When Apple releases a new iPhone they typically also release several short films shot on the latest device. These films are often made by A-list directors & cinematographers along with large production crews - so of course they almost always looks great.
But in the real world large Hollywood crews don't shoot a movie on an iPhone, at least not yet. But indie filmmakers definitely do.
Since 2017 I've made six narrative fiction short films all shot on iPhones. And additionally in 2018 I made 20 short films in 20 days, but these weren't narrative fiction. They were experimental and documentary-style shorts as there was no time to do involved productions (I shot & edited one short every day).
So this is all to say that I've made a lot of iPhone shot short films, and again as an indie filmmaker I think this is a great way to go. And also, several of the shorts I actually made as a way to do a real-world test of new features (versus just shooting a boring "test video") - and my latest short film "PREOWNED" falls into this category.
With the iPhone 13 Pro series devices Apple now offers ProRes video encoding and FiLMiC Pro has taken that one step further and includes ProRes log (they call it LogV3+). So, I wanted to test it out.
If you don't know what log is or does... It more or less allows more dynamic range to be captured in the image (as compared to standard Rec 709), so you see more detail in the shadows and highlights, which is great for post-production color grading. Although on the phone you really only mainly see more shadow detail as there's not much room in the highlights (but this is a topic for a different future post).
Here's the new short film called "PREOWNED" and for those interested I list all the main gear & apps I used below it.
SYNOPSIS: Arnie just wants a new car... Instead he gets Hell on wheels.
Production info:
Shot on iPhone 13 Pro Max
FiLMIC Pro 4K 24FPS ProRes LT LogV3+
Moment 58mm Tele
Freewell VND Mist filter
Crane M3 gimbal
Sound recorded with a RODE NTG4+ shotgun and Zoom H6
Storyboards created on iPad with PreVis Pro
Edited & color graded in Adobe Premiere Pro
LUT Packs for the color grading
FilmConvert film emulsion & grain for color grading
Sound design, foley & mix done in Adobe Audition
Written, directed, edited & produced by Blake Calhoun
Co-produced & VFX by Cliff Richhart
Starring Troy Grant, Susana Gibb & Stephen A. Elkins
I'll be doing several behind-the-scenes videos breaking down how we shot the film and also how I did post-production, so look for those on my YouTube channel coming soon-ish.
Also, if you're new to mobile filmmaking you might consider enrolling in one of my courses on learning FiLMIC Pro, smartphone cinematography, audio production or color grading.
Happy filmmaking!
-BC
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