BackFor indie filmmaker on a budget, the iPhone is good enough
'Tangerine', even ahead of its theatrical release on Friday, has become the most-discussed iPhone movie
Premium
When the comedy Tangerine had its premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival, it was warmly embraced by critics. Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times that it was “beautifully directed". And Justin Chang of Variety touted its “bracingly cinematic wide-screen look that takes on an almost radioactive glow".
So, it might be surprising that it was shot with a device that many viewers had in their pockets during screenings: an Apple iPhone.
It is not the first feature film shot entirely this way. The 2014 thriller And Uneasy Lies the Mind lays claim to that title, according to its website. But Tangerine, even ahead of its theatrical release on Friday, has become the most-discussed iPhone movie.
This film is set in Hollywood on Christmas Eve as two transgender prostitutes (Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) search for a cheating boyfriend. The film’s look is colourful, saturated and bold, encompassing the grandiosity of Los Angeles while also feeling intimate.
The writer and director Sean Baker, whose independent films centre on atypical protagonists (like Ghanaian immigrants or Los Angeles porn stars), said the idea for Tangerine came from the Hollywood location. In an interview to the NYT, his iPhone on the table in front of him, he explained: “It was the corner of Santa Monica and Highland, which is an unofficial red-light district. It’s half a mile from my home."
Camera quality has always been important to Baker. He shot his first film, Four Letter Words (2000), on 35mm film. But his follow-up, Take Out, made on a very low budget, used standard-definition video. He was not happy about the step back.
“I remember at that time," he said, “Shih-Ching Tsou, who I co-directed Take Out with, kept saying, ‘Can you just stop complaining about the fact that we are shooting on standard-definition video? It’s about the content, it’s not about the camera’."
But Baker was encouraged by the work of directors like Lars von Trier, a founder of the avant-garde, low-tech Dogme 95 movement, who used standard-definition video with natural lighting to make the feature The Idiots.
For his 2012 movie Starlet, Baker used a Sony digital camera with anamorphic wide-screen lenses that created a 1970s-style, sun-bleached California look. That film was made for $235,000. The budget for Tangerine was less than half that, so he had to find alternatives involving a smaller crew.
One inspiration was the 2012 Spike Lee film Red Hook Summer, in which a budding filmmaker shoots video with an iPad, and the audience sees some of that imagery.
“Every time it cut to that footage from the iPad, I thought: ‘Now, this is interesting.’ It looked like high-definition Dogme 95," Baker said.
He studied the video site Vimeo and a specific channel that focused on iPhone short films. “I was so impressed by what I saw," he said. “I thought, ‘This holds up’."
Through that channel, he found a Kickstarter campaign for Moondog Labs, a company that makes an adapter that fits over the iPhone lens and helps filmmakers achieve a more cinematic feel. “It would let us shoot the way Sergio Leone would shoot Westerns," he said.
He reached out to the company to see if he could get its adapters, which were still in their prototype stage. He dropped the name of one of his executive producers, Mark Duplass. Moondog sent Baker three. He combined the adapters with Filmic Pro, an inexpensive app with several useful tools.
“The separate ability to control white balance, focus and exposure were key fundamentals that enabled them to get good focus points in every shot," said Neill Barham, the founder and chief executive of Filmic Pro, explaining how his app helped the Tangerine crew.
The filmmakers bought three iPhone 5s for the shoot, but used only two at a time, with Baker and his co-cinematographer, Radium Cheung, recording at different angles. They used a Steadicam hand-held support called the Smoothie for stabilized shots. To achieve some sweeping shots that may have required a dolly if used with a traditional camera, Baker rode his bicycle, one hand on the iPhone and the other on the handlebars.
“It literally felt like I was 12 years old, shooting my VHS movies in New Jersey," he said.
(In post-production, film grain was added and the footage colour-enhanced to give a saturated look.)
There were other benefits to using an iPhone. Non-professional actors like his leads usually need time to get used to a camera. But because everyone is familiar with an iPhone, the cast felt comfortable from the beginning.
So what does Apple think of the results? A spokesman declined to comment, but Baker said he received a free iPhone 6 Plus from the company after Sundance, and at a recent talk at an Apple store, the cast and producers were also given the devices.
So the crew is now stocked up with equipment for another potential feature.
©2015/The New York Times
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
