Episode 7 Shooting Hollywood Actors With An iPhone In A Feature Film with Brian McLane

12/04/17 Brian McLane is the founder of Splash Video & Palm Aisles Pictures He shot a full length feature film with his iPhone: The Killer’s Requiem The story revolves around Sonny Calabrese, a loving father and devoted son who spirals into madness after becoming the subject of a bet between angels and demons. During the first part of the podcast, we share an important announcement about the International Mobile Film Festival in San Diego next April which includes our guest. Brian McLane talks about his film being a feature length film and shooting it with an iPhone 6S. Brian shares how he backtracked into the film because it started as he was experimenting with his phone and making a film and how he was building the story as he went along. He then decided to make a feature film as other options for the story were not as exciting. Brian’s film is a musical because he is a musician and he had a video on MTV in the late 80’s and he wanted to have all his music in one place but not on a CD, he said that was outdated. He then came across the actors because he already knew them. Lloyd Kaufman is the founder of Troma Entertainment and his fame goes back to Rocky, The Karate Kid and a few other films. Jean Beauvoir of the band Plasmatics has a history that includes The Ramones. Tim Russ of Star Trek Voyager was also in the film and very helpful as a professional and a businessman. He also mentioned George Hardy. He then told us about the sound for his film and syncing for a full length feature film. He called his film a “Back Pack Production” and his guerrilla approach to filming with the iPhone. He talks about the H264 codec and it’s challenges to look great on the big screen which affected the syncing on the sound. He shared which part of the post-production process should be done before another and how sound should be the last part of post. He talks extensively about how he got creative to pull off filming with his phone without permits and how he still had to work with SAG (Screen Actors Guild) to get the actors approved. Brian shares many entertaining stories about how he pulled of shooting his film in different locations. He said, you want to “shoot by the pound.” The advice from Brian are well worth listening to regarding not only shooting and film production tips and techniques, but he also shares advice for planning how to import your footage and quality control in post production. He shot in 4k and the files were huge and the processing on his Macbook laptop was a challenge. He talks about lighting and the challenge when you shoot guerrilla style and you depend on natural light. He also mentions the rights of people in his shots and logos and such because you can get sued when you don’t have permits and are using locations with people who happen to be there. He learned that planning helps overcome some of the challenges of guerrilla filmmaking in post production. A lot of the challenges seemed to be with locations and lighting because when you put your film on a big screen it affects the resolution if the lighting is poor. Brian shares the musical aspect of his film because it’s a subtle rock musical supernatural film and the message of his film’s story. Watch the trailer for the film, The Killer’s Requiem by Brian McLane Follow Brian’s Facebook: International Mobile Film Festival: Become a Patron on our Patreon page to support us and listen to exclusive bonus podcasts with our guests as a thank you: SBP Podcast: The Voice of Mobile Film: Twitter : @SBPpodcast & *@SusyBotello *