Photography

Director Joe Wright
Brings Imagination to
Life #withGalaxy

You don’t have to have a professional video camera to make your cinematography dream a reality.

There are no limits to who can be a filmmaker. 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 to shoot his new short film, Princess & Peppernose, with the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. From capturing low-light shots to creating atmospheric effects, here’s how the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G helped Wright bring his passion project to life #withGalaxy.

A still from Joe Wright's film, Princess & Peppernose. A young woman with a look of wonder on her face is reaching out toward a wooden puppet of a man. A still from Joe Wright's film, Princess & Peppernose. A young woman with a look of wonder on her face is reaching out toward a wooden puppet of a man.

The untold story behind
the film

Inspired by his parents, who ran and founded the first dedicated puppet theatre in the UK, Wright wanted to include puppets and musical acts into his “strange and possibly quite twisted fairy tale” story. “I thought this was the perfect opportunity to kind of return to those roots and explore what that might be like,” Wright 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 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 camera rig. “You’re not hanging around for the camera to be ready,” Wright says. “It’s there, you pick it up, and you shoot.”

TIP
The Bright Night sensor helps capture bright and vivid colours in the dark, with less noise and more speed and clarity.¹

Amplifying low-light
moments

Shooting with the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G has a lot of advantages, but one of the biggest is the camera’s extraordinary ability to capture low-light shots¹. With most of the film being 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,” the cinematographer says. “This phone really shone in its low-light capability.”

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Effortless shot variations

Having never used puppets in his past films, Wright wanted to push his imagination with the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. His cinematographer embraced the wider lens to get a very specific look and feel, saying, “it lent the film a real hallucinatory quality.” The 108MP wide-angle camera² 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.

Stay polished
Super Smooth 60fps Video will adjust your frame rate to produce smooth videos in any light.³

Achieving a "ghostly air"

Who says you need professional video equipment to make smooth, theatre-quality films? With the Super Steady feature, the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G’s built-in stabiliser, Wright and his cinematography team moved freely while shooting to achieve the floating “ghostly air” they had envisioned.

Watch the trailer for
"Princess & Peppernose"

Unleash your
imagination

Tell your story #withGalaxy.

Joe Wright is smiling, wearing a fedora and sunglasses. Joe Wright is smiling, wearing a fedora and sunglasses.

FEATURING

Joe Wright

English award-winning filmmaker

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It's your turn

Follow @SamsungwithGalaxy on Instagram to find inspiration from our creator community, then share your creativity #withGalaxy

  • ¹When compared to the previous S series.
  • ²Maximum image cropping is subject to display resolution and the original image size.
  • ³Super 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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