Oscar nominated doc "Searching for Sugarman" shot partly using iPhone

starcentral said:
So here we are dreaming of dropping the next 3, 6, 10, or even 40 thousand dollars on the "next amazing camera" that is finally going to give us everything we dreamed of..... when along comes an Oscar nominated documentary called "Searching for Sugarman" shot partly on an iphone.

- Sigh
Click to expand...

I'm going to revise here. So he used an app because he wanted a very low-res look for a specific purpose. It's not supposed to look good, and for the 8mm look, the iPhone is incredibly suited to it. It has a great camera, and in a pinch you can get away with using it, but it's no where even close to what my C100 can do, or cameras above and beyond that model.

Interesting, yes, but unless you're attempting humor, this really has nothing to say about any of the new developments that are going on...unless you yearn to go back to tube TVs and 240 lines of resolution.
 
RE: Searching for Sugarman.
What you did not mention is that he started out shooting this film in Super 8mm film.

Having just finished watching "Searching for Sugarman" a few weeks ago it would be of great help to any filmmaker trying to tell a story to actually watch the film and see how the documentary was built and put together. It is a beautifully shot film and very little of the film was shot on an iphone. Those shots were mostly effect shots and were superbly matched into the piece. Once again just a reminder to those, myself included, who tend to obsess too much about gear when we should be spending more time looking for a compelling story to tell.
 
These posts annoy me. Try showing up to a fiction movie with an iPhone, and no technical knowledge, calling yourself a DP. See how long it takes before the producers are on their own iPhones, calling for your replacement as fast as possible.

This is not a scriptwriting forum. Scriptwriting is another issues. For any good project you need good writing AND good cinematography. Just because one is important doesn't mean the other should be forgotten.

To do any job well, including cinematography, you need to be obsessive about details, not just sloppy. Great chefs I know are obsessive about their gear too, great musicians, etc. Mediocre hacks just say "whatever" and get lazy with the finer points of their work and the tools involved.

This, like "Blair Witch" back when, has a specific justification for a strange camera choice. Most stories do not, and in most cases, iPhones and 8mm would not fit and would just detract. Each case is different, but few stories would actually work shot this way.
 


http://tomparish.com/what-the-2013-sundance-filmmakers-shot-on


In the microbudget, low/no budget realm, the director is the cinematographer or DP sometimes so there's some overlap with some directors leaning towards telling the story (camera not so important) and some directors leaning more towards cinematography (camera is very important).

Obviously Sundance doesn't care so much about the camera, and if you had a Hollywood budget you would not intentionally shoot with a flipcam or GoPro unless it was a segment in the movie that was supposed to be some found footage:

"Not surprisingly, the ARRI Alexa, Canon 5D, the RED Cameras and Sony EX3 and F3 were some of the most popular choices."

Apple iPhone:
"American Promise"
ARRI Alexa:
"Blue Caprice"
"Emanuel and The Truth About Fishes"
"Hell Baby"
"Il Futuro"
"In Fear"
"I Used to Be Darker"
"The Lifeguard"
"The Rambler"
"There Will Come a Day"
ARRICAM Lite:
"Circles"
"Houston"
ARRICAM Studio:
"Houston"
ARRIFLEX 235:
"Houston"
ARRIFLEX 416:
"Shopping"
ARRI film camera (unspecified):
"Austenland"
Canon 1D:
"The Summit"
Canon 5D:
"American Promise"
"Blackfish"
"Blood Brother"
"God Loves Uganda"
"Google and the World Brain"
"Inequality for All"
"In Fear"
"Life According to Sam"
"Narco Cultura"
"A River Changes Course"
"The Square"
"Valentine Road"
"What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love"
Canon 5D (Specifically designated Mark II):
"99 Percent: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film"
"After Tiller"
"Escape from Tomorrow"
"Jiseul"
Canon 5D (Specifically designated Mark III):
"99 Percent: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film"
Canon 7D:
"After Tiller"
"American Promise"
"Blood Brother"
"Cutie and the Boxer"
"Inequality for All"
"In Fear"
Canon C300:
"Inequality for All"
"Life According to Sam"
"Twenty Feet from Stardom"
Canon T2i:
"American Promise"
Canon XA10:
"Blackfish"
Canon handycam (unspecified):
"99 Percent: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film"
Cineflex (unspecified):
"The Summit"
Flip Cam:
"American Promise"
GoPro:
"American Promise"
"Google and the World Brain"
"In Fear"
"S-VHS"
JVC GY-HM700U:
"99 Percent: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film"
JVC HD110:
"The Moo Man"
JVC consumer camcorder (unspecified):
"American Promise"
Panasonic AF100:
"Blackfish"
Panasonic AF101:
"Soldate Jeannette"
Panasonic DVX100:
"American Promise"
Panasonic DX100A:
"American Promise"
Panasonic HVX:
"Blackfish"
Panasonic P2:
"Fallen City"
Panasonic VariCam:
"Life According to Sam"
Panavision Millenium XL:
"The Spectacular Now"
Panavision Platinum:
"The Spectacular Now"
Red EPIC:
"C.O.G." (
with Vintage Panavision Anamorphic lenses)​
"Concussion"
"It Felt Like Love"
"Milkshake"
"The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear"
"A Teacher" (
with anamorphic lenses)​
"Twenty Feet from Stardom"
"S-VHS"
"We Are What We Are"
Red ONE:
"Pit Stop"
"Virtually Heroes"
Red ONE MX:
"Escape from Tomorrow"
"Jiseul" (with
Zeiss Ultra Prime lens)​
"Newlyweeds"
"This is Martin Bonner"
Sony DSR-PD100:
"American Promise"
Sony EX1:
"Cutie and the Boxer" (
with 35mm Letus adapter)​
"Fire in the Blood"
"The Summit"
Sony EX3:
"After Tiller" (with a Letus Prime lens adapter)
"Fire in the Blood"
"kink"
"The Moo Man" (with a nanoflash)
"The Summit"
"Twenty Feet from Stardom" (with a Letus Prime lens adapter)
"Valentine Road"
Sony F3:
"Cutie and the Boxer"
"Google and the World Brain"
"Inequality for All"
"Manhunt"
"Touchy Feely"
"What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love"
Sony F900 CineAlta:
"Fire in the Blood"
Sony FS100:
"Google and the World Brain"
Sony FS700:
"God Loves Uganda"
Sony HD800:
"Salma"
Sony HD Camera (unspecified):
"99 Percent: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film"
"American Promise"
Vixia handheld camera (unspecified):
"American Promise"
Unspecified 35 mm Camera:
"Ain't Them Bodies Saints"
Unspecified 8 mm Camera:
"Blood Brother"
Unspecified DSLR and smaller cameras:
"Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer"

I tend to think about it this way. How often do you see something and go, you know, that's a really good story with great acting and interesting shot composition and editing, and it's really entertaining, however it looks like poop. I don't like it now, but if it was shot on something so it really looked like 35mm Film, Arri, Red, etc., I would definitely like it.

Almost never?

How often do you see something and go, the lighting, color depth, IQ is fantastic! But the story, acting, is awful and this is really boring.

All the time?
 
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