More movies ready to roll on smartphones

free time, which was widely promoted by Apple in India, however, it is considered to be the beginning of films shot on the phone. Experts believe that a new era of filmmaking is beginning in India, where filmmakers will use high-end phones like Apple’s iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy series instead of professional-level video cameras.

“Not just short films, I think the iPhone is now ready to help us create a full-feature film. It’s incredible that we can do this kind of work in scenes with Action Mode on the iPhone 14 Pro,” Bhardwaj said. Stabilization Action Mode is a software feature on the iPhone that helps stabilize videos.

According to filmmakers and industry professionals, budding and student filmmakers are increasingly using smartphones to make films in India. Film institutes such as Mumbai-based Whistling Woods International have already started projects where students shoot films with iPhones. Before Fursat, a 60-minute action film titled 2024 was slated to release on Disney+ Hotstar in December 2021. It was shot on the OnePlus 9 Pro smartphone.

“A lot of filmmakers are already using smartphones for smaller format content. I see no reason not to use it for longer format content as long as you are able to handle it well and have the right attachments like gimbals and sliders,” said Chaitanya Chinchlikar, vice president of business development at Whistling. May go. Woods International.

Gimbal is a handheld device that keeps smartphones or cameras steady while shooting, while sliders are used to move cameras in a stable manner. Phone makers, on their part, are stepping up efforts to improve cameras by adding better sensors and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software models that enhance overall output.

“You can take angles and put them in places you can’t put cameras. The sensor and color fidelity is almost as good. Cost-wise, it’s almost worth the expense. There are apps that let you use the iPhone’s Natural cleaning, stabilization and image manipulation allow filters to be bypassed,” Chinchlikar said.

According to Bhardwaj, a traditional film camera required 10 people, three attendants and 10 boxes of lenses. “You can’t wander. You can’t rush. The iPhone freed me in that sense,” he said.

Switching to smartphone cameras will help bring down costs. For example, Mumbai-based Paxton Equipments, which rents out cameras and shooting equipment, charges 9,000 per day for the Red Gemini 5K cinema camera used for long-duration feature shoots. With six Carl Zeiss lenses, storage, tripods, and two operators, the total rental is approx. 30,000 per day. A 90-day full-length feature shoot would cost approx. 27 lakhs for equipment rental alone.

In comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 512GB storage is available on rent. 2,500 per day, and for 3500 paired with a mobile tripod.

Experts said that the trend will continue here as well and will grow with the increased demand from content requirement for OTT platforms. “It also depends on the medium. There’s a lot of flexibility for a movie made for digital platforms. But if you’re making a documentary or film for broadcasters, their technical specifications won’t allow a format shot on the iPhone.” Neeraj Sachdeva, Vice President, Programming, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. said.

People watching movies in theaters also have certain visual expectations, which movies shot on the iPhone can’t match, he added. Chinchlikar agreed and said that it is difficult to get high-quality lenses on smartphones, which sometimes becomes a problem.

However, Sachdeva pointed out that filmmakers with smaller budgets would prefer the medium over high-end professional cameras. Chinchlikar said that this is the second wave of democratization of cinema. “The first was when we moved from celluloid to digital films. The move from regular cameras to smartphones will democratize it even more,” he said.