How Apple Filmed its ‘Scary Fast’ Event on iPhone 15 Pro Max

Apple’s “Scary Fast” event on Monday, which unveiled the new MacBook Pro with M3 chips and the 24-inch iMac with M3, had an ace up its sleeve behind the scenes: the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Brian Oakes, the event showcased the most expensive iPhone’s capabilities as a professional video camera.

“We were able to get the same complex shots with iPhone 15 Pro Max,” said Oakes. “It’s amazing to see that the quality from a device that is so small and so portable can rival a large $20,000 camera.”

The iPhone 15 Pro Max camera system supports ProRes up to 4K60 fps and is the first smartphone to support the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES). The production was advised by Apple’s Jon Carr, a Pro Workflow video specialist, and Jeff Wozniak, who has worked on major productions.

“This year, iPhone 15 Pro Max was supercharged with the ability to record ProRes to an external drive, and Apple Log, our flavour of a format that all of the very high-end digital cameras shoot,” Wozniak stated on Tuesday.

The event also utilized the Blackmagic Camera app and Tentacle Sync for seamless integration. “We’ve done a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes working with a great third-party developer, Blackmagic Design,” said Carr.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s new USB-C connector supports data transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, enabling new workflows like ProRes video recording directly to an external SSD drive. “When I first got the footage from iPhone 15 Pro Max, I was immediately pleasantly surprised,” said Stefan Sonnenfeld, CEO of Company 3, who coloured the presentation.

The event demonstrated the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s capabilities in low-light video performance and dynamic range, further solidifying its position as a tool for professional video production. “There’s cranes, there’s dollies, there’s all the toys that you want as a filmmaker,” Oakes added, highlighting the traditional filming techniques employed during the event.

Check out the behind-the-scenes video below: