A little over 10 years ago, camera phones began to work their way into the pockets of the public, with many boasting features like a VGA image sensor that could take photos in resolutions of up to 640×480 pixels. Video recording was only possible from the top-of-the-range models, and even then, the quality was poor, with videos lacking seriously in clarity and not much bigger than a mid-2000’s mobile phone screen.
Fast forward a decade, and thanks to their powerful processing power, modern smartphones are useful for many tasks beyond making and receiving calls. These handheld devices allow us to work from anywhere, manage our finances, listen to huge libraries of music, navigate and entertain ourselves with mobile games like poker. Just like everything else in the devices, the cameras have also advanced dramatically, with the latest models able to record in high-resolution 4K.
Productivity and entertainment are not the only capabilities of modern smartphones. Thanks to their ever-increasing computing power, and the inclusion of multiple high-resolution cameras, you can now use mobile phones for shooting professional grade movies. Such ability came into the mainstream by Apple when they ran an ad campaign called “Shot on iPhone” that showcased the video recording capabilities of its smartphone range by crowdsourcing high-quality videos from users on social media.
That wasn’t the only case of a mobile phone used for professional-grade videography, as several movies have also shot on smartphones.
Unsane
This 2018 movie from Steven Soderbergh shot in 4K on an iPhone 7 Plus, using an app called FiLMiC Pro. It tells the story of a woman who moves away from her home to avoid a stalker but quickly finds that she struggles in daily interactions. Having made an appointment to see a counselor, she accidentally signs a form to commit herself to a stay in the Highland Creek Behavioral Center. She later discovers that the facility makes money as an insurance scam, and things turn darker as she discovers more.
Soderbergh’s decision to use an iPhone to shoot the movie was down to his desire to try out a new technique to reinvigorate his art. Through this unorthodox method of filming, he completed all the filming in only10 days. He also used the phone’s tiny size to get closer to the cast, free from “cumbersome equipment.”
And Uneasy Lies the Mind
Shot over three years, and several iPhone releases before Unsane, the 2015 movie And Uneasy Lies the Mind filmed exclusively using an iPhone 5 at a ski chalet. Like Soderbergh, the film’s director, Ricky Fosheim, also used the app FiLMiC Pro, as he had originally wanted to use 16mm film but couldn’t find the budget to do it. Instead, he used the app to replicate the effect of the traditional aesthetic from using film.
Night Fishing
Night Fishing, a film about a man who’s casual fishing trip changes dramatically when a woman’s body gets caught in his finishing line, was shot on an even older device, with filming taking place in 2011 on an iPhone 4. This short horror film, directed by Park Chan-wook, received honors at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 where it won the Golden Bear award for Best Short Film.
These films help to show how powerful mobile devices have become, and it is likely many more will follow suit.