How Aundre Larrow Shot 3-Minute Short Film "Mud" on the iPhone 16 Pro

Good Storytelling Has No limits

Few creators in visual storytelling captivate audiences with such raw emotion and depth as Aundre Larrow.

His latest project, "Mud", shot entirely on the iPhone 16 Pro, navigates the powerful theme of resilience. Through a mix of stills and motion, he explores the lasting impact of perseverance, inspired by his mother’s unwavering determination to create a better life. The project challenges us to think about the legacies we inherit and those we leave behind, framed in the grit of life’s adversities.

I was honored to chat with him to learn more about Aundre's creative process, how "Mud" came to life and the unique role the iPhone 16 Pro played in making it possible.

Q: What gear did you use for the project, and what inspired the decision to do a mobile-only production?

Mud was a piece done in collaboration with Apple. I had the idea before they reached out, but the piece always felt best on mobile because Mud is about how much our stories matter. So, making it on a more accessible device, instead of an expensive cinema camera, felt right.

When I started thinking of the piece, I was fixated on extending the memories of my mother, aunts, and uncles doing whatever they could to survive to naturalistic scenes. I wanted it to feel eerie, magical, and yet familiar.

For example, the beginning diving scene began with this memory of my mom working as a home cleaner when we first moved to America. Between getting her bachelor's degree, being an in-home care attendant, and chasing me around — she cleaned homes. I remember it became an issue because she would travel long distances on the bus without a car, taking up her time. This particular week, she was trying to get to my pre-school graduation, but she had to double her pace of one home a day and nearly passed out. The idea of her drowning in work, mixed with the endless buckets of water she had to use, gave me a clear vision of a person plummeting deeper and deeper.

For this project, we kept it light:

• We used the Mobile Filmmaker Cage for stabilized shots and handheld operations.
• The Joby GorillaPod 3k Pro as our tripod for hard-to-reach places. 

The diving scene, in particular, included black waterproof solids for the pool to give it a look of the ocean; this was comprised of:

• A seamless backdrop and two c-stands for the portraits.
• A Manfrotto tripod for the interviews.
• And one C-stand with two arms to get an overhead shot.

Q: Can you share the backstory? Is there any connection between the writers, crew, and the on-camera performances? The family narrative (in all its forms) is a special one. Was there a driving theme behind it?

Mud is a strange substance, isn't it? It is not quite solid, liquid, and malleable, yet it can harden instantly.

When I think about what it's like to immigrate to this country and carve a path for yourself, I think about mud. I can hear it pulling you into the earth, and I can see it splashing up against you as you move. And to get through it, you, in a way, have to become squishy, grounded, and unbreakable.

That's the key lesson I learned growing up in South Florida on the street filled with other Caribbean immigrants and working-class white folks: survival at all costs. The piece came together as I reached out to my community, asking for stories I could include to mix with these naturalistic scenes of water, earth, and movement. What I got back was the story of Carlos, the newly immigrated blind accordion player who expresses himself through his music all across Queens, and the story of Colton, a man who, despite having cancer, felt abrupt fear as he was trying to heal in a hospital bed after many surgeries.

Mixing that with stories from neighbors and friends birthed a piece that was messy for a moment (thank God for great editors — shoutout to Tyrone Rhabb (https://www.tyronerhabb.com/)) but felt profoundly human.

There were no writers in this piece, well, outside of me, I guess. I came to each subject and the crew with a simple description of what I wanted the piece to feel like and let that guide us.

For my money, resiliency is overrated. What matters isn't that individual's story but the legacy it created for their loved ones, both in inspiring them and building something out of Mud, blood, and bone for the future. This project aims to visualize that.

This piece begins and ends with gratitude. One of the first writing lessons I ever received was to write what you know. Here, I formulated an idea and allowed each subject to have agency in how their stories were told and to who they paid homage. That, to me, is a gift worthy of celebration.