David Lynch And iPhone Film Making

  Today I am please to offer a guest post by iPhone Film maker    SSBelafonte.  If you like this post take a moment and visit him on facebook at www.facebook.com/ssbelafonte

                                David Lynch And iPhone Film Making

It can be argued that creative innovation is born of limitation. David Lynch is, arguably, one of the most innovative filmmakers to have emerged during the twentieth century. As an iPhone filmmaker, I am, inescapably, influenced by the dark genius of David Lynch. Lynch has made some dichomotic statements regarding the use of digital advancements as they apply to filmmaking. Would David Lynch support or decry the burgeoning iPhone filmmaking movement?



(David Lynch's Rubber Duck) Belafonte Neo-Noir Digital Surreal Short Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing from SSBELAFONTE on Vimeo.



As a filmmaker, I utilize the digital video camera of the iPhone 5 to achieve my creative vision because I enjoy the challenge of creating within the imposed boundaries of rigid limitations. Additionally, it’s an astonishingly high quality camera (8-megapixel, HD 1080p at up to 30 frames per second) that is built into a portable device that I always have with me. Perhaps, the most attractive aspect: it didn’t cost thousands upon thousands of dollars.



It has been almost 36 years since the release of Lynch’s first, feature-length film Eraserhead. Lynch made Eraserhead as a student at AFI with a prohibitively small budget. As a result of the financial limitations Lynch, being an Eagle Scout, employed inexpensive materials and methods to create an innovative masterwork. From the use of black & white film to, quite literally, building his own sets, and creating his own soundscapes, Lynch’s innovations were a means of circumventing limitations.



While promoting his latest feature-length film, Inland Empire (filmed with DV), in 2008 Lynch expressed his distain for the iPhone as component of cinema:



Now if you’re playing the movie on a telephone

you will never, in a trillion years experience the film.

You’ll think you’ll have experienced it, but you’ll be cheating.

It’s a, such a sadness that you think you’ve

seen a film on your fucking telephone. Get real.


David Lynch on digital video versus film at AFI in 2010:



And we did tests, um, ah, to bump up to high-def from

the low quality DV that I was shooting. And then tests from

high-def to film. And I loved the quality, and I think what

I loved about it was it’s not film. And you know,

the advances in film, everything is very very crisp.

I mean you can make it soft if you want but its, its got

a – film is so beautiful. But it used to be, in the 30’s less quality.

And this new, this DV that I was shooting reminded me of that.

So it’s just, some information is lost and it made me

feel like there was more room to dream, and I liked that aspect.



  (David Lynch’s Louboutins) was inspired by the print ads that Lynch created for Christian Louboutin; filmed exclusively with the iPhone 5 camera, in the vain of David Lynch, and edited in iMovie. It is intended as a contemplation of the deeper story line of the femme-fatales within the ads. When filming with the iPhone 5 camera lighting is the most important variable. Beautiful cinematography can be created, even in low light conditions, if the shot is properly lit. To achieve the cinematography you see I worked backwards in terms of lighting, filming at night in complete darkness, incrementally adding low-light sources (simple flashlights): simple innovation from limitation.

  Lynch has made it inescapably clear that he doesn’t want us watching films on the iPhone. I am, largely, in support of this conclusion. However, if you’re going to watch Lost Highway on your iPhone or not watch it at all, the world becomes a better place if you have see it. However, as a means of capturing images Lynch has expressed support for DV, and specifically low-fi DV. The iPhone filmmaker utilizes their iPhone, creatively, out of limitation. On can argue that innovation has thus occurred allowing the iPhone filmmaker more room to dream. If David Lynch has taught us anything, it’s that: anything is possible In Dreams.

(David Lynch's Louboutins) Belafonte Neo-Noir Digital Surreal Short Move Along from SSBELAFONTE on Vimeo.




Thank you for visiting. Please take a moment to share this post with a friend and to visit my guess blogger at
www.facebook.com/ssbelafonte -

                   iPhone Blockbusters



Buy the The iPhone Lens Dial at the Photojojo Store!


    There aren’t any iPhone Blockbusters yet and this is the good news. You can be the first person to shoot an entire feature using your iPhone that will make millions of dollars. Features have been shoot using the iPhone.
    The picture quality is getting better and the market for these movies can only grow.

    This blog is going to focus on the basics. This is movie making 101. We are going to treat the iPhone as we would any other small camera.

    With a camera we need certain things to shoot a quality film.

    We will need a good lens. The lens on the camera is going to be good enough for close friends and family, but if you want to produce something that will change the world, or at least your world we are going to have to attach a better lens.



Buy the The iPhone 4 SLR Mount at the Photojojo Store!

We are going to need lights.  I promise that we will keep the lighting setup under 50 dollars. What would the point of using an iPhone to shoot your film be if I was going to suggest that you use a 1000 dollar lighting set up.

This is low budget filmmaking which means that nothing can cost more than your camera.

    Next we will get you some quality sound. Again we will try to keep the sound needs under 200 dollars. Why does sound cost more than lights? That is easy to answer. Views will forgive poor lighting more than they will poor sound.

    Next we will look at editing your film.  Your computer and some low cost software will do.  We will also talk about a script. Trust me that even found footage films have scripts.

    At the end of this we will talk about marketing and distribution of your film.

   Note pictures have been provided by my friends at Photojojo. The only connection we have with them are that they have and will continue to provide really cool pictures for us. If you have any technical questions about lenses and mounts they would be a great resource to contact.



    Okay here is a short iPhone film.