One of the biggest directors in Hollywood is ready to totally embrace filming on the iPhone.
Steven Soderbergh — whose titles include everything from Ocean’s Eleven to Magic Mike — filmed his latest movie entirely an iPhone. Only instead of using it as a gimmick, Soderbergh says he’s likely going to start using iPhone on most of his future films.
Soderbergh certainly isn’t the first director to shoot a movie entirely on iPhone. Tangerine was highly praised by critics and shot all on iPhone, but that was due to budget reasons. Soderberg’s new film Unsane was shot entirely on iPhone too
During an appearance at the Sundance Film Festival, Soderbergh said he was so impressed by the quality of the iPhone’s cinematography that it’s now a legitimate tool.
“I think this is the future,” Soderbergh said in an interview. “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.”
Soderbergh has been known to experiment with a wide range of cameras in his movies. He used to be a huge advocate of the expensive RED 4K cameras. Now he says the iPhone is a “gamechanger”. Asked whether he’s going to commit to shooting films exclusively on iPhone, Soderbergh said he’s leaning that way.
“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,” explained Soderbergh. “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.”
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
7 responses to “Steven Soderbergh ditches big-budget cameras for iPhone”
Wondering about the technical details like the phone model and if a third party lens was used as with Tangerine
TMO said that Tangerine was shot with three iPhone 5S’s. I would not be surprised if good quality clip on lenses were used for some shots. Of course I’m sure they had a good mount to keep it stable.
… it’s all about mounting with stablization, lighting and those wonderful clip on lenses that are out there these days…….. THAT stuff turns the average iphone (even the ‘old’ 5S) info a powerful camera.
They used the $200 moondog anamorphic lens
Funny the X finally matches my over two year old 950 in head to head.. now apple fans are replacing DLSRs? LOL
I know! And you’re totally using it to make important groundbreaking cinematic projects that eclipse, not just Soderbergh, but literally everyone who has ever worked in film or photography. Taking technical advice from the genius bragging about having purchased a Windows Mobile device weeks before Microsoft announced that it was discontinuing the OS isn’t that high on my list of things to do. Everyone else saw it coming and purchased any other phone. Maybe critical analysis isn’t your thing. Your genius phone is selling for $119 on eBay, $30 less than a 5 year old iPhone 6.
i wonder if the cost of going to a movie theatre will reflex the changes lol