As technology allows for families to communicate with each other in so many different ways, it only made sense that sooner or later, the Emmy-award winning series, Modern Family, would tackle an episode exactly how text messaging, video calls, chatting, and other digital communications affect their lives.
As soon as it was announced that the Feb. 25 episode of the series would be shot entirely on Apple products and unfold entirely on an array of Mac screens, fans were wondering if they would actually be able to pull it off.
The episode, entitled Connection Lost, opened to Claire Dunphy waiting at the airport and opening up FaceTime on her MacBook to contact her daughter. From there, the entire hour-long episode plays out in a series of video chats and messages right from her screen - complete with distorted faces and choppy connections, just like you might expect on a real life video connection.
In an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the episode on Buzzfeed, Executive Producer Steve Levitan explained the challenges of shooting on iPhones. When the actors held their own phones, extra background shots would be included that they didn't necessarily want. But if they had cameramen holding the phones, the videos would look like they were "floating in space" and inauthentic. They figured a solution to the problem by having the actors hold on to the arms of professional camera men who had the Apple devices strapped onto their arms to shoot the scenes.
To a lesser extent, MacBooks and iPads, were also used to shoot the documentary-style episode. Reportedly, although Apple supplied the production with the necessary devices to shoot Connection Lost, the company did not sponsor the filming.
The decision to use iPhones to shoot the episode made sense to the production because, as revealed in the behind-the-scenes look, the series is already shot in digital format to begin with. Rather than shooting on expensive equipment and then running the footage through post-production to make them look like they came from smartphones, they decided to shoot directly on iPhones instead.
Levitan also revealed that the first of its kind episode is not the first time that the 6-year running series veered away from using traditional TV cameras to shoot some scenes for the show.
"There was a scene where Manny (Rico Rodriguez) was dressed as a mascot at a basketball game, so rather than recreating a whole basketball game, I quickly shot my son's basketball game on my iPhone," Levitan shared in an email.
