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Parks and Recreation and Reunions and iPhones

30.4.2020

Translation: machine translated

The comedy series "Parks and Recreation" returns next Thursday. Exciting: the Reunion Special was filmed entirely on iPhone.

The series "Parks and Recreation" is back. After a four-year absence, viewers will enjoy Ron Swanson's nastiness, April Ludgate's disinterest and Leslie Knope's ... idiosyncrasies.

Anecdote: the Special was filmed entirely with the iPhone.

Imaging is not a problem

A lot of details work in favour of "Parks and Rec" being filmed with a smartphone. Indeed, the series made use of many elements present in reality TV. One stylistic device in particular may have made things easier for producer Mike Schur's series cameramen: the Shaky Cam.

If you watch an episode of the series, you'll notice that the camera is never stationary.

This is one of the major problems currently being tackled by mobile phone manufacturers. Thanks to new and improved stabilisation technology - both on the hardware and software side - a gimbal has become superfluous. But, having a stable image remains a challenge, even if advertising would have us believe otherwise.

With the stylistic device of the Shaky Cam, the makers of the series gained a massive advantage for mobile filming, without realising it when the first episode premiered in 2009. Back then, the image quality of the mobile phone camera wouldn't have been good enough, but iPhone users haven't had that problem for some time.

Director Steven Soderbergh has already shot his entire film Unsase with the iPhone in 2018.

Like Soderbergh, Mike Schur's team relied solely on the iPhone for imagery. In Variety magazine, he said that logistics were difficult in Covid 19 time, but he also gave an insight into the production. Cast members received an iPhone in the post - we don't know which one, but I hope it was an iPhone 11 Pro Max - a light and mics. Then the team gave instructions to the cast via [Zoom] (https://zoom.us/). There was no question of Schur and his team postponing the broadcast of the Special. Because the series' revenues will be used to help fight Covid-19.

This is not the future of TV production

In the interview with Variety, Schur is asked whether filming on the iPhone would "in any way represent a trend for TV series production". The answer, despite the films produced with the iPhone, is a "no".

But the reason is not technological. Schur: "In my view, this is not how TV should be made. This Special has required enormous effort and goodwill from all concerned. Minimum wages and voluntary work from the sound engineers, editors, supervisors and everyone else. It was all done this way because it was a fundraiser. Plus, it was also fun to get the whole team together. But you know, television is a team sport. From start to finish, it's about people and groups working together in the same place at the same time. And that's why I think that making the Special is not a sustainable form of TV production."

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Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.

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