The 9-minute film was directed by Tom Harper (The Scouting Book for Boys, The Borrowers) and co-written by Geoff Busetil and Daniel Kaluuya, who previously worked on the Skins TV series.
Skins‘ penchant for young people and sexuality clearly bleeds into the script as the teens trounce around rural London either getting it on or hoping to (there is one story-line involving a family but otherwise it’s all teens). The use of Xperia Arc S phones gives the whole film a sort of Blair Witch, hand-held vibe with plot points captured when the protagonists naturally film themselves. The film thankfully never induces motion-sickness and there is always some logical reason for them to be filming the proceedings.
It’s actually a clever bit of marketing showing the many ways the phones can be used. (Look, you can use the phones to post videos online, or create a family video, or capture fireworks or film an amateur sex tape.) It’s also, literally, a clever bit of marketing. The Swarm was created to promote the new phones as part of Sony’s Xperia Studio, a project that challenges creative types to push the limits of what Sony’s line of phones can do.
