SBP Podcast Mobile Filmmaking

Shifting Story Ideas Into Films With iPhones with Aris Tyros Episode 9

Aris Tyros lives in Toronto, Canada. He was one of the filmmakers who traveled to San Diego for the 6th annual International Mobile Film Festival. He flew home with the trophy for Second Prize with his film shot with an iPhone 6S: How I Became A Movie Theatre Murderer. Aris’ film was the first film submitted to the festival. The film was also nominated for Best Director award at the Global Mobile Film Awards, which is an Awards Ceremony dubbed as the “Oscars” of the mobile film industry. Two days before the recording of this podcast, Aris won the award for Best Director.
Episode 9 of the SBP Podcast interviews Aris about how his film began with a concern about what to do in a situation, such as the incident which took place in 2012 where a man shot and killed people inside a movie theater. His concern travelled from inside his mind into his pocket as he reached for his smartphone and used it to turn his concern into a story and then crafted a movie to share with the entire world.
Aris shares his feelings about winning the award and then he shares how he developed the film from start to finish. We talk about acquiring the location, a movie theater, for his movie and why he insisted in using a real movie theater even after being turned down, due to the nature of his film. The app he used to film it. How he achieved the sound for his film, and why he made the decisions he made. We discussed lighting and gave some tips on achieving good lighting for a smartphone film.
Aris shared his VR (Virtual Reality) film project and we discussed the VR trend as well.
Since we are leaving 2017, we asked Aris what his plans are for 2018 and he shares another idea which he may turn into a movie next year.
We also asked him to share tips and tricks for anyone planning to make a VR film which is available as a bonus episode exclusively on our Patreon page for subscribers who support us as a token of gratitude. www.Patreon.com/sbppodcast
The movie Aris won the awards with is 5 minutes long because in order to qualify for the International Mobile Film Festival’s short film competition, the films have to be no longer than five minutes. However, we told Aris during the interview we would share his original version. Here is the direct link to his film. Beware, it’s entertaining!
How I Became A Movie Theatre Murderer :
Follow Aris on Instagram: @ArisTyros
His website is www.ArisTyros.com
Global Mobile Film Awards: https://globalmobilefilmawards.wordpress.com/awards/
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Smartphone Cinematography Without A Budget with Chris Stollery Episode 8

Smartphone Cinematography Without A Budget with Chris Stollery Episode 8
SBP Podcast Mobile Film - The Voice of Mobile Film
A film shot with an iPhone won First Place at the International Mobile Film Festival in San Diego, April 2017. At the time this podcast was published, Chris’ film was awarded Best Experimental film at the Global Mobile Film Awards ceremony, the evening of December 10, 2017.
This podcast is a series of questions about the cinematography of the film. It was shot over many months but it appears to have been shot in a few minutes in many different locations.
Chris shares some of the techniques he used but was hesitant to give away too much of the “magic” tricks he performed in order to give the film a fluid and natural appearance.
He also shared that he and his actor friends come from stage theater and therefore, they were able to monitor themselves. We discussed using great audio without microphones as well.
We asked Chris to share some tips and techniques with cinematography for our patrons on our patreon page.
Catch the bonus exclusive episode for patrons at www.patreon.com/sbppodcast and the website for the film festival is www.internationalmobilefilmfestival.com
The Global Mobile Film Awards website is www.globalmobilefilmawards.com
*NO BUDGET *
No script, no characters, no story – but this little film is going places
Cast:
Cineaste One: Richard Pyros Cineaste Two : Josh McConville Cineaste three (and “DOP”) : Yalin Ozucelik Wannabe One: Hugo Weaving Wannabe Two: David Wenham
Director/Writer/Cinematographer/Editor/Sound Editor
Christopher Stollery
Post Sound
Steve Toulmin
*SYNOPSIS: *
Shot and recorded entirely on an iPhone and, as the title suggests, made with no money, this short film follows the debate of two cineastes as they argue the merits, pitfalls and the opportunities now afforded by new technologies to emerging film makers.
Enthusiasm and cleverness can get you so far, but is it possible to take the audience on an epic journey when you have No Budget?
© 2017 S. Botello Productions™ All rights reserved.

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
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International Mobile Film Festival:
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Animation Mobile Filmmaking with A Smartphone Episode 6

Jeffrey Turboff is an award-winning editor at ABC Nightline on television, working mainly in news/documentary. His awards include Emmy, Murrow, Cronkite, Peabody, Deadline Club, and Genesis awards.
We begin the podcast with his experience and background and then begin to talk about how we met…there is a bit of talk about his experience when he came to San Diego with the mobile film school kick-off and the International Mobile Film Festival.
Jeff talks about his first mobile film, Trumpeter Swan, which was an animation. He shares the details about using apps and his video editing software, AVID, to create his creative film which he submitted to the film festival in 2013.
Jeff also shares another animated film, Requiem, which he also submitted to the film festival in 2015. He explains the process, the story behind his animation and then he shares great insights to story structure and mobile filmmaking which should be very useful to creative filmmakers planning or thinking about using their smartphones to create and experiment with mobile filmmaking.
There is an exclusive part of this interview, we mentioned in this episode which is available on our Patreon page:
Don’t miss a valuable tip for filmmakers!
Visit the links below referring to what he discussed, his films, apps he talked about, which he used and his About.me.
Jeff’s first Requiem film submitted to IMFF 2015
Fools Parade by Trumpeter Swan submitted to IMFF 2013
Apps Jeff used:
OSnap!
or https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/osnap!-ultimate-time-lapse/id457402095?ls=1&mt=8
ToonPaint
PhotoTropedelic
or
Jeff on Facebook:
Jeff on Twitter:
All three Requiem films (2015)
Trumpeter Swan Article on Mobile Movie Making:
Film Jeff made and shared (not a mobile film)
International Mobile Film Festival
Patreon Page for SBP Podcast:
S. Botello Productions™ All rights reserved.

Acting In Mobile Films with Avaah Blackwell Episode 5

We have been listening to stories from filmmakers about how to make films using smartphones, but what about actors? What is their perspective being on the other side of the lens of a smartphone camera as a professional actor? We discuss this topic and the topic of the acting profession in-depth with Avaah Blackwell. Her performance in Figment directed by Mithran Maharajan was moving. Figment was nominated for Best Film in the inaugural Global Mobile Film Awards 2017. The film was a 21 minute story about a woman who is held captive in the basement of her husband’s home.
Acting in Mobile Film, Episode 5 with Avaah Blackwell 11/20/17
SBP Podcast Mobile Film hosted by Susy Botello
We open the discussion with Avaah’s background, studies and experience as an actor. As we continued our discussion, she shared the synopsis of the film in further detail along with her observation of how it was filmed with an iPhone from her perspective. We also discuss her experience as an actor. Avaah’s background includes the Toronto Smartphone Film Festival and we discussed her views and opinions on the industry along with some advice and tips for filmmakers and actors.
Avaah Blackwell is a professional actor who has been working as a professional actor and if you want to know how you can make a film using your smartphone, you will want to get the perspective of a professional actor because adding quality to your film is not all about the tools to capture the footage. Yes, the story is key…but you will need very good actors to convey your story and the vision of the story to your audience. You will learn a lot about making amazing films around great stories with this podcast and you’ll want to see it through to the end for some really great tips from our guest.
We asked Avaah to share some very sound advice to mobile filmmakers which is available on our Patreon page exclusively to our patrons at
Avaah Blackwell is on IMDB
IMDB
Avail’s website
www.avaahblackwell.com
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Our Podcast website is http://SBPpodcast.studio
International Mobile Film Festival
The SBP Podcast was created by S. Botello Productions™