iPhone
-
Watch: Michel Gondry’s Charming, iPhone-Shot Summer Vacation Short, Detour
Michel Gondry has made a charming and inventive — in his typically lo-fi way — short film for Apple that shows off the video capabilities of the iPhone 7. With elements of The Red Balloon, Toy Story and, I’m sure, memories Gondry has revisited from his own childhood family vacations in France, the short follows a family on their annual summer sojourn, a trip that winds up leaving the youngest child’s prized red tricycle along the side of the road. Impressively, the short doesn’t try to fake some kind of crazy bokeh, or indulge in trick macro shots. No, like […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 29, 2017 -
Watch: iPhone-Shot Film about Skateboard Sean Malto
Ghost Digital Cinema has just released Malto, a short about pro skateboarder Sean Malto and the year he’s spent recovering from a massive injury in order to skate again. Directed by Ty Evans, the short was shot entirely on an iPhone using a slew of pro gear, including cinema lenses and a $9.99 app, Filmic Pro. Particularly interesting for those into iPhone cinematography is the short behind-the-scenes video, posted below, that shows the lenses, gimbal, use of the iPhone screen as viewfinder and more.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 11, 2016 -
Watch: The Life and Death of an iPhone, Shot and Edited on Vimeo’s Cameo App
In honor of Vimeo’s updated Cameo app, filmmaker Paul Trillo created a short film entirely shot and edited on an iPhone, appropriately titled “The Life and Death of an iPhone.” Trillo utilizes the phone’s POV to create the illusion of a constant “feed” between cuts, which he accomplished in camera: Believe it or not the transitions are deceptively simple like a slight of hand. At the end of each take, we just did a quick wipe into black. The key is to do these moves at the same speed each time and make sure you’re cutting on precisely the right frame. I found that […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 19, 2015 -
Shooting Romance in NYC with the iPhone 6
Here’s a nifty behind-the-scenes featurette on the iPhone 6 shooting of Tristan Pope‘s short film, Romance in NYC. The film is shot entirely from the first-person perspective, like Lady in the Lake and Enter the Void, and the mobility of the iPhone enabled the director/camera operator to play the role of the first-person protagonist. As you’ll see in the video, Pope lets his own hands and arms enter and exit frame, aided by variety of gear — including a Gorillapod — as well as well-choreographed production assistants.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2015 -
Stuck in an Airport Overnight… “All By Myself”
A cancelled flight, early morning rebooking and when a hotel is not a possibility — being stuck overnight in an airport brings on a particularly eerie kind of melancholy. To kill the time, I suspect some camera (or just smartphone)-toting Filmmaker readers might try to create a Twilight Zone-ish horror short, impromptu slasher flick, or perhaps a Winogrand-inspired visual tone poem. Marooned in the Las Vegas aiport, Richard Dunn reached for another inspiration: Celine Dion. His iPhone-shot video, above, resulted in a personal response from the singer, who offered him tickets to her show (and use of her bathroom) next […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 13, 2014 -
Smartphone Cinematography: Viable Gimmick?
Making its way on the festival circuit since last fall’s Raindance is a film called I Play With The Phrase Each Other, which purports to be the first-ever feature comprised entirely of cell phone calls. It is, rather fittingly, shot on an iPhone and rendered in attractive black-and-white hues that belie its format. In addition to serving as a nice narrative tie-in, the filmmakers choice of camera was also likely dictated by budgetary constraints (or, perhaps as more likely, an Apple tie-in.) Still, it’s remarkable that a lucrative automobile giant like Bentley Motors would shoot their latest ad campaign on a consumer phone like […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 19, 2014 -
Share Your Life with a Stranger… for 20 Days
Anonymity is hot at the moment, with Secret gaining followers while anonymity fails — like Snapchat’s recent troubles — make front page news. As always, the key to catching a trend wave is to work the interstices and margins — to find the subtleties that will result in something new. With a particular storytelling flair, MIT Media Lab’s Playful Systems Group appears to have done that with a new app, 20 Day Stranger. Currently seeking beta testers, the app tells a personal story that places you in your own version of films like Hank and Asha or even The Double […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 9, 2014 -
A Japanese Sideways, Virginia Woolf, Beth Gibbons Sings Black Sabbath and Denis Johnson’s Artful Sentences: Sunday Morning Links
For your Sunday morning, here’s some of what I’ve been reading this past week. At the Rumpus, filmmaker (and 25 New Face) Astra Taylor is interviewed about her book The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, which I can’t wait to read. An excerpt: Also, after Examined Life was finished I found myself thinking about the way creative opportunities and distribution channels were shifting. Should I be showing my films in theaters or just think about getting them out online? There were other issues, too. For example, instead of being asked to write an article, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 27, 2014 -
Kirby Ferguson’s Everything is a Remix: the iPhone
25 New Face Kirby Ferguson extends his popular Everything is a Remix series with this latest entry on the iPhone. I wrote about the series’ original four parts back in 2011. An excerpt: Rather than push a copy-left agenda or hype the latest mash-up artist, Ferguson uses the subject of the remix to discuss the history and nature of creativity. Everything is a Remix deconstructs the idea of originality, exploring the creative but also technological and business memes that recombine from one generation to the next, making us feel that we are encountering something “new” along the way. And it […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 13, 2013 -
iOS 7 at the One-Month Mark: 18 Picks and Pans
Apple’s “polarizing” mobile operating system iOS 7, an update which stripped away the skeuomorphism (i.e., the fake leather and other real-world metaphors found in apps like Calendar and Game Center) of previous versions in favor of a “flat” design style, was unveiled by the company on June 10 at its WWDC keynote and pushed to users on September 18. And for the most of this year, the Apple media universe — the parade of blogs and podcasts that have made a mini-industry of commenting upon the Cupertino company — have spoken of little else. But now that the OS is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 18, 2013
