Director DJ Caruso now on using iPads to make I Am Number Four

Here's yet another example of the iPad excelling in a place it was never intended to actually go: Making movies. Director DJ Caruso did an interview in an Apple Store recently, and he says that he used the iPad to help make his new movie "I am Number Four" in all kinds of ways, from controlling on-set lights with an app to seeing scripts, marking up storyboards, and even scouting out locations. Caruso says the initial purchase was more for fun, but as he used the iPad more and more, he found he was doing a lot of his filmmaking work on it as well. "I got it, I don't want to say as a toy," he says, "but then I realized about a week into prep that my storyboards were coming on it, my previs was on it, my script was on it, I don't carry my script anymore."

That's great. It's a real sign of just how well-designed the iPad is that it can find itself used powerfully in almost any task. Originally, of course, it was just sold as a device to sit on the couch and consume media with, but lots and lots of industries have found a place for the iPad to help out, and it's no surprise that the film industry is the same way.