‘Modern Family’ Redefines TV By Filming With Apple Devices And iPhones – Here’s How To Watch [Video]
Modern Family may have just redefined not just families, but what technology is necessary to film a highly rated TV show. That’s because the producers decided to challenge the concept that you need expensive products by filming an entire episode using Apple devices and iPhones, reported Yahoo News.
As to how and why, executive producer Steve Levitan explained that the show was designed to show life through Claire Dunphy’s vantage point. As a result, because viewers see the Modern Family action via Claire’s Mac laptop, the actual story is told on a FaceTime video-calling app.
Called “Connection Lost,” the episode provided Levitan and his co-producers as well as the cast with some new information about the potential for filming using a smartphone.
Does the cutting-edge methodology open the doors to having actors also become cameramen? Well, not exactly, admitted Steve.
“We thought the actors would be their own camera person originally, but it’s just a lot for them to have to get everything framed just right. We quickly devised a method where a camera person held the phone just in front of them. So that it didn’t look like the phone was floating in space, we always had an actor put their hand on the cameraman’s hand. That made it look like they were doing a selfie thing.”
They might have achieved the same result using their standard equipment, added the co-creator of Modern Family. But that would involve a two-step process, first shooting, and then making it appear as if it had been shot with Apple devices. Hence the decision to use the iPhone as the key to the episode, added Steve.
“We wanted it to look as real as possible, so rather than shoot it on this incredible camera and then dumb the image down a bit so it looks like an iPhone, why not just shoot it with an iPhone?” he mused. “This is certainly good enough for our purposes, and it made the most sense.”
But despite the shift to a different look via Apple products, Steve pleads with viewers to focus on the story, not the technology.
“The really compelling part here is the story telling, not so much how we did it technologically. At the end of the day, this story needed to be told this way. It’s an emotional story, and it’s a funny story. Ultimately when you have that going for you, it keeps this from becoming a gimmick. While the iPhone thing is a nice headline, I hope ultimately people remember this as a compelling episode.”
ABC will air “Connection Lost” at 9 p.m. EST Wednesday. It also can be viewed online starting Thursday if you have a subscription to Hulu Plus, cable or satellite.
As for the results, is “Connection Lost” lost in technology? It’s the opposite, as the Modern Family characters are perceived in an eye-opening way, according to ABC News.
However, some of the show has been changed in a way that differs from how real technology performs.
“Claire made FaceTime calls with multiple people at once. In reality, you’re limited to one at a time. She also got to Google’s Street View through a link from Apple’s mapping service. The two fierce rivals don’t actually link to each other like that.”
As to whether this will start a new media industry trend in how TV shows, movies, and even newspaper videos are made remains to be seen. However, as the Inquisitr reported, when NBC decided to create a live broadcast with Sound Of Music Live, both that network and others were enthralled with the runaway ratings success, resulting in Peter Pan Live with Allison Williams.
[Photo By Jason Merritt/Getty Images]
