Director Joe Wright
brings imagination to
life #withGalaxy
You don’t need a professional video camera to make your cinematography dream a reality.
Today, anyone can be a filmmaker, and If you have a story to tell, you’re already halfway there. Now almost anyone with a Galaxy smartphone can create high-quality cinematic videos — not just pros with Hollywood equipment. To show you how it’s done, we teamed up with renowned director Joe Wright (Darkest Hour, Pride & Prejudice, and Atonement) to shoot his new short film, Princess & Peppernose, with Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G.¹ From capturing low-light shots to creating atmospheric effects, here’s how his smartphone helped Wright bring his passion project to life #withGalaxy.
The story behind
the film
Wright's parents founded and ran the first dedicated puppet theatre in the UK. As he constructed his “strange and possibly quite twisted fairy tale,” Wright was inspired by that personal history to include puppets and musical acts into it. "I thought this was the perfect opportunity to kind of return to those roots and explore what that might be like,” he says.
Agile, on-the-go
filmmaking
Unlike the big budget productions Wright is used to, there wasn’t a lot of waiting around for the camera crew to get reset on the Princess & Peppernose set. “What surprised me the most was how immediate, fast and direct this device allows you to get right in there and be very present with the characters and the story,” Wright says. The Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G doesn’t require hours to set up and allows for spontaneous camera movements because it's lighter than a traditional Hollywood rig. “You’re not hanging around [waiting] for the camera to be ready,” Wright says. “It’s there, you pick it up and you shoot.”
Amplifying low-light
moments
Shooting with Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G has a lot of advantages, but one of the biggest is the camera’s extraordinary ability to capture low-light shots. With most of Princess & Peppernose shot at night with minimal light sources, the lens was an important tool for Wright and his cinematography team. “The quality of the lens is really crisp,” director of photography Seamus McGarvey says. “This phone really shone in its low-light capability.”
Effortless shot variations
Having never used puppets in his past films, Wright wanted to push his imagination with Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. His cinematographer, Seamus McGarvey, embraced the wider lens to get a very specific look and feel, explaining, “It lent the film a real hallucinatory quality.” The 108MP wide-angle camera³ lens not only helped them shoot wide-angle shots, but close-ups and extended moving shots as well. “There’s a dynamic, kinetic aesthetic which is afforded by the Galaxy phone,” Wright says.
Achieving a ghostly air
Who says you need professional video equipment to make smooth, theater-quality films? With the Super Steady feature⁴ — Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G’s built-in stabilizer — Wright and his cinematography team moved freely while shooting to achieve the floating “ghostly air” they envisioned.
Watch the trailer for
"Princess & Peppernose"
Captured with Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
Unleash your
imagination
Tell your story #withGalaxy.
Galaxy S22 Ultra
Galaxy S22 | S22+
Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
- 1Requires optimal 5G network connection, available in select markets. Check with your carrier for availability and details. Download and streaming speeds may vary based on content provider, server connection and other factors.
- 2When compared to previous S series devices.
- 3Maximum image cropping is subject to display resolution and the original image size.
- ⁴Super Steady video is limited to 1080p resolution at 30fps.
- ⁵Super Smooth 60fps Video delivers a dynamic frame rate that automatically adjusts up to 60fps for super-smooth video, depending on lighting conditions or movements from the subject.
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