I’m surprised that people are still surprised that smartphones are actually viable filmmaking devices. Their built-in cameras are really good and can achieve HD quality with ease. The only restriction is their glass, the lenses, which now are easily supplemented with external lens concoctions which more than compensate for.
Even before we got to the HD capabilities, some creative enterprising people have used mobile phones to create their movies, and a lot of those have won credible awards for their troubles.
Here are four which I came across, via Wired:
Goldilocks
In 2010, Michael Koerbel and Anna Elizabeth James made Goldilocks, the first viral smartphone series, by strapping an iPhone 4 to a motorcycle. They also took advantage of the phone’s size by stashing it in a medicine cabinet and even dropping one into a wineglass in nine 3-minute shorts.
The Nails
In seven minutes, this “found footage” of a few friends hanging out devolves into something nightmarish (spoiler: lots of blood) and helped spark the career of French director Clément Deneux, who has gone on to shoot a popular “fake” trailer (about zombies), commercials, and a music video.
Paranmanjang (Night Fishing)
South Korean director Park Chan-wook of Oldboy fame shot this 30-minute horror movie using only an iPhone 4. The film features a K-pop star as a shaman priest, and it snagged the award for Best Short at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival.
Two Scoops
In 2013, BlackBerry paid Sin City director Robert Rodriguez to film a short on the BlackBerry 10. The resulting 11-minute shoot-’em-up—about sisters who run an ice cream truck by day and battle aliens by night—may not have saved the CrackBerry, but it sure does look good.
Enjoy and let me know how you liked them.
Do you think it’s worth creating a smartphone film festival in Bahrain? We’re planning to organise one for 2015 :)
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