Apple's holiday iPhone ad focuses on family, tugs at heartstrings [u]

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 53
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    jony0 wrote: »
    Beautifully done. Fortunately the whole presentation on TV is appropriately in landscape, in spite of the fact that he was always working in portrait !

    It's a somewhat surprising lack of continuity from a company that usually gets a lot of these details right and you would think that the cinematographers that produced this should've thought of that too. On the other hand they probably simply wanted to portray the stereotypical teenager glued to their phone in a texting pose as most people would expect to see.

    Well spotted. That point does somewhat ruin the ad for me.
  • Reply 22 of 53
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    pigybank wrote: »
    So since they are playing "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" why do they say a generic "Happy Holidays"?
    :smokey:
    Because in the United States saying the phrase Merry Christmas these days isn't politically correct. :rolleyes: I almost wish they would have said nothing at all and just showed the Apple logo at the end.
  • Reply 23 of 53
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,333moderator
    jony0 wrote: »
    Beautifully done. Fortunately the whole presentation on TV is appropriately in landscape, in spite of the fact that he was always working in portrait !

    It's a somewhat surprising lack of continuity from a company that usually gets a lot of these details right and you would think that the cinematographers that produced this should've thought of that too. On the other hand they probably simply wanted to portray the stereotypical teenager glued to their phone in a texting pose as most people would expect to see.

    I thought the same thing, beautiful ad but why don't they fix vertical filming?

    http://www.dvice.com/2013-9-18/opinion-why-doesnt-ios-7-end-tallscreen-video


    [VIDEO]


    It shouldn't even be possible to shoot video in a vertical orientation. You can hold a phone much more steadily in portrait but the sensor should capture widescreen at all times.

    It also shouldn't allow you to tilt the video, the video should always be upright - in other words if you point at a tree and tilt 30 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees left, the final video should still show an upright tree. The video that comes from the phone should look like professional video from a shoulder-mounted camera. A shoulder-mounted or tripod-mounted camera has very little tilt capability and it's almost never used. It makes videos look amateur. iPhones have sensors that detect the slightest tilt so they should be able to keep the orientation upright. This would help the majority of user videos to be far higher quality with less chance of dropping the phone when filming. They can have overrides for special cases like maybe on a roller-coaster but they can also just store the accelerometer/gyro data along with the video as an option to correct movement later on.

    Anyway, it's good to see them keeping making ads like this. They really help show off their company values and it's such a contrast with what their competition comes out with.
  • Reply 24 of 53
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    jony0 wrote: »
    Beautifully done. Fortunately the whole presentation on TV is appropriately in landscape, in spite of the fact that he was always working in portrait !

    It's a somewhat surprising lack of continuity from a company that usually gets a lot of these details right and you would think that the cinematographers that produced this should've thought of that too. On the other hand they probably simply wanted to portray the stereotypical teenager glued to their phone in a texting pose as most people would expect to see.

    Why can't the kid have not used or crop the video he shot in portrait to only show a landscaped portion?

    Marvin wrote: »
    I thought the same thing, beautiful ad but why don't they fix vertical filming?

    http://www.dvice.com/2013-9-18/opinion-why-doesnt-ios-7-end-tallscreen-video


    video:

    It shouldn't even be possible to shoot video in a vertical orientation. You can hold a phone much more steadily in portrait but the sensor should capture widescreen at all times.

    It also shouldn't allow you to tilt the video, the video should always be upright - in other words if you point at a tree and tilt 30 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees left, the final video should still show an upright tree. The video that comes from the phone should look like professional video from a shoulder-mounted camera. A shoulder-mounted or tripod-mounted camera has very little tilt capability and it's almost never used. It makes videos look amateur. iPhones have sensors that detect the slightest tilt so they should be able to keep the orientation upright. This would help the majority of user videos to be far higher quality with less chance of dropping the phone when filming. They can have overrides for special cases like maybe on a roller-coaster but they can also just store the accelerometer/gyro data along with the video as an option to correct movement later on.

    Anyway, it's good to see them keeping making ads like this. They really help show off their company values and it's such a contrast with what their competition comes out with.

