Tonight’s Modern Family Was Filmed on iPhones

It's an inescapable truth that people live their lives through the cameras and screens of their smart phones these days. From FaceTime, to Snapchat, to Instagram, there are few moments that people get to themselves anymore. This week's episode of Modern Family, "Connection Lost," was recorded the same way we record our lives -- with iPhones.

The episode piggybacks off of other small-screen-to-big-screen conversions, such as Noah, a short film that takes place entirely on the laptop and phone screen of a teenager going through a breakup, and the Sundance-hit, Tangerine. The latter was filmed using an iPhone 5S, an $8 app, and some standard equipment, and tells the story of two transgender prostitutes in Los Angeles.

The increase in accessibility to decent video equipment, now literally in the palms of our hands, has innovated the screen-scape for stories, like gay, lesbian and transgender ones, with less exposure. With the queer presence on the rise in television, an infinite platform for web series, and now iPhone cameras that are capable of drastically fractioning production costs, the state of LGBT characters and storylines is only getting better.

Watch the promo for "Connection Lost" below.