How to film gorgeous slo-mo: twirl an iPhone around your head on a string

When the Wachowskis were filming bullet time scenes for The Matrix they had an elaborate rig with dozens of cameras in a green-screened studio. But, as professional freestyle skier Nicolas Vuignier demonstrates, you can get a pretty similar effect just by whirling an iPhone round your head on the end of a string. The video above was filmed entirely on an iPhone 6 (which came out of the ordeal unscathed), and although Vuignier makes it look easy, he says it took “almost two years of tinkering and tweaking” before he got the results he wanted.

A making-of video is also in the works, says Vuignier, although if you’re into skiing, his channel has quite few videos — including this evocative one showing him skiing through a forest at night, with a lit flare in his hand. Maybe he’ll combine this with his centrifugal iPhone skills at some point? Well, he is a professional skier after all, if anyone can manage it he can.

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