    I wonder if an L-shaped sensor could allow for both landscape in both portrait and landscape. Or would the lens and other components need to be converted, too? (Idea came from NasserAE)
  • Reply 25 of 53
    diegogdiegog Posts: 135member
    I don't understand why people think that 'happy holidays' more politically correct. The holiday season runs from sometime just after Halloween to after New Year's Eve. I've always felt that, and most people I know also think that way. So if you're saying happy holidays you're covering all of those holidays. Also, there are people that don't celebrate Christmas. However they most likely do celebrate New Year's and Thanksgiving. Therefore saying 'happy holidays' includes them also. Around Christmas I say Merry Christmas.

    It's not being politically correct, it's being inclusive of everybody during the holiday season.
    rogifan wrote: »
    :smokey:
    Because in the United States saying the phrase Merry Christmas these days isn't politically correct. :rolleyes: I almost wish they would have said nothing at all and just showed the Apple logo at the end.
  • Reply 26 of 53
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    diegog wrote: »
    I don't understand why people think that 'happy holidays' more politically correct. The holiday season runs from sometime just after Halloween to after New Year's Eve. I've always felt that, and most people I know also think that way. So if you're saying happy holidays you're covering all of those holidays. Also, there are people that don't celebrate Christmas. However they most likely do celebrate New Year's and Thanksgiving. Therefore saying 'happy holidays' includes them also. Around Christmas I say Merry Christmas.

    It's not being politically correct, it's being inclusive of everybody during the holiday season.
    But the song used in the video is called Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Is that inclusive of people who don't celebrate Christmas?
  • Reply 27 of 53
    wbowbo Posts: 2member
    Beautiful!!! It made this grandfather cry!
  • Reply 28 of 53
    Duplicate
  • Reply 29 of 53
    The song is a Christmas Carol and the video being shot is on Christmas day. If the song playing was Auld Lang Syne and the video is about New Year's eve and at the end they said happy holidays it would be appropriate also. Christmas is a holidayduring the holiday season. Therefore happy holidays is still appropriate.
    rogifan wrote: »
    But the song used in the video is called Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Is that inclusive of people who don't celebrate Christmas?
  • Reply 30 of 53
    Originally Posted by DiegoG View Post

    If the song playing was Auld Lang Syne and the video is about New Year's eve and at the end they said happy holidays it would be appropriate also.

     

    Following the Gregorian calendar is offensive to me. I demand you not show media about it.

  • Reply 31 of 53
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    Marvin wrote: »
    I thought the same thing, beautiful ad but why don't they fix vertical filming?

    It shouldn't even be possible to shoot video in a vertical orientation. You can hold a phone much more steadily in portrait but the sensor should capture widescreen at all times.

    It also shouldn't allow you to tilt the video, the video should always be upright - in other words if you point at a tree and tilt 30 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees left, the final video should still show an upright tree. The video that comes from the phone should look like professional video from a shoulder-mounted camera. A shoulder-mounted or tripod-mounted camera has very little tilt capability and it's almost never used. It makes videos look amateur. iPhones have sensors that detect the slightest tilt so they should be able to keep the orientation upright. This would help the majority of user videos to be far higher quality with less chance of dropping the phone when filming. They can have overrides for special cases like maybe on a roller-coaster but they can also just store the accelerometer/gyro data along with the video as an option to correct movement later on.

    Anyway, it's good to see them keeping making ads like this. They really help show off their company values and it's such a contrast with what their competition comes out with.

    Phooey. Both portrait and "Dutch angles" are necessary or at least desired in many cases. Do I need to cite examples?

    Also, in the ad, if there was even one moment of horizontal picture-taking it would have given away the ending.
  • Reply 32 of 53
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    Following the Gregorian calendar is offensive to me. I demand you not show media about it.

    It's true we humans lost our connection to nature when we went from a 13-moon year to a 12-month solar year.

    But Happy Solstice anyway.
  • Reply 33 of 53
    jakebjakeb Posts: 562member

    It's a great compromise. The story is about a specific family and that specific family is celebrating Christmas. But since Apple wants sell as many idevices as possible, they open up the message a little to everyone else at the end. Well played. An easy way to speak to more people with a touching story. 

  • Reply 34 of 53
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post





    I thought the same thing, beautiful ad but why don't they fix vertical filming?



    http://www.dvice.com/2013-9-18/opinion-why-doesnt-ios-7-end-tallscreen-video









    It shouldn't even be possible to shoot video in a vertical orientation. You can hold a phone much more steadily in portrait but the sensor should capture widescreen at all times.



