Some big news from the launch of the Galaxy S23 this week – it turns out that if you hand a camera phone to Ridley Scott, the three-time Academy Award nominee for Best Director can shoot some amazing videos with it.
As a way to showcase the camera capabilities of the Galaxy S23 lineup in general and the Galaxy S23 Ultra in particular, Samsung enlisted Scott, and asked the famous director to shoot a short film with its flagship. Scott obliged, and the resulting project, Behold, looks promising enough in trailer form. You wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Scott and his crew had nothing but glowing things to say about the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s versatility of video capture capabilities.
Scott wasn’t the only director Samsung called in to launch the S23. Korean director Na Hong-jin used the Galaxy S23 Ultra in a movie called Faith which also happened to showcase some of the camera’s capabilities in low light.
Turning to creative professionals to sing praises for the best camera phones isn’t a practice unique to Samsung. Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow has launched a series of ads on behalf of Apple to showcase the cinematic mode introduced with the iPhone 13. Renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz was part of the launch of the Google Pixel 4, lending her huge reputation to this phone’s photo-capturing capabilities. Phone makers of all kinds love tapping directors and photographers home so much that their camera phones are just as powerful as film cameras, DSLRs, and any other expensive photography gear you can name.
It is certainly an understandable practice. And I beg phone makers to stop doing that.
Look, you get what Samsung is trying to do when it hands off the Galaxy S23 Ultra to the likes of Ridley Scott and Na Hong-jin. (Or what Apple and Google are trying to do, if you prefer). “Look how powerful the video and photo capabilities of our phones are,” the phone makers tell you. Why, Ridley Scott can even use it to produce an amazing piece of cinema.
Well, of course Ridley Scott can do that. You guys saw an alien.
To that I say, well, of course Ridley Scott can do it. You guys saw an alien. I know he’s good at making movies.
What I also know is that I’m more Michael Scott than Ridley Scott. My filmmaking and photoshoot skills are a few dozen levels below an accomplished Hollywood director. What will your camera phone do for me? I mean, you could also invite Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood on stage at the iPhone 15 launch to promote iMessage’s text composition tools.
Take a look at that Galaxy S23 Ultra video featuring Ridley Scott (Opens in a new tab). (or the The one with Na Hong Jin, if you will.) They have a full camera crew with director of photography and army command. I spy camera dollies, jacks, and some professional-looking lighting fixtures. I also won’t have any of that available when it comes time to photograph my daughter’s ballet recital.
Any time a famous film director or photographer walks up on stage at a phone launch to showcase the amazing work they’ve been able to create with nothing but a humble smartphone, I think of American Express commercial with director Martin Scorsese (Opens in a new tab). He’s in an hour-long photo lab, snapping pictures he took for his nephew’s birthday party. And he’s completely amazed at the results.
We laugh at the ad, and not only because it turns out that Martin Scorsese is a first-rate comedian. (Seriously – check out the look he gives to the employee who insists the pictures look nice.) We laugh because it’s so silly that a taxi driver’s manager would beat himself up over pictures he took at a kid’s birthday party — and because anything we photographed would undoubtedly look worse.
Instead of using an Academy Award-winning director, famous cinematographer, or even a reincarnation of Thomas Edison to show what a camera phone can do, phone makers like Samsung and Apple should look for a regular schlub — someone who thinks Rule of Thirds has something to do with it. Royal Succession whose blurry shots aren’t caused by the bokeh effect. This young man, who certainly looks nothing like me, might say, “Before this phone, the last 10 photos I took showed my thumb prominently.” “But now look at the pictures I can take!”
This is how to sell a camera phone, friends. Tell Ridley Scott and Na Hong-jin to stick to their day jobs.
