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How Long Until A Feature Length Movie Is Filmed Entirely With Smartphones?
from the we're-getting-there dept
Earlier this year, we wrote about the (very, very cool) publicity stunt pulled by the band Atomic Tom, where they performed one of their songs live on the NYC Subway using only iPhones as instruments. Of course, they also filmed the whole thing with iPhones as well and that's actually becoming more popular. Jeremy points us to a story at Mashable covering ten music videos filmed with the iPhone and most of them are pretty damn good. Here's one that was produced and edited by Emmy Award-winner Alen Petkovic for the band Vintage Trouble:
As you watch these videos, you realize that in a lot of cases, if you didn't know they were filmed with a smartphone, you'd probably never know. We've shown how filmmakers can make a pretty high quality film with a standard DSLR in the past but I'm beginning to wonder when we'll see the first released "feature film" filmed entirely with smartphones. I would imagine it can't be that far away.
And, if you think about it, this is pretty damn exciting. I remember when I was a kid, the idea of being able to make movies was a really cool idea but it involved saving up a ton of money to buy an expensive video camera or hoping that you could find some friends whose parents had a video camera (which they never really wanted us kids to borrow). But when you get a super high quality video camera included in the phone you already bought anyway... well, suddenly some pretty powerful things can be enabled.
At a time when the movie industry is whining and complaining about how there are supposedly going to be fewer movies made, I'd argue that they haven't paid much attention to how much the tools of film making have been getting ridiculously cheaper over the past couple of decades. And no (before the Hollywood apologists step in and falsely claim this), I'm not saying that just because you can take decent videos on an iPhone, it means that we don't need professionals or higher end cameras and such. This is just to point out the extreme end of the spectrum and to recognize that some of it is definitely filtering back to other parts of film making as well. A professional film shot on a tight budget might actually be able to do a few more things because they can go with cheaper cameras. I've been listening to Kevin Smith's podcasts about his upcoming film Red State, and at one point, they mentioned that in order to fit things in their budget, they ended up borrowing a Red Camera (which is a high quality, but relatively cheap camera) from a guy in exchange for letting him hang out on set. But imagine what more people could do if they could devote less of their budget to things like cameras and make existing budgets go further.
And, if you think about it, this is pretty damn exciting. I remember when I was a kid, the idea of being able to make movies was a really cool idea but it involved saving up a ton of money to buy an expensive video camera or hoping that you could find some friends whose parents had a video camera (which they never really wanted us kids to borrow). But when you get a super high quality video camera included in the phone you already bought anyway... well, suddenly some pretty powerful things can be enabled.
At a time when the movie industry is whining and complaining about how there are supposedly going to be fewer movies made, I'd argue that they haven't paid much attention to how much the tools of film making have been getting ridiculously cheaper over the past couple of decades. And no (before the Hollywood apologists step in and falsely claim this), I'm not saying that just because you can take decent videos on an iPhone, it means that we don't need professionals or higher end cameras and such. This is just to point out the extreme end of the spectrum and to recognize that some of it is definitely filtering back to other parts of film making as well. A professional film shot on a tight budget might actually be able to do a few more things because they can go with cheaper cameras. I've been listening to Kevin Smith's podcasts about his upcoming film Red State, and at one point, they mentioned that in order to fit things in their budget, they ended up borrowing a Red Camera (which is a high quality, but relatively cheap camera) from a guy in exchange for letting him hang out on set. But imagine what more people could do if they could devote less of their budget to things like cameras and make existing budgets go further.
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Much like music having 5 million bands on MySpace its only a matter of time before this trend happens on the Video side. If you know anything about economics and supply and demand you know this will cause the studios to start hemorrhaging money as competition grows.
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"As the younger people don't need the larger ones, it makes the market more competitive, and you just can't blame piracy if you can't employ the people using the technology in innovative ways."
The competition is what is going to kill the TV and movie studios not infringement. Currently we have a ton of video being done and uploaded to YouTube. Mostly its crap but two things have changed in the past month. The first is that YouTube is allowing longer videos. The second is that the next installment of "Pioneer One" has come out turning it into a series. Both are game changers.
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How Long?
Of course, it wasn't quite 'feature film' quality. But I believe you are correct, we should be seeing it soon.
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So yes, definitely.
But I think Mike's point was that camera technology is becoming cheaper and more common all the time, so perhaps it won't be that long before our 'does-everything device' is major motion-picture capable.
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(BTW, Kevin Frakin' Smith had to borrow a Red Cam? WTF?)
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They had a *super tight* budget on this flick, and they had a Red Camera, but wanted another one for additional work, and couldn't fit it into the budget until this guy came along and let them borrow his. If you listen to the podcasts he's done, it's really fascinating how they did all sorts of things to stretch the budget to keep it within their investors' limits.
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The cost of equipment rental is truly one of the cheapest parts of a feature film budget. Those budget line items have been dropping steadily ever since the first broadcast HD cameras became easily available 10 years ago. Paying people for their time is the thing that costs money...
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Gotta love unions, guilds, and over paid actors. What does charlie sheene get paid for each episode of 2 and 1/2 men?
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Half the budget?
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Just don't shoot another Cloverfield.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/249299
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These days are simultaneously the best and the most frustrating for videophiles.
Dear filmmakers and potentials: please, please PLEASE take this advice.
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http://littlegreatideas.com/stabilizer/diy/
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When you have the creativity really, it doesn't matter what the tools you use, but the results.
I see some people focusing on hardware when they have no creativity whatsoever and think that somehow hardware will make them better, which I don't understand because if you can't draw it doesn't matter if you have a thousand dollar wacom you ain't gonna produce nothing on it that you couldn't do with a pencil.
Same thing for video people keep forgetting that a camera is just a lens and a capture media in this case a photo-sensor all that other stuff can be corrected or modified post-production and with some many cameras people actually can do some very impressive stuff.
Hugin and Photosynth(open source now people) can show what can be done with a lot of video. Heck people keep getting those old footage and doing cool things with them and they were horrible.
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and
“Cascades” by Flakjakt
Are the 2 a like most, but not going to said anything about them until I see some open licenses.
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Monkeys & iPhone
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Two monkeys, 1 iPhone, 20 minutes and it would be a better movie to boot. Monkey pooh and all ...
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Already been done, partially.....
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~Glen Lerner
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Never
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I don't think your response is germane. The question was how long will it be until a feature length movie is filmed entirely with smartphones. That question has nothing to do with resolution.
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done already
lawyer for bankruptcy attorney, Lawyer in personal injury, Nevada, Las Vegas and Henderson probate attorney, Las Vegas civil litigation law firm, Las Vegas estate planning law firm,
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With the new technology, I wouldn't be surprised
- Las Vegas Plastic Surgery
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This Would Be Awesome
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