Why Apple Wants You To Use Their iPad To Film Your Next Project

The Oscars commercials are nowhere near as much fun as the Super Bowl commercials, but with the number of people who turn in for the annual award show, they can still make quite a splash. It looks like that’s what Apple’s new iPad commercial is designed to do. In case you missed it, check it out here.

Yes, that’s director Martin Scorsese speaking.

Apple wants viewers to know that its iPad can be used as a powerful filmmaking tool. The commercial itself was shot on an iPad Air 2, according to Mashable. The device’s iSight camera captures video at 1080 pixels and 30 frames per second.

To make the commercial, Apple partnered with the High School of the Arts in Los Angeles County, according to Time. The commercial itself follows students as they film a variety of scenes with the device—and, towards the end, a boom mike and a radio control plane—using apps that are currently available in the app store.

Scorsese’s narration comes from his commencement speech given in 2014 to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

So why the big push to see Apple’s iPad as more than just another tablet? Analysts are pointing to an IDC press release from the beginning of February, stating that for the first time, year-over-year sales on tablets are down. After all, when tablets first became popular, most people used them for watching video, going online, and playing games. With our phones steadily increasing in size, tablets seem to be more of a specialty item. Inquisitr has reported previously about how the iPhone 6 Plus seems to be cannibalizing a share of the iPad’s market, particularly the iPad mini. Apple’s Mac computers have long been viewed as the go-to tool for photography and image editing software, so it’s a natural move for them to point to the iPad as a similar device for video.

Here’s the text of Scorsese’s narration, according to Petapixel.

“You can’t do your work according to the people’s values. I’m not talking about ‘following your dream,’ either. I never like the inspirational value of that phrase. Dreaming is a way of trivializing the process, the obsession that carries you through the failure as well as the successes which could be harder to get through.

If you’re dreaming, you’re sleeping. It’s important and imperative to always be awake to your feelings, your possibilities, your ambitions. But you also know this, for your work, for your passions, every day is a rededication.

Painters, dancers, writers, filmmakers, it’s the same for all of you, all of us. Every step is a first step, every brush stroke is a test, every scene is a lesson, every shot is a school. So, let the learning continue.”

It will be fascinating to see what the next generation of filmmakers can do with the technology of the Apple iPad.

[Image from Business Insider]