ABC's hit comedy Modern Family is really staying modern. ABC and Twentieth Century Fox Television announced on Tuesday that the show's latest episode, set to air on February 25, will take place entirely on Apple screens.
According to co-creator and executive producer Steve Levitan, the episode was filmed using nothing but Apple electronics, including a MacBook Pro, iPhone 6s and iPads.
"Everything was shot entirely on either iPhone 6, or the new iPads, or one or two small scenes that were shot using MacBook Pro," Levitan said. "Everything was shot using that technology: it would be silly to shoot amazing footage and then dumb it down, that wouldn't look quite right."
In the half-hour episode called "Connection Lost," Julie Bowen's character, Claire Dunphy, goes out on a manhunt for her daughter Haley (played by Sarah Hyland) after the two get into an argument. The episode will take place on Claire's laptop screen while she waits for her flight at the airport. Throughout the episode, the character uses video chat through FaceTime and other apps like iMessage to talk to her family members who connect with her via their own smartphones and Apple devices.
While this may seem like a tribute to Apple electronics, the episode will also feature the character's Facebook pages to add in some jokes related to previous episodes. Still, the show had to talk to Apple about the episode. Apple obviously was on board and provided the iPhones, iPads, and MacBook Pros for filming and post-production work.
Levitan said he got the idea after FaceTiming with his daughters who are away at college. He noticed he could work, video chat, and see his wife in the background. "And I realized on that screen you could tell so much about my life. So the original idea was from there," he said.
And Levitan is an open Apple device lover. The iPad was even used as a desired birthday gift for Phil in an episode back in 2010 when it was to hit shelves.
The concept of filming from computers is nothing new. Levitan said he was inspired by a short film called Noah that was also filmed on a computer that helped give him a "proof of concept" for his project. This sub-genre called "screen capture filmmaking" continues to gain popularity, as Universal is set to release a horror film using this concept that involves a camera capturing computer screens and tracking web pages and other apps used to tell the story.
