Xiaomi announced the release of their latest short film entitled ‘One Billion Views’. This film stars tech influencer Arun Maini, also known as ‘MrWhoseTheBoss’. This comes as Xiaomi is about to kick off its first ever annual film festival, which begins Tuesday August 31st with a theme of ‘The New Normal’ amid the pandemic. xiaomi film festival

In ‘One Billion Views’, Arun shares his ten-year journey towards becoming a major tech influencer and how his YouTube channel recently reached over a billion views.

In keeping with ‘The New Normal’ festival theme, Arun discusses the evolving creator landscape – from his humble beginnings and the challenges faced creating video content to where he finds himself now, amidst advances in smartphone technology enabling any user to create and share content from their devices easier than ever before.

‘If you told me in the beginning that this is where I’d be ten years ago, I would have laughed you out of the room. A lot has changed since I began, including a global pandemic. And despite all the hardships, one silver lining was a renaissance of content creators, brought on not only by the demand for new content while people were at home, but also because of the ease of creating content with the smartphone in your pocket.‘ said Arun.

To showcase just how easy and accessible content creation has become, it is revealed that the short film was shot entirely on a Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra* – the premium flagship smartphone device that has revolutionized smartphone photography and videography with the world debut of the GN2 camera sensor.

Arun added ‘I genuinely believe that the computational photography and videography we are starting to see on phones will be the future of film. Nothing beats the convenience, portability or connectivity of a smartphone.’

In capturing this unique story, ‘One Billion Views’ director Mike Harvey elected to go for a long take style, highlighting the unparalleled mobility of shooting on a smartphone. ‘Part of our goal in this film was to inspire future filmmakers.’ said director Mike Harvey, ‘I wanted to create something that you’d never expect to be shot on a smartphone, to make the point that there’s really no limits to mobile filmmaking now. This approach was technically challenging, as a lot of different elements had to work together perfectly, but I think it really paid off.’

‘One Billion Views’ is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what’s in store for the rest of the first ever Xiaomi Film Festival. Stay tuned to Xiaomi Global’s social media channels for the livestream of the Xiaomi Film Festival at 8pm, August 31 (GMT+8).

Launched two years ago in 2019, Xiaomi Studios has always been a project for creators to make content and share their stories with the world. Steven Senshan, Head of Xiaomi Studios, commented, ‘When we launched Xiaomi Studios, we set out to not just create amazing films with Xiaomi smartphones, we wanted to create a global platform for creators around the world to unleash their creativity with Xiaomi smartphones. The Xiaomi Film Festival is the culmination of all of these goals into one massive event that provides filmmakers at all different stages in their career a global stage annually to come together and share their creativity with the world.’

*Mi 11 Ultra rear camera set-up: 50MP wide angle camera, 48MP Sony IMX586 ultra-wide angle camera, 48MP Sony IMX586 telephoto camera.

About Xiaomi Studios

Xiaomi Studios is a filmmaking initiative created by Xiaomi Global. It is a platform for talented ‘Xiaomi Creators’ from around the world, built on the company’s mission of ‘Innovation for Everyone’ and providing an opportunity to unleash their creativity via mobile filmmaking.

For more information about Xiaomi Film Festival, please visit Xiaomi Studios Website: https://event.mi.com/global/xiaomistudios

Like this? "Sharing is caring!"