Featured Projects

“The Fixer”: a study in editing (and a lot more)

If you have any doubts about achieving high quality production values with a mobile device, watch this movie. The movie, shot using an iPhone, was directed by Conrad Mess. The version featured here was edited down to 3:00 to qualify for the 2012 Mobil Film Festival, which it won! The video gives you plenty to…

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Behind the Scenes at the International Mobil Film Festival

A key factor in the mobile moviemaking revolution is the advent of festivals that showcase works shot with smartphones and tablets. At the forefront of this development is the International Mobil Film Festival. Begun in 2010 and based in San Diego, California, it was one of the first such festivals to exhibit mobile movies in…

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Shooting SloMo Using a Spotting Scope

Sharon Stiteler loves birding and digiscoping with the iPhone 5s and a Swarovski Optik spotting scope. As she explaines: “The iPhone 5s lets you capture video at 120 frames per second, which upon normal playback shows the action four times slower than in reality.” “The combo of phone and spotting scope allows you to take fantastic…

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“Renewal”: trailer for a horror pic shot in 7 days

The Ultimate Filmmaker Challenge is a 7-day film race created by New Yorkers Yaron Urbas and Frances Lozada. The goal is to move people from talking about making films to actually making them. To emphasize the fact that filmmaking doesn’t require fancy  equipment, the Challenge’s founders decided to shoot their movies with limited  equipment. When…

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“Captain Justice”: when comedy meets fantasy

Spanish filmmaker David Muñoz has been making short films for the last 13 years, always mixing  comedy,   fantasy and sci-fi as in “”Captain Justice,” which won first prize in the 2014 Mobil Film Festival. The movie was shot on an iPhone 4 and a Sony Xperia. Of the many elements in this complex short,…

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“The Juggler”: how to shoot a video biography

All around us are people with astonishing skills and stories—too often invisible and uncelebrated.  But armed with your mobile and a few questions, you can put the spotlight on  these stars. Here’s an example—a two-minute iPhone 5 video of Dan Mankin, the director of a community and cultural center in West Marin California. Typically, Dan…

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