New John Legend video filmed entirely on Pixel 2, looks amazing

You may not be aware, but the latest film from director Steven Soderbergh, called Unsane, was filmed entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus. The movie was pretty mediocre, and you could definitely tell it wasn’t shot on pro equipment. After viewing it, I wondered if a better-looking film could be made on Android hardware.

It looks like I didn’t have to wait long to get an answer, as R&B artist John Legend just released a new music video for his song “A Good Night” that was filmed entirely on a Google Pixel 2. Does it look better than Soderbergh’s film shot on an iPhone? You bet it does. It looks a LOT better.

You may not care for Legend’s music (I’m certainly not that big of a fan), but if no one told me that the video was shot on a smartphone, I wouldn’t have been able to tell:

The crew incorporated some clever tricks to work with the Pixel 2 and its limited ability to use focus and depth-perception. While the Pixel 2 is undoubtedly a video powerhouse when it comes to smartphones, its sensors are much smaller than what you would find on pro film gear, so the crew had to get creative. They used different lighting and unique ways of rigging the camera to give the viewer a sense of space.

You can hear more about how the crew pulled the whole video off as well as see some of the cool riggings they did in the making-of featurette below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=118&v=Je6Y2qbNc-E

Now that I’ve seen this video, I really want to see what the Pixel 2 can do when you attach the upcoming anamorphic widescreen lens that Moment is currently crowdsourcing on Kickstarter. I can only imagine a film director being able to create some stunning work with that combo.

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