Shot entirely on iPhone 13 Pro, ‘Detectives’ uses a relatable movie scenario to demonstrate the camera’s Cinematic mode feature and unpack it with self-referential dialogue. In an archetypal scene from a detective thriller, we find two cops on a stakeout. The background cop is having an existential crisis about being blurry. The foreground cop explains that the camera is just focusing on the scene’s “most important character.” As the dialogue eventually shifts the narrative in favor of the blurry cop, the camera pulls him into focus. But it turns out to be a plot red herring, and the focus ultimately shifts back to the foreground hero.

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This is a tricky, one take performance piece. The direction relied heavily on subtext to animate the emotions the viewers are feeling.

Like: Background: Do you think my wife is cheating on me?

Foreground: Your wife has a lot of love to share.

Or: Is this rash something to worry about?

Foreground: Your brother in law had it and it was fatal so tread lightly.

And, really trying to get all those convincing details down of noir-ish police procedurals like True Detective.

The degree of difficulty was high. We were working the beats between the lines and every moment, look, pause, gesture had to be finely calibrated and intentional because the software was still beta; if Foreground Cop turned his head too abruptly or early, the device would rack to Background Cop, ruining the conceit and comedy. Fortunately his casual disdain for Background Cop helped us keep him literally unmoved.