    It also shouldn't allow you to tilt the video, the video should always be upright - in other words if you point at a tree and tilt 30 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees left, the final video should still show an upright tree. The video that comes from the phone should look like professional video from a shoulder-mounted camera. A shoulder-mounted or tripod-mounted camera has very little tilt capability and it's almost never used. It makes videos look amateur. iPhones have sensors that detect the slightest tilt so they should be able to keep the orientation upright. This would help the majority of user videos to be far higher quality with less chance of dropping the phone when filming. They can have overrides for special cases like maybe on a roller-coaster but they can also just store the accelerometer/gyro data along with the video as an option to correct movement later on.



    Anyway, it's good to see them keeping making ads like this. They really help show off their company values and it's such a contrast with what their competition comes out with.

     

    To me it looked like the kid was editing or something.  I mean how many socks did the gramps throw at the kid?  Wasn't there one scene in portrait with an elderly couple hugging?  Did he use iMovie?

     

    It's a dramatized commercial.  Not a documentary.  

  • Reply 35 of 53
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jony0 View Post



    Beautifully done. Fortunately the whole presentation on TV is appropriately in landscape, in spite of the fact that he was always working in portrait !



    It's a somewhat surprising lack of continuity from a company that usually gets a lot of these details right and you would think that the cinematographers that produced this should've thought of that too. On the other hand they probably simply wanted to portray the stereotypical teenager glued to their phone in a texting pose as most people would expect to see.

    He edited in portrait, and also in landscape (in the morning on the couch): possibly that gives better access to toolsets or has some other advantage? The one shot in portrait shown from behind the subject was when his grandfather throws a sock at him, an easy crop.

  • Reply 36 of 53
    jony0jony0 Posts: 378member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post





    I thought the same thing, beautiful ad but why don't they fix vertical filming?



    http://www.dvice.com/2013-9-18/opinion-why-doesnt-ios-7-end-tallscreen-video

     

     

    Thanks for the link and video, I will promptly forward both to all the people I have chastised in the past as a reminder.

  • Reply 37 of 53
    Marvin wrote: »
    It shouldn't even be possible to shoot video in a vertical orientation.

    I also don't like all these vertical videos I see. Still, I don't think they should disable it. A simple warning could be better. If the only device you are going to watch the video on you just shot is your iPhone, the video shooting experience could even be better. Could, as I think holding my iPhone vertically is much more natural and feels safer to hold than when holding it horizontally.

    Some musicians have the videoscreens put up in portrait mode because it is the artist they want to see from hair to feet:

    1000

    Anyhoo, that video was hilarious; thanks!
  • Reply 38 of 53
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,333moderator
    solipsismx wrote: »
    I wonder if an L-shaped sensor could allow for both landscape in both portrait and landscape. Or would the lens and other components need to be converted, too?

    Given my other requirement to keep the video upright in any orientation, I was thinking more of a circular sensor.
    flaneur wrote:
    Both portrait and "Dutch angles" are necessary or at least desired in many cases. Do I need to cite examples?

    The angle would be optional, just defaulted to fixed vertically. I'll need examples to justify portrait video.
    I mean how many socks did the gramps throw at the kid?

    Any more than one is abuse and Christmas is no time for that kind of sock abuse. The one he threw was filmed in portrait but displayed widescreen.
    jfc1138 wrote:
    The one shot in portrait shown from behind the subject was when his grandfather throws a sock at him, an easy crop.

    If it was the same take (which I don't think it was as the sock opened differently in each one), it would be possible with a crop. It would just take a video that was 1080x608 and blow it up to 1920x1080. That's close to SD resolution (1024x576) but for a quick shot, it would be usable. It would be easier to just have it widescreen in the first place though.
  • Reply 39 of 53
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member

    "just have it widescreen in the first place though"

     

    ?True,also  it might have started as just a cute, his grandfather throws a sock at him and the switch in viewpoint occurred later and they didn't correct for continuity amongst, as you say, the multiple takes.

  • Reply 40 of 53
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jony0 View Post



    Beautifully done. Fortunately the whole presentation on TV is appropriately in landscape, in spite of the fact that he was always working in portrait !

     

     

    Was he shooting or was he editing?

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