Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Apple has always tried to make products that feel inherently magical in their simplicity. In this spirit, “Balloons” celebrates the magic of receiving animated messages on the new iPhone 7. What begins as an epic journey of a lone balloon, across the world, ends with a colorful spectacle, as a simple happy birthday text comes to life in a powerful and unexpected way. It’s a beautiful reminder that technology isn’t something that isolates us, but brings us closer together, making our everyday moments that much more magical.

This story of a lone balloon’s journey from a remote, rural area to a big city hinged on finding locations that made the journey feel long and epic. We picked Iceland for its dynamic, majestic landscapes, and Chicago, for its monochrome color palette and easy access to surrounding suburbs, beaches and forests. We shot a significant portion of the spot with drones and a helicopter, to create the experience of drifting along with the balloon on its journey. And we faced a series of challenges, from balloon wrangling with fishing poles (given our zero tolerance litter policy), to shooting several setups in the rain, with high winds. We also had to split our team during the production, shooting in Iceland while editing the Chicago footage, in order to stay on schedule, while the post team worked to create photo-real balloons, that looked and behaved like the real thing.