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Discovering the New French Apple Campaign

Axel Morin gives their letters of nobility in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, in black and white.

Apple is behind a new video campaign full of aesthetics. Filmed only in black and white using the iPhone X, it highlights the identity of three French cities:  : Paris, Lyon et Marseille through three mini-film of thirty seconds. For each of these cities, three musical artists composed a dedicated title, which they perform on each of the mini-films. For Paris, Lomepal composed the very successful “Deux”. Reef pays tribute to his city of Marseille with the rhythmic sound of “Zoom”. The urban identity of Lyon is delivered by Chilla and its title “Dans la ville”.

The realization of these very beautiful video contents was thought by the French director and photographerAxel Morin, represented by the Frenzy agency. We had the privilege of meeting him to learn more behind the scenes of his new creation for Apple.

Fubiz: How did your collaboration with Apple begin?

Axel Morin: Apple creatives have discovered my work via Frenzy Paris / Picture who represents me as an artist, they have browsed my portfolio from one to the other …

They really liked my experimental approach “Video Art”, the sense and the emotion that some of my images give off … my way of mixing the still image and the moving image into a single entity, my compositions and my work on the materials & textures that can be found in my images …
Following this, the Apple agency contacted me to propose this project “Shot on iPhone. The project immediately appealed to me and things began quickly.

How did you approach the subject of the three cities? Why did you opt for black and white?

In this project, it was necessary to show each city with its own heartbeat, its own sounds to hear, its own emotions, its own stories, give a contemporary vision of these cities, transcribe my vision with the sound of the artist. It’s a real collaboration with the artist. Before cutting the film, I had to sound to find the rhythm.
I met the artists to know them a little more, to know their passions, what they liked, so that the final work remains authentic.

Black and white was part of the basic brief. Black and white allowed me to make things timeless. I wanted to keep the black and white very photographic, with the real “gray” of the time, turn with an iPhone but try to find the black and white photographic of the time.

For me “The city is a living painting in perpetual evolution, you just have to look at it, capture your emotions and transcribe them with your own vision of the world.” That’s what I tried to transcribe in these 3 films.

These three cities (Paris, Lyon and Marseille) have very distinct identities. How did you proceed to impregnate and bring out in these beautiful creations?

I went to each city. We had three days of tracking. We wandered everywhere. We looked for places that corresponded to the emotion we wanted to give. The discovery was also at the rendezvous. We discovered unexpected places that immediately pleased us.

I know Paris well, I live there. I had a new look at Lyon and Marseille since I had not been there for several years. I rediscovered Marseille. It is a city with a lot of energy. I like the mixture of organic with concrete. The two are confronting each other. It’s a kind of contradiction that works very well. I had a great freedom on frames and contrasts. For Paris we wanted a black and white more gray to represent the emotion of the city. For Marseille, where there is a lot of sun with concrete shining, we opted for a black and white that brings out the white. For Lyon we wanted to go more towards intense blacks.

The videos have a duration of 30 seconds and 20 seconds. How did you approach this “constraint”?

It’s a classic format that is advertised. The videos were 30 seconds and we made some cut-down later. The most difficult thing was to transcribe the emotion over this duration. We must go to the basics.

We had shot a lot of shots. We were on three days of scouting and two days of shooting per city. There were a lot of things that were cut and spontaneous. Cutting was sometimes done in the street, seeing things that stick to what we wanted to transmit, I stopped and I shot. The iPhone allows this freedom. There is a very fluid side. You can capture shots with great spontaneity.

What tools did you use?

I shot with the iPhone X and we used the application Filmic Pro. I did not use optical add-on.

What place does this project occupy in the entirety of your work? Will it be a turning point?

The turning point I do not know, people decide the turning point actually. For me it was a very beautiful experience. Apple has granted us a great creative freedom, a freedom on frames, contrasts. I am very proud of this project. I feel comfortable with the subject. I had a lot of fun.

Comment résumerais-tu ce projet en une phrase?

« The city behind the voice/The voice behind the city »