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David Fincher Directed iPhone 3GS Commercial

Posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta

david fincher iphone

I’m sure everyone by now has heard about the new iPhone 3GS (i hate that name) that Apple announced at the World Wide Developer’s Conference on Monday. But have you seen the first television advertisement for the new phone?

“Break In” was directed by David Fincher, a self professed mac fanatic (some might have noticed that the trailer for his last film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was only officially available on Apple’s Quicktime in HD). It might also be worth noting that the director of photography on the spot was Jeff Cronenweth, who has worked on a lot of music videos and was Fincher’s cinematographer on Fight Club.

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  • topheavy
    It's good that he is doing comercials again... I haven't seen a good movie out of him since fight club.
  • adam
    i thought zodiac was fantastic. BB not as much.
  • You clearly never saw Zodiac.
  • Zodiac was a masterpiece. Panic Room and Ben Button very entertaining.
  • Peter
    I thought Ben Button was amazing. And Zodiac without question...
  • topheavy
    Zodiac was boring, I admit this to myself. The pacing was the same as panic room, the suspense fell on its face. I also admit that Fincher is a media darling for at least making 2 legendary movies, which is why my comment was flamebait.

    Watch Zodiac again, and please consider that perhaps it isn't as good as you remember it as. I recall nothing memorable about it myself. Panic Room is the same. And I hear that Ben Button is typical and falls flat with anything significant to offer except special effects and the typical incerts for a bid on the coveted golden statue.
  • topheavy
    Zodiac was boring, I admit this to myself. The pacing was the same as panic room, the suspense fell on its face. I also admit that Fincher is a media darling for at least making 2 legendary movies, which is why my comment was flamebait.

    Watch Zodiac again, and please consider that perhaps it isn't as good as you remember it as. I recall nothing memorable about it myself. Panic Room is the same. And I hear that Ben Button is typical and falls flat with anything significant to offer except special effects and the typical incerts for a bid on the coveted golden statue.

    sorry for the double post
  • Felt more like Soderbergh than Fincher.
  • adam
    agreed
  • Yeah wtf. I just assumed that video capability was included from the first gen.
  • Not video playback, but video capturing (and editing). It's not very apparent in the commercial what's happening, so I think Fincher may have missed the mark on this one.

    What you as the audience is supposed to see is the iPhone playing back captured video of the camera swivelling around it. I missed that the first time, and I'm sure most viewers will miss it entirely and not care to look deeper on the second viewing.

    overall poor execution. When the objective of the commercial is to showcase its video capturing capabilities, and noone gets it, that's a lot of money down the drain.
  • adam
    erm, I got it pretty easily, its hardly complex.
  • johnpastor
    I even saw the commercial during the keynote where it was debuted and I missed the fact that the iPhone was playing it back, but maybe that's because I was busy typing on my laptop covering the keynote.
  • clare
    two words: agency cut
  • Big Deezy
    "I think it's the same..."

    Yeah, pretty much.
  • Lots of talent and budget...but the commercial is pretty blah.
  • Google G1 ftw.
  • The Google 'Brick'? Pfththt. It just got iPwnd.
  • The commercial reminded me of DePalma's work on Mission: Impossible.
  • OnuRC
    Yeah, me too.
  • In that it was a rip o... er, homage. But it barely compares in terms of quality.

    Though Cronenweth's lighting is lovely.
  • Chromey
    That sounds like Fincher's voice whispering "I think it's the same".
  • True this did look a lot like mission impossible when Tom Cruise hung from the ceiling to break into the computer at the CIA mainframe. This is a cool commercial, but I thought the iPhone already had video.
  • I agree with the comments. This is pretty weak for a tenured director like Fincher.

    Few come close to Gondry's Levi's ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj6G1C6c0uw

    Love it.
  • kevin
    music from oceans 13
  • Pretty lame actually.
  • jeff
    yeah, the commercial is nothing very special. So, the first iphones played video, but this new one actually records video? am I getting this right?
  • Yeah, I work at Apple and this is the first one to do that... i'm surprised it took THIS long to put that in. I have a Verizon LG enV and it came out the same time the iPhone did and it has video recording and playback.
  • Goro
    MOST iphone users thot the same, iirc. I know when i got my first iPhone, i wondered why the hell doesn't it didn't do video capture since it LOOKED like it did video capture.

    Then also we finally have mms and cut&paste but that's another complaint for a different forum.
  • jeff
    Nothing like his nike commercial a couple months ago.
  • <font style="color: #006400 !important; font-family:Verdana;font-weight:normal;font-size:13px;position:static;" color="#006400">iPhones</font> didn't have video capabilities before? That's pretty lame, and a weak sell point because many people who don't have one (like myself) I'm sure expect video to already be a feature.
    I'm happy with the Touch for now.

    And that was a pretty lame commercial.
  • It did.... Jailbroken buddy.
  • I was really hoping that the phone would be aesthetically redesigned but no. we just gave it a video card and doubled the available memory... omg so amazing.

    I'm not disappointed, I will be getting one, but i expected more i think. As for Fincher.... did he direct this from home? WTF? this is probably the most bland commercial he's ever done, and probably the most bland commercial for a product like this. Apple has been known for excellent marketing. Good choice choosing Fincher.. but Mr. F... bad choices in direction.

    "It's the same."
    O RLY!?
  • I expected this since he directed the iPhone 3G announcement commercial as well, with voiceover by Robert Downey Jr. [youtube E5mzbBmefD4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5mzbBmefD4 youtube]
  • ^^ that one was 100x better
  • Bueller
    I think it's very obvious what is happening in the ad. It's a simple short ad and it does what it's supposed to do. It's hardly Fincher's fault if the ad fails to impress. Blame the ad agency if you want to blame someone.
  • His Nike ad was absolutely stellar, this.. not so much.
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