F1: The Movie – How a Custom Sony Compact Body and Apple’s Custom iPhone Camera Were Used to Capture Speed

Behind the ScenesOpinion

by Nino Leitner11 days ago

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Apple and Sony teamed up with director Joseph Kosinski and DP Claudio Miranda, ASC, to capture real F1 racing in F1: The Movie using the VENICE 2, a Sony-engineered compact camera, and a custom iPhone-based system, setting a new standard for high-speed cinematic capture. Let’s dive into the camera tech behind the new racing spectacle.

When the team behind Top Gun: Maverick decided to tackle Formula 1, they were clear about one thing: audiences should feel like they are in the cockpit at 200 mph, without sacrificing image quality suitable for IMAX screens. This challenge led to two years of camera engineering collaboration with Sony and Apple, developing systems that could withstand the heat, vibration, and speed of real F1 cars while delivering footage that cuts seamlessly with traditional cinematic material.

Watching a Formula 1 race – without the usual TV boredom?

Let me be clear, and allow my very personal opinion here: Like many others, I have often found Formula 1 races a bit boring to watch on TV. The bird’s-eye view of the broadcast cameras detaches the viewer from the action, and the cars actually don’t seem very fast, even though they’re racing at 200 mph.

Any fellow cinematographer will know: it’s down to the fact that we are, generally speaking, watching the action from afar, from an observer’s point of view. Only in recent years have we seen more live streams from the cockpits of the cars, but those shots are few and far between and do not make the overall experience more immersive. The main reason is simple: the bird’s-eye view lets us follow the race better in terms of who’s leading and who is following whom, but it also means we never truly feel we are part of the race.

So I totally understand the challenge the filmmakers faced: the immersion needed to go beyond anything we’ve seen on TV before in order to keep people interested in a Formula 1 movie for 2.5 hours.

Gripping: F1 filmmakers manage to put the viewer straight into a Formula 1 car’s driver’s seat

Before diving into the “how they did it”, I want to applaud the filmmakers for the achievement that is F1: The Movie. I watched it in all its IMAX glory on a huge screen last night, and I was much more impressed than I thought I would be. Miranda and Kosinski managed to put you right in the driver’s seat of an F1 car. Similar to their achievement in Top Gun: Maverick, you feel like you’re not only in the cockpit of something most of us will never have the chance to actually drive or fly, but you become the driver, with all the associated excitement and anxiety. And they did that by utilizing innovative camera angles that quite simply weren’t possible before.

The Sony VENICE 2: The cinematic backbone of the production

At the core of F1: The Movie’s principal photography was the Sony VENICE 2, praised for its dual-base ISO, high dynamic range, and full-frame capabilities. Miranda and Kosinski leveraged the VENICE 2’s versatility to capture the complex lighting environments of racing, from the harsh daylight of the trackside to the contrasting interiors of the paddocks and garages. Of course, Miranda already championed using the original VENICE with the Rialto Extension Unit on Top Gun: Maverick, so it’s only a logical continuation for them to use the VENICE 2 on a different kind of high-speed racing movie, even if it’s much closer to the ground than before.

Across 137 shoot days and 10 live F1 race weekends, the production captured over 5,000 hours of material. According to the team, the VENICE 2’s modularity allowed the camera department to adapt for gimbals, Steadicams, handheld work, and vehicle mounts while maintaining consistent color science and high-resolution image capture for large-format delivery. This consistency was critical given the fast-paced nature of production around active F1 weekends, where shot opportunities could arise in seconds.

Miranda emphasized that the VENICE 2’s reliability under rapidly changing track conditions was key:

“You need a camera system that doesn’t become part of the problem but part of the solution. That’s what the VENICE 2 gave us.”
Claudio Miranda, ASC

Sony’s compact “sensor-on-a-stick” prototype: Fitting cinema into a cockpit

As advanced as the VENICE 2 is, it was never going to fit inside the confined, high-vibration environment of an F1 cockpit under the halo. The production needed a lightweight, robust, full-frame camera that could maintain cinematic quality while withstanding 5G forces, vibrations, and extreme heat during racing conditions.

In collaboration with Nobutatsu Takahashi-san and his Sony Cinema Line Division, Miranda and 1st AC Dan Ming worked with Sony engineers to develop a detachable sensor prototype based on the Exmor R full-frame back-illuminated CMOS sensor architecture from the FX6. Side note: We recently interviewed Sony’s Nobutatsu Takahashi-san about the current strategy in the Sony Cinema Line (following the announcement of the FX2) at Cine Gear. Check this interview out if you missed it.

Within just eight weeks, the F1: The Movie team and Sony developed a functional system, nicknamed “sensor-on-a-stick.” The system featured drop-in ND filters for precise exposure management under varying lighting conditions and recorded internally in 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 XAVC-I at up to 600 Mbps, delivering robust data capture in the demanding environment of F1 racing. Basically, it’s the same sensor that’s used in the FX6 – while the sensor in the FX3 is also the same, it uses IBIS, which Claudio Miranda didn’t want, so it’s closer to the FX6. The system allowed the sensor to detach from the camera body while maintaining clean signal integrity, which was crucial for fitting the unit into tight cockpit spaces without sacrificing quality. Importantly, the camera’s output was fully compatible with the production’s LUTs, ensuring seamless integration during grading to match the look established with the VENICE 2.

