‘I Could Shoot Something Again’ says Filmmaker With Parkinson’s Disease

Aug 21, 2025

Jeremy Gray

Apple has long been an industry leader when it comes to accessibility in technology. The company highlighted how the Action mode in its latest iPhone smartphones can help those with Parkinson’s disease capture steadier, sharper video.

As Apple’s video “No Frame Missed” highlights, there are more than 10 million people worldwide who live with Parkinson’s disease. While there have been significant advancements made in treating the symptoms of the degenerative neurological disease, there is no cure, and many of those living with Parkinson’s struggle with motor symptoms, including reduced stability and severe tremors.

Understandably, these tremors can make it difficult for people to do things that many take for granted, like capturing precious family photos and videos. Photos and videos are such a common way for people to document their lives and share their experiences with their loved ones.

A man standing outdoors on a hilltop uses a smartphone to take a photo or video, with a landscape of rolling hills and a partly cloudy sky in the background.

Two women stand in a grassy backyard. One woman in a grey shirt stands with her hands clasped, facing another woman in a sleeveless top and jeans who is talking with her arm raised. A red house and garden are in the background.

A man in a dark t-shirt kneels on the grass in a garden, holding a small camera or device and focusing intently, with colorful flowers and greenery in the background.

One of the subjects of Apple’s “No Frame Missed,” is Brett Harvey, a filmmaker, writer, and editor who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the unusually early age of just 37 years old. While many people diagnosed with the disease are in their 60s, early-onset Parkinson’s affects roughly 10-20% of those afflicted with the disease, and about half of those people are diagnosed before they turn 40.

“I’m a filmmaker, I’m a writer, director, and editor,” Harvey says. “The thing that I love doing is playing with cameras. I’ve been playing with cameras for 30 years, but I can’t do that anymore because of my hands, because of the tremors, so you have to slowly say goodbye to something you love. And you come to terms with that slowly but sort of surely.”

Harvey, who has a young son, says that he’ll be out with his family and notice that the light is beautiful, thinking that he would film the moment if he could.

“But I can’t,” Harvey says.

At least, he couldn’t.

Thanks to Action Mode on iPhone, which Harvey can control using his voice thanks to iPhone’s rich accessibility features, he was able to record stable handheld footage of his son, Dexter, riding a bike for the first time.

“Every birthday counts. Every day counts,” says Bette W., who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 10 years ago. “These are the memories that mean most in life.”

As the video samples show, the Action Mode is extremely impressive and can stabilize very shaky footage.

“The lovely thing about yesterday was it made me feel like I could shoot something again,” Harvey says, fighting back tears. “For someone like me who’s been using cameras for 30 years, it being an option again is kind of life-changing.”

Image credits: Apple