Today, Apple released three new short video ads as part of the “Shot on iPhone” campaign, each highlighting (and joking about) specific camera capabilities of the iPhone 13 Pro models.

The first film, called “Detectives,” shows two serious-looking men seated in a car discussing the iPhone 13’s Cinematic Mode that detects subjects and shifts focal length in a shot. The detective sitting in the foreground mentions that he is in focus because he is the main character. The detective in the blurry background asks whether he is out of focus and says, “what if my character had a big reveal?” as the focus shifts to him smoothly.

The short ad sets the tone for the others that follow, where the actors discuss the feature being advertised, contributing to the humor. It is worth noting that the films were probably shot using auxiliary equipment besides the iPhone 13. So despite the tagline “Hollywood in your pocket,” it won’t be easy to recreate the results you see advertised.

https://youtu.be/lJ3Vu8INg8U

In the other ad called “The Basement,” a woman walks through a dark house as an eerie voice cries “help me” and draws her to the basement. When she opens the door leading to the basement, she voices her concern saying, “that the picture quality will suffer in such low light.” However, the creepy voice reassures her that she “looks really good.” The film intends to highlight the iPhone 13’s low-light performance.

https://youtu.be/JZk88UGFay4

The third ad, called “Pavel,” is a black-and-white video in Russian (with English subtitles). The scene opens with a man seated on a chair with a serious background score. A woman then enters the room and remarks, “this slow unnerving zoom suggests you are descending into madness.” It then shows the camera smoothly zooming in towards the man’s face. This film advertises the iPhone 13’s 3x optical zoom capability.

https://youtu.be/nuACd3xTXNM

Which of these ad films did you find most captivating? Tell us in the comments below.