Latest news with #AppleFilm
Fast Company
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
How Expensify landed primo placement in Brad Pitt's blockbuster movie ‘F1'
From its first trailer, it was crystal clear that Apple was serious about making its blockbuster ode to car racing as realistic as possible. It was shot in and around an actual Formula One season. Legendary driver Lewis Hamilton was a producer and consultant. And Brad Pitt's fictional F1 team had a large collection of very real brand partners and sponsors. One of if not the most visible is expense management software brand Expensify. It's on the car, it's on the helmet, it's emblazoned across Brad Pitt's chest. Damson Idris's character actually shoots an Expensify commercial in the film. Idris also showed up to the Met Gala in the racing suit. This is 1,000-horsepower product placement. On this episode of Brand New World, I talk to Expensify's chief financial officer Ryan Schaffer, and Hannes Ciatti, founder and head creative at ad agency Alto, who give me a look under the hood of how the brand got such a prominent role in what is shaping up to be Apple's first hit film. Schaffer says that the brand is almost omnipresent in the film by nature of its placement as a F1 sponsor, but that the level of exposure around the film was unexpected. Things like the Don Tolliver/Doja Cat music video, or the fact the Expensify logo pops up in every other brand sponsor's promo materials, have made it already worth the investment. 'We have 20 companies right now promoting our logo. Other companies much larger than ours are promoting our logo, not on purpose, but we can't help but be there by nature of this sponsorship. Heineken's running a spot we're in, and we've never spoken to them.' Industry debrief We recorded this episode in late June, as most of the advertising, marketing, and brand industry was fresh off the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. That's where brands, marketers, ad agencies, tech companies, platforms, entertainment, sports, or anyone who is part of the brand world ecosystem lands in the South of France to celebrate the previous year and make deals for the months ahead. To make sense of it all, or at least a good portion of it, I called up Tim Nudd, the creativity editor at Advertising Age, and a journalist who's been covering and commenting on this industry for longer than almost anyone. Inside scoops, gossip, or just good stories, Nudd and I talked about what impressed him most, surprised him, and what he's hearing we can expect from major brands heading into the second half of the year. Check it out here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Phone Arena
17-06-2025
- Automotive
- Phone Arena
The secret F1 camera built with iPhone parts that made the iPhone even better
Screen capture from Apple's F1: The Movie trailer (Image credit — Apple) Apple revealed that its upcoming film "F1: The Movie" utilized an exclusive camera system made from iPhone components to record racing footage. A custom camera device was developed to fulfill the specific recording needs of Formula 1 vehicles through its driver-view camera functionality. F1 driver-view camera systems are designed with live stream latency in mind, not optimal quality or post-production workflows. That's where Apple's engineers had to flex their creative muscles. The team developed a replacement broadcast unit with an aerodynamic design that matched standard broadcast unit dimensions and shapes to protect the vehicle's structural and aerodynamic properties. The module housed a camera sensor from an iPhone, a custom version of iOS, and an Apple A-series processor — likely the A17 Pro, given the production timeline. The camera captured footage in ProRES using LOG encoding, which is better suited for color grading in professional editing environments. According to a report by Wired, the module included: A 48 MP iPhone camera sensor sensor An A-series chip for image processing for image processing An iPhone battery for power for power An ND (neutral density) filter to manage exposure The absence of wireless controls meant that videographers relied on a USB-C connection and a custom iPad application to manage recording settings such as frame rate, white balance, and capture triggers. The iPhone 15 Pro Max camera system. | Image credit — PhoneArena The development work conducted for F1 racing has possibly affected the video functions within the iPhone 15 Pro. The new iPhone 15 Pro added LOG recording capabilities along with Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) support, which professionals use in mobile hardware integration into a customized module makes this instance unique because it was developed to function within a high-speed, high-vibration environment. Apple has not provided information about future plans for this camera system, though. And to think that all of this is happening while Apple TV+, where the movie has aired exclusively, is reportedly losing over $1 billion a year despite having 45 million subscribers, with limited viewership and costly content investments. In fact, Apple TV+ might be Apple's only unprofitable subscription service right now. While Apple's story with the F1 movie is a unique case of using a phone (or more like a phone's parts) to shoot a movie, other companies have done similar projects. For example, Samsung promoted the Galaxy S23 Ultra's camera prowess by getting none other than Sir Ridley Scott to film the movie "Behold." Here it is: Sony also did something of this sort for its movie "Kilian's Game," which was partially shot with the Xperia 1 III and Xperia PRO 5G: All of these examples tell me one thing — phone cameras have come much closer to professional-grade ones, especially when you throw in a few modifications and a person that knows what they are doing. While these stories are undoubtedly done with PR in mind, I can't help but feel inspired by them.
