Steven Soderbergh “Wants to Only Shoot on iPhones” — Sundance 2018

by

“I think this is the future,” he said. “Anybody going to see this movie who has no idea of the backstory to the production will have no idea this was shot on the phone. That’s not part of the conceit.”

The filmmaker has experimented with digital cinematography for years, going back to 2002’s “Full Frontal,” but found that the iPhone offered unparalleled quality. “People forget, this is a 4k capture,” said Soderbergh, who was long a passionate advocate for the high-end RED cameras. “I’ve seen it 40 feet tall. It looks like velvet. This is a gamechanger to me.”

Asked if he would commit exclusively to shooting on iPhones going forward, he replied, “I’d have to have a pretty good reason not to be thinking about that first… There’s a philosophical obstacle a lot of people have about the size of the capture device. I don’t have that problem. I look at this as potentially one of the most liberating experiences that I’ve ever had as a filmmaker, and that I continue having. The gets that I felt moment to moment were so significant that this is, to me, a new chapter.”

“People forget, this is a 4k capture. I’ve seen it 40 feet tall. It looks like velvet. This is a gamechanger to me.” — IndieWire

Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music @ Cell Phone Cinema

by

Special thanks to Jeff Rabhan, Chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music for bringing students Elizabeth Castano • Jon Viktor Corpuz • Matthew T Wang • Nando Dale to class this past Wednesday.

If you need sounds, free music, or are interested in licensing music for your project, resources are available.

Do not be intimidated by the prospect of trying something new!  This is your time to do just that as part of your discovery process.

Matthew T. Wang, Cell Phone Cinema class, NYU, Tisch 11/29/2017


Not every film requires full orchestration or even a fraction thereof.  However sound can be an important story-telling asset for your film.  Here’s what another New Yorker had to say about music and sound:

“Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at fifty miles per hour. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them not as sound effects but as musical instruments.”
— John Cage, ‘The Future of Music: Credo‘ (1937)

 

Layer Lapse

by
after effects on steroids?

This looks pretty amazing.

I’m not terribly enamored with some of the creative choices made (e.g. the Milky Way over Manhattan skyline?  Not too fake looking) but it’s an interesting concept (with the music turned off).

For the self-promoters reading this press release, take note of the Einstein reference.

after effects on steroids?