A prototype for the Sony VENICE Extension System Mini?

It looks like the system that was used became almost a prototype to what would later be released as the Sony VENICE Extension System Mini, which I reported about before when it was launched at an event in Pinewood Studios in London a few months ago (though that system actually uses the full 8K sensor from the VENICE 2). Plus, the Extension System Mini of course uses a VENICE 2 as the actual recording body, which was not done in this movie – as stated above, interestingly they really worked with the compressed XAVC-I codec, giving them the same image quality as an FX6 with their internal recording (and the same sensor).

But nevertheless, while more compressed than the VENICE 2 RAW video image, this custom-built system enabled unprecedented camera placements on and inside Brad Pitt’s and Damson Idris’s F1 cars (actually, modded F2 cars made to look like F1 cars) without adding excess weight or compromising balance, while providing a full-frame cinematic look to POV shots that had previously only been possible with broadcast-level cameras.

As part of that, this compact Sony camera prototype was also placed on a panning contraption that could be remotely panned using a Preston motor. This allowed for some amazing fast pans between the driver of the car and what was in front of them.

Sony engineers traveled globally to active tracks to test and refine the camera under live conditions, ensuring it met production needs for reliability and image quality.

According to Miranda, Voigtlander and ZEISS Loxia lenses were used on the compact Sony camera prototypes to stay extra small, also with the lens packages while shooting.

Apple’s custom iPhone-based camera: rethinking onboard perspectives

To capture the iconic onboard shots with the driver’s helmet partially in frame – a staple of Formula 1 broadcasts but typically delivered at lower resolution – Apple engineered a custom camera module using parts from the iPhone 15 Pro specifically for F1: The Movie.

The custom Apple camera system incorporated the 48MP primary sensor and A17 Pro chipset from the iPhone 15 Pro, ensuring high-resolution capture and reliable performance under race conditions. An integrated neutral density filter enabled the team to manage exposure precisely, maintaining consistency for color grading in post. The system recorded in Apple Log in ProRes, allowing seamless color space alignment with the VENICE 2 and Sony’s compact system during post-production. Designed within the weight and aerodynamic constraints of standard F1 broadcast cameras, the unit preserved the balance and compliance required by FIA regulations.

Instead of relying on wireless connectivity, the camera system utilized a wired USB-C connection to a custom iPad app, enabling the crew to adjust frame rate, exposure, white balance, and recording controls easily on race days while ensuring operational stability.

This system replaced traditional broadcast camera modules used in F1 with a sensor capable of capturing cinematic-quality onboard footage that could be intercut seamlessly with VENICE 2 footage, eliminating the need to upscale or heavily grade broadcast material.

Apple’s engineering team rigorously tested the camera on actual F1 cars during the 2023 and 2024 seasons to validate reliability under high-G conditions, vibration, and heat, making it one of the most advanced onboard camera systems used in a narrative feature to date.

Bringing it all together: A unified workflow for a unified look

The production’s post pipeline had to handle footage from the VENICE 2, Sony’s compact prototype, and Apple’s iPhone-based system while preserving a unified look across the IMAX and large-format intended outputs.

To ensure a consistent look across all cameras, the production captured log-profile footage on every system, allowing for maximum flexibility during grading. Sony’s color science maintained consistency between the VENICE 2 and the compact prototype system, providing a seamless visual match for shots captured in radically different environments. Apple’s ProRes log recordings were integrated into the grading pipeline using custom LUTs that matched the VENICE 2’s look, ensuring that onboard footage could blend cleanly with the main unit material. Managing the sheer volume of multi-camera and multi-environment footage across live race weekends required meticulous audio synchronization and precise metadata tagging, which proved essential for keeping the workflow organized and efficient throughout post-production.

X-AVC I images hold up on a huge IMAX screen, and so do “iPhone images”

What’s surprising to me is how easily and well the compressed XAVC-I footage fit into the RAW images captured on the VENICE 2, and it’s a testament to how far small cameras have come when a major Hollywood blockbuster can rely on images that essentially can also be achieved with a $3,000 FX3 (or FX2, for that matter).

“The technology allowed us to move the camera in places and at speeds that just weren’t possible before, but what matters is how it serves the story. We didn’t want tech for tech’s sake. It’s about placing the audience in the car, feeling the heat, the vibration, and the stakes of every corner.”
Claudio Miranda, ASC

With F1: The Movie, Sony and Apple have not only pushed camera technology forward but have redefined what is possible when high-end narrative filmmaking meets the extreme world of Formula 1. This collaboration sets a new benchmark for immersive, high-speed filmmaking. And it proves that camera technology is definitely no longer your limitation when it comes to capturing high-quality images that look amazing, even on the largest IMAX screen. So – no more excuses: a great story can be shot on the amazing camera you already have in your drawer.

Have you seen F1: The Movie yet? How do you feel about using smartphone technology alongside flagship cinema cameras to capture Hollywood blockbusters? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!