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Brad Pitt’s upcoming F1 movie is shaping as much as be the blockbuster sensation that Apple TV wanted. The Apple unique will hit theaters earlier than streaming on-line, and that’s in all probability one of the simplest ways to look at F1.
This isn’t a film shot with particular results, and that’s the primary cause I need to see it. Director Joseph Kosinski, identified for placing actors in actual jet fighters to movie Prime Gun: Maverick, did one thing related for this film about System 1 racing. He wished precise footage from the cockpit whereas the System 1 vehicles had been reaching speeds of as much as 300 km/h on well-liked tracks all over the world. He most popular actual race footage over the simpler route of computer-generated races.
If you happen to’ve watched System 1 races, you understand that broadcast administrators routinely swap to the cameras contained in the vehicles to present us a form of first-person have a look at the race. That know-how wasn’t adequate for Kosinski. Fortunately, he had a trusted companion to assist enhance the standard of these System 1 cameras: Apple.
That’s proper, Apple didn’t simply fund the F1 film, it additionally offered important know-how used to seize most of the scenes exhibiting System 1 drivers racing on well-liked circuits.
Apple needed to place just a few important iPhone 15 Professional parts contained in the fins on System 1 vehicles that include the common cameras used for stay broadcasts. It additionally devised new digital camera options that later rolled out to the general public with the iPhone 15 sequence.
Apple held a presentation at WWDC 2025 concerning the work it did to enhance the standard of footage a System 1 automobile can seize, and to ensure it labored properly for the F1 film.
Detailed by Wired and a number of other YouTubers who attended the briefing, Apple’s digital camera work for the F1 race is nothing wanting spectacular.
Apple virtually hid the brains, battery, and digital camera of an iPhone 15 Professional in a kind of tiny fins on a System 1 automobile to seize skilled footage. It did this for a number of F1 vehicles, which used Apple’s iPhone cameras in actual races all through the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Which means Apple used these iPhone components earlier than the iPhone 15 sequence was launched.
Whereas Apple didn’t reveal actual specs, it seemingly used an A17 Professional chip, which accommodates the picture processing energy for the digital camera, together with a 48-megapixel huge digital camera. That’s the setup discovered within the iPhone 15 Professional and 15 Professional Max fashions.
Apple additionally used an iPhone battery and added a impartial density filter on high of the digital camera.
The one strategy to management the digital camera was by hooking it up by way of cable to a customized iPad, which let the director and cinematographer handle the pictures.
Apparently, the digital camera Apple designed was lighter than anticipated, so further weights needed to be added to ensure the System 1 automobile specs had been nonetheless met.
The System 1 “iPhone” ran iOS with customized firmware. The movies had been captured in log format utilizing Apple’s ProRes lossless video codec. This allowed editors to match the race visuals with the remainder of the film.
Apple later introduced log encoding and Academy Colour Encoding System (ACES) help to the iPhone in September 2023 with the launch of the iPhone 15 sequence. Most iPhone customers in all probability gained’t use these superior video options, however creators who need to shoot high-end clips on iPhone definitely can.
The video captured for the F1 film will show that iPhones can be utilized to document skilled video. It’s already taking place. Most just lately, Apple’s WWDC 2025 presentation was filmed utilizing iPhones.
Be sure to look at Bobby Tonelli’s video under to get a greater thought of what Apple did to ship the absolute best F1 expertise, and the way that impacted iPhone digital camera efficiency. The clip additionally consists of visuals that specify what sort of System 1 guidelines Apple needed to observe to get its cameras into actual races.
