Over the last century, each generation of technology revolutionized filmmaking. But with the smartphone filmmaking, the barrier to entry drops to something close to zero. It's an ultra low-cost medium. It's easy to use. It also offers a sense of immediacy -- you can do away with crew or shoot surreptitiously. It turns anyone into an amateur filmmaker -- but as the smartphone is being adopted by professional filmmakers, it's fostering a new aesthetic. Filmmakers first started using the smartphone to film in 2005; the following year Italian directors, Marcello Mencarini and Barbara Seghezzi released a feature-length doc, "New Love Meetings (Comizi d'Amore)," shot in Mpeg-4 with a mobile phone. In 2007, South African director Aryan Kaganof released "SMS Sugar Man," a feature-length narrative shot using the Sony Ericsson W900i. In 2011, directors Hooman Khalili and Pat Gilles released the feature, "Olive," shot on a Nokia N8, and Korean director Chan-Wook Park released.
- 1/29/2014
- by David Rosen
- Indiewire
No traditional film cameras -- only a smartphone. No studio. No distributor. No previous experience making movies. How did "Olive" co-directors and co-writers Hooman Khalili (left) and Pat Gilles make a feature film under these circumstances? Moreover, how did they rope in Gena Rowlands, raise thousands of dollars in funding thanks in part to a former Facebook executive -- and get Oscar to take notice of the film? "Olive," the first feature film to be shot entirely with a smartphone, has already had two limited runs in L.A.-area arthouse theaters; a song from the movie is...
- 1/5/2012
- by Kurt Orzeck
- The Wrap
Nokia-shot feature film about little girl who won't talk will get a theatrical release in time for Oscars race
The first feature film shot entirely on a smartphone will have its theatrical premiere in Los Angeles on 16 December.
Olive, billed as a film about "a little girl who transforms the lives of three people without speaking one word", was filmed on a Nokia N8, which was double-taped to a set of traditional film-camera lenses.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, director Hooman Khalili described how he had to hack the phone to turn off its auto-zoom and auto-focus features in order to get the technology to behave as he wanted. "The camera thinks it knows what you want to focus on," he said. "But it doesn't know."
The rest of the film's production was more conventional. Khalili hired a casting director, location scouts, make-up artists and a Hollywood...
The first feature film shot entirely on a smartphone will have its theatrical premiere in Los Angeles on 16 December.
Olive, billed as a film about "a little girl who transforms the lives of three people without speaking one word", was filmed on a Nokia N8, which was double-taped to a set of traditional film-camera lenses.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, director Hooman Khalili described how he had to hack the phone to turn off its auto-zoom and auto-focus features in order to get the technology to behave as he wanted. "The camera thinks it knows what you want to focus on," he said. "But it doesn't know."
The rest of the film's production was more conventional. Khalili hired a casting director, location scouts, make-up artists and a Hollywood...
- 12/2/2011
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Sure, your smartphone might shoot HD, you might even have a dolly, but most of us know that 30 seconds of accidental filming inside a pocket and a blurry clip from the office party are about the best we can hope for. Not director Hooman Khalili. He made a feature length film using his trusty Nokia N8 and a custom lens, and now plans to show it in movie theaters.
- 12/1/2011
- by Engadget
- Huffington Post
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