New Music Video From K-Pop Group NewJeans Shot Entirely on iPhone
Apple has collaborated with K-Pop girl group NewJeans for their new song ETA to shoot the whole music video on iPhone. But it goes further than previous “shot on iPhone” collaborations since Apple’s smartphone actually plays a part in the narrative.
There is no shortage of “shot on iPhone” projects in recent months, as Apple’s handheld was used to shoot a Bollywood film that released in February as well as a 2023 Chinese New Year Celebration film that came out in January.
However, NewJeans’ new music video is the first time in recent memory that a high-profile “shot on iPhone” project actually used the iPhone as a major player in the story arc. ETA isn’t just shot on iPhone, it even starts with a FaceTime call.
The music video feels like it tries to integrate as many of the iPhone’s shooting capabilities and features as possible, from using it to shoot the choreographed dance moves with Action Mode (and even showing members of the K-Pop girl group navigating to the feature) to using Cinematic mode to make focus transitions to different subjects in the frame. FaceTime is ever-present throughout as well.
“For this project, we had to get every shot using iPhone 14 Pro. That’s why we started the creative process by exploring unique approaches that are only achievable with iPhone. That was an interesting experience,” says Woo-Seok Shin, the director of the music video. “Action mode was particularly helpful for capturing stable videos of big movements in the choreography.”
Apple Korea shared a short behind the scenes of how one dance sequence was shot, and unlike previous “shot on iPhone” behind-the-scenes videos, it appears that the camera crew went as simple as possible, hand-holding just a bare iPhone instead of integrating it into a rig or adding large optics to improve image quality.
“It was fun to create a music video with iPhone as a motif, since it’s used by so many people including myself, NewJeans members, and their fans in everyday life,” Executive Producer Hee-Jin Min says.
The “collaboration” is admittedly a clever way to blend product placement into a very popular K-pop group, and it appears to have paid off. At the time of publication, ETA had only been online for 12 hours but had racked up over five million views on YouTube — who knows how many more watched it through Apple Music. The integration of Apple is prominent but apparently subtle enough that, at least at the time of publication, there was not a single complaint in any of the top comments.
Image credits: NewJeans / Apple
