If you've followed this website and/or my YouTube channel for any amount of time you likely know that my preferred style of filmmaking is narrative, and specifically narrative fiction. And that's whether you're shooting with an iPhone or an expensive RED camera. In the end it's all storytelling.
But when it comes to smartphones and film-style work I've actually always thought that shooting documentaries is really a great fit, and probably a better one.
Not that you can't shoot a narrative fiction film with a phone, there have been lots shot that way - including Danny Boyle's new "28 Years Later" (which I've covered quite a bit). But documentary and news/journalism stories really lend themselves to be shot with phones and the reasons are beyond just convenience and affordability.
Check out an interview I did with filmmaker and educator Bart Weiss about his philosophy on mobile filmmaking and how his 35 years of teaching and experience led him to writing a book on the subject.
Note: The first video below is the full 50 minute podcast interview, and the second one is a short edited version with the highlights (but I really do recommend the long version as it's full of lots of great info and insights). You can also listen to the full interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more.
Bart calls it all "Smartphone Cinema" and I like that description, but as we discuss in the interview... I also think we're getting close to where it's all just filmmaking and storytelling regardless of the camera or tools we use (albeit the phone does offer unique opportunities as mentioned by Bart for being incognito and/or less of a distraction).
Oh, and remember phones are not just for traditional filmmaking of course - use them for social media, events, corporate work and a lot more.
The filmmaking world has definitely been democratized and there are no excuses not to make your movie.
Are you using your phone to make movies? Let me know in the comments below or on YouTube.
Happy filmmaking!
-BC
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