Director Eschews Film, Shoots Music Video Entirely With iPhones

Eli Milchman ()

It’s not like director Tom De Nolf doesn’t have 35mm film cameras and a bunch of other video-making tech at his disposal; no, De Nolf was so surprised by the video capability of his recently purchased 3GS that he chose to shoot the above music video using just three iPhones.

“Wow, this takes a really great video,” was his reaction after playing around with the 3GS, De Nolf told us. “It got the wheels churning.”

Then De Nolf — who has worked with Michael Phelps and can claim Honda and AT&T among his clients — shot the entire video in four hours, with nothing more than three iPhones, some stands and a MacBook Pro for playback.

“Basically, we pulled the camera out of our pocket and fired it up from there … and I thought that was so cool.”

Originally, De Nolf wanted ten iPhones to shoot the video with, but was only able to scrounge up three: his, and one each from the producer and director of photography (both of whom are named Allison).

“Man, we were really impressed,” De Nolf says of the result, and enthusiastically lauds the iPhone’s ability to shoot large chucks of video before running out of memory, the video’s “raw, 8mm home-movie quality” and the iPhone Camera App’s touch-screen exposure controls.

“We would get a halo-effect on his head … and that’s pretty amazing that you could do that with in-camera latitude.”

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And, naturally, the clips were subsequently edited on MBPs running Final Cut Pro, making the production utterly Apple, from start to finish.

De Nolf says he’s going to do more shooting with the iPhone; keep your eyes peeled.

Update: Producer Allison Ashley tells me that editing was actually performed on a Mac Pro desktop.

15 comments »

About the author

Eli Milchman

When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path — which explains why he's Cult of Mac's technology editor. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of Wired.com and BIKE Magazine, among others. Hang with him on Twitter.

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Posted in Cameras, Interviews, iPhone 3G S, Video |

  • http://www.metrokids.ca Conrad

    The video must have been messed with in post, because that looks great. Maybe I should get a 3GS instead of that Sony i’ve been eyeing…?

    Also, I was digging the song. Is this guy on iTunes?

  • Eli Milchman

    Conrad, not sure if he’s on iTunes, but info about the artist can be found here:

    http://www.kirkthurmond.com

  • http://www.badrobot.ca Andrew Robulack

    Don’t mention the name of the artist or the song or anything, though… not like he needs the coverage or support. But thank goodness we know the DOP is named Allison.

  • Eli Milchman

    Andrew, quite right: Though it isn’t strictly necessary for the story, I probably should have mentioned that Kirk Thurmond was the artist in the vid; I’ve since posted his website in the comment above.

  • http://www.kirkthurmond.com Kirk Thurmond

    OK…..so why aren’t we mentioning my name or my music?!?!? i need exposure….that (and making a badass video with iphone 3GS’s) was kinda the whole point! http://www.kirkthurmond.com EP droping late spring/early summer.

  • Amber

    awesome song. amazing video. period.

  • Cheri

    i think this is totally awsome, where can i get a copy of the cd

  • http://www.kirkthurmond.com Kirk Thurmond

    It’ll be on iTunes this late spring/early summer

  • nadja

    awesome vid, awesome song

  • http://www.kirkthurmond.com Kirk Thurmond

    oh yea! and thanks so much Milchman! Very Cool!

  • Poppa

    I like this video, it shows that regardless of what people say about the iphone camera you can create something special, I hope we see more videos created using just the iphone.

    http://www.sundancechannel.com/sunfiltered/2009/07/movie-created-using-only-iphone/

  • http://www.facebook.com kayla marcus

    awsome i think it was great cant belive is fromm an iphone

  • http://www.badrobot.ca Andrew Robulack

    Eli, I totally disagree. The name of the artist is of complete relevance. You name several other people and entities who have limited or no relevance to the piece (Honda, AT&T, Michael Phelps, producer Allison, DOP Allison) but for some reason chose not to name the artist himself: Kirk Thurmond.

    Clearly, as Thurmond himself points out in a comment, the whole point of shooting the video with iPhones was to get himself some much-needed attention in pieces like this. He didn’t agree to have his first video shot with iPhones for the benefit of Apple or Honda; he agreed so that when coverage like this arose he would get mentioned specifically.

    But, more to the point, when viewing the video, the first question on any reader’s mind is, “who is that?” It’s your responsibility to make sure that essential piece of information is conveyed and reported. Not having included is just sloppy.

    And, no, I don’t think mentioning the artist in the comments is sufficient. Most readers won’t even bother with the comments. You need to modify the story itself to give the artist himself, the guy whose full consent made this video effort a reality, his full due.

    And it doesn’t have to be big, I would suggest just editing the latter half of the first sentence to read: “…no, De Nolf was so surprised by the video capability of his recently purchased 3GS that he chose to shoot Kirk Thurmond’s first music video using just three iPhones.” Of course, link Thurmond’s name to his web site, as you have done with Michael Phelps (whose name, the relevance of, still eludes me).

  • Jazz4

    Absolutely, I think Andrew Robulack nailed the point, give Kirk Thurmond his due, he plays the central role in the video!

  • Eli Milchman

    Andrew, as Kirk is the subject of the video, I agree his name would provide the reader with more information; I’ve already stated this, and his name appears (several times, thanks to your comments, my comments and Thurmond’s own comments). And I think we differ on whether or not people read these comments.

    AT&T, Honda, Michael Phelps are all highly recognizable names, and were mentioned to give De Nolf’s work a frame of reference. before the story, I hadn’t heard of him, and I’m assuming most of our readers were in the same boat. Also, you’ll note that the the link under Michael Phelps’ name doesn’t link to Phelp’s website, but to De Nolf’s work with the swimmer.

    Your assertion that I need to include Thurmond’s name because he is due “much-needed attention” is ridiculous. While, again, I agree that the artist’s name would have bolstered the piece and have made it more complete, I reject the idea that I’m required to function as a free PR-mouthpiece — especially with a product (in this case, an artist’s music) that has very little connection to the focus of this site.

    Finally, thanks for the suggestion — but except in the case of small technical errors of grammar or punctuation, we generally don’t alter copy once it’s up.