When Austin Reza, Creative Director for Reza & Co. was commissioned to conceive and produce a commercial for luxury car maker Bentley's new Mulsanne model, the fact that the automobile included Apple-centric features led him to consider shooting the project with an iPhone 5S.
The spot and quick behind the scenes video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyYhM0XIIwU
I use the camera best suited for the project, and we shoot on everything from Alexa to REDs, ENG-style and cine-style cameras, said Reza. For this commercial, the iPhone we shot with was as much a character as the cars themselves. We're talking about integrating technology, specifically Apple, into the Mulsanne, and it only made sense to shoot it with the iPhone to give a nod to this kind of techno-lux: technology and luxury kind of merging together.
To give him the range of focal lengths he would need to shoot from the back seat of the car and for exteriors, Reza knew he would need more than just the iPhone's built-in lens. I did some tests and I liked the iPro Lens System from Schneider Optics. The lenses we used the most were the Tele and the Super Wide. Shooting at 50MB/s with the iPhone 5S, the smartphone and iPro lens combination gave him the full resolution needed for the project.
Pairing the iPhone and iPro lenses with a Freefly Systems M VI M5 stabilizer and SmallHD seven-inch monitor, Reza said he had his entire production kit in an easily portable package. People look at that spot and think we had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but actually it was the opposite. I carried the iPhone mounted in the M VI in my hands, the extra iPro lenses in my pocket, and the SmallHD monitor in my bag. The iPro smartphone case, which provides a bayonet mount for the lenses, allowed him to quickly swap lenses during the shoot.
He recalled one complicated shot in particular that the minimalist equipment approach greatly simplified. It included a taxi passing by, and our talent walking through the cobblestone streets of the Meatpacking District of New York. It was mind-blowing in terms of how quickly we laid it out. I blocked the shot in probably 15 minutes, and we did two or three rehearsals. Then we did one take with our talent and we were done. I don't think you could have done that with any dolly, any slider, or any hand held rig--that quickly. It was so simple.
One hurdle Reza had to surmount was checking focus. In a quick stop at an Apple Store, he picked up a Lightning Bolt to HDMI cable that allowed him to input the iPhone's video into his SmallHD monitor. We mounted it right on the M VI and we had a field monitor for checking focus and composition during each shot.
To cap the project off, Austin Reza edited the commercial in the back seat of the Mulsanne using one of the iPads permanently mounted for passengers.
After his success with the iPro lenses on the iPhone for that Bentley commercial, Austin Reza is ready to deploy this same minimalist equipment kit for other projects that could benefit from the high quality and simplicity he experienced on this production.
Schneider Optics offers Macro, Super Wide, Wide Angle, 2X Tele and Fisheye lenses allowing users to get more in every shot with smartphones or iPads.
For additional iPro information, visit http://www.iprolens.com
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When Austin Reza, Creative Director for Reza & Co. was commissioned to conceive and produce a commercial for luxury car maker Bentley's new Mulsanne model, the fact that the automobile included Apple-centric features led him to consider shooting the project with an iPhone 5S. 
