The movie called Tangerine, a breakout hit from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is about transgender prostitutes working in a not-so glamorous part of Hollywood. Everything about this movie is surprising, from storyline to production to post-production. Especially because the movie was shot using an iPhone.
Who would have thunk it? Though lots of amateur movies have been shot using iPhones, this is the first time a movie shown at Sundance was almost entirely shot using an iPhone.
Well, iPhone 5S and 3 other things: an $8 app called Filmic Pro that allowed the filmmakers control over the focus, aperture, and color temperature; a Steadicam to mount the phones on and a set of prototype anamorphic adapter lenses from Moondog Labs that attach to the iPhone.
The iPhone was chosen by indie writer and director Sean Baker because of the movies limited budget.The Steadicam was essential as well because according to Baker, “These phones, because they’re so light, and they’re so small, a human hand — no matter how stable you are — it will shake. And it won’t look good. So you needed the Steadicam rig to stabilize it.” He also said that the adapter lenses were essential to making Tangerine look like it belonged on a big screen. “To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have even made the movie without it,” Baker says. “It truly elevated it to a cinematic level.”
Though the iPhone footage isn’t what you’d get with a true 35 millimeter film, it’s not bad for a movie captured using a $550 phone.
