Outfitting Your Smartphone for Filmmaking

With Oscar-winning filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh and Claude Lelouch lately making films using an iPhone, we now have an even better appreciation of the benefits of smartphone filmmaking. In an interview with HeyUGuys, Soderbergh—known for films like Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven—explained that only with a phone could he have made his film Unsane the way he wanted to, shown the film he wanted to show.
The French director, Lelouch, speaking with Forbes, added, “The importance is the emotion you capture, and that is easier to capture with an iPhone than anything else.” His Director of Photography, Maxime Heraud, said, “It delivers a picture that can transmit an emotion.... Because it’s so small and light, you can put the camera everywhere. It can move fast....” Interestingly, Heraud added, “Some DoPs will say they won’t shoot like this. I understand, but you need to open your mind and believe that this is going to be… a revolution.”
In the Forbes interview, Lelouch also said, “The difference from a traditional camera is so tiny that only professionals will know.” In late 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted that Lelouch told him, “In 50 years of filmmaking, he’s never been happier than when shooting on an iPhone.”
According to IMDb, Soderbergh shot Unsane on an iPhone 7 Plus with a Moment anamorphic lens, and his second iPhone film, Netflix’s High Flying Bird, on an iPhone 8 with a Moondog Labs anamorphic adapter and Moment 2x telephoto lens. Lelouch filmed the dream sequences of The Best Years of a Life on an iPhone XS and has reportedly already completed another film, shot entirely on iPhone.
Especially with the iPhone 11 Pro on the market—with its advanced triple-camera system and optical image stabilization—for many filmmakers, a smartphone can be a good option for a next project, for anyone from a newcomer seeking a way in, to a veteran looking for a challenge.