best Director Oscar winner for 2016's La La Land, Damien Chazelle, has directed a love story through the ages using the world's most hated format. Vertical. 

It's quite the journey through cinema history, from silent films simple stunts to westerns, musicals, and more, all while our hero the stuntman keeps missing out on the kiss from the leading lady. Each shot planned for vertical tells the story with excellent framing, unlike when grandma forgets to turn her phone over and misses most of the action. Here DoP Linus Sandgren keeps it very tights, with Damien Chazelle clearly enjoing playing with making the audience look up and down for details in each shot.

At nearly ten minutes, it's quite a long advert, but also quite entertaining as each genre is cleverly reinvented for vertical, the western scene of a duel at noon is particularly fun with the saloon door shot, and the hero stuntman's fall to the ground. 

If it will make people remember to not shoot in vertical, or challenge them to edit their own cinematic opuses in vertical remains to be seen. At least we all know now that in the hands of an Academy Award® winning director, the iPhone 11 Pro can make some pretty sweet films. 

Client: Apple 

Director: Damien Chazelle 

DoP: Linus Sandgren

Hero Stuntman: Tom McComas

Leading Lady: Preeti Desai

Leading Man: Nick Ballard