It’s hard not to be completely fascinated by our phones sometimes. Twenty years ago just having a cell phone still wasn’t a given. Five years later texting was the hot thing, but plenty of people tried to avoid it like the plague. Fast forward 15+ years into the 21st Century and not only do smart phones consume most of our attention all day, every day, but you can make an entire film with one.
This is all you need to film a movie now? Shoot your next surf edit? Really?
From a filmmaking perspective, it’d be easy for the independent videographer/director/producer to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on lighting, sound, and mounting equipment to make their film look as artistic and professional as possible. According to this company, Olloclip, you can pack all that into less than a hundred dollars worth of equipment for your iPhone. According to the Beacon Media Group, their Secret Canadian Surf Shack feature (which looks as good as any other surf edit these days), was shot with the help of another accessory called the HITCASE. And not too long ago Director Sven Dreesbach had the inspiration to shoot artist Robot Koch’s new music video, only the minor budget only allowed for them to shoot the whole thing with a smart phone.
The professional editor or videographer might be able to tell the difference between these films and others shot with expensive DSLRs and HD professional grade cameras. But can the rest of us? A year ago the buzz around the Sundance Film Festival was Tangerine, a film recognized as much for its story on camera as the one behind it. Director Sean Baker took three iPhone 5’s and an $8 mobile app called Filmic Pro to create the first indy film featured at Sundance to be shot on somebody’s cell phone. A lot has changed in 20+ years, hasn’t it?
So if we can accomplish this today a $100 accessory and an $8 mobile app, what the heck does the future of action sport look like – not just on camera, but in the water. Historically, we can look a the evolution of surf films as the narrative of surfing itself. We could just as easily look a the evolution of the sport, of the act of riding waves, as something that’s pushed by the ways in which those stories are told. Technologically as well as athletically, it’s all progressing. So what comes first, the chicken or the egg?
