For Chinese New Year, Apple has rolled out Glad I Met You, its annual Shot on iPhone film to celebrate the holiday. Directed by Bai Xue for TBWA\Media Arts Lab in Shanghai, the film blends live action with stop-motion animation–captured using the iPhone 17 Pro camera system. The story follows Lin Wei and a lost dog named Little White on a journey of funny and heartwarming incidents, as they ultimately find a home in each other and Lin Wei’s spark for life is rekindled. The film illustrates the undeniable impact animals can have on people’s lives.
The film showcases the advanced camera capabilities of iPhone 17 Pro through its mixed-media storytelling. Live-action sequences utilize the 8x optical-quality zoom enabled by the 48MP Telephoto camera, 48MP Ultra Wide, 4K 120fps recording for cinematic slow motion, Cinematic mode, Action mode, and low-light capabilities to capture both bustling urban landscapes during Chinese New Year and intimate moments between Lin Wei and Little White. Shooting Gallery served as the live-action production company.
Beyond live action, the stop-motion spotlights the precision of still photography captured with iPhone 17 Pro – its ability to capture all the amazing details of the puppets, sets, and props that were handcrafted by BUCK, which was the production company handling stop-motion animation. Through stop-motion, the film brings out the inner voices of Lin Wei and Little White, and shines a light on the unspoken human–animal bond rarely understood beyond animal lovers.
Each character was built with custom internal armatures engineered to withstand thousands of micro-movements, while over 20 unique mouth expressions per character were 3D printed, hand-painted, and swapped frame-by-frame to match voice performances by well-known Chinese actors. These sequences demonstrate the precision of the 48MP rear camera system on iPhone, revealing intricate details of handcrafted textures and fabrics.
