Filmmaker shoots horror flick with iPhone 4

This is just amazing. At one time, “advanced” smartphones couldn’t even take a decent still photo. Now look — people are making actual feature films with their iPhone 4s.

Acclaimed Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook made news this week for shooting Paranmanjang, a 30-minute horror film, on Apple smartphones. His choice of camera baffled a lot of industry watchers, who didn’t understand why a man known for an intensely visual filmmaking style would willingly use cell phones to film his latest project.

Mr. Park is apparently as succinct as he is talented. When asked about his camera choice, he responded, “There are many people around the world who like to play and have fun with them… Technology creates strange effects because it is new and because it is a medium the audience is used to.” That’s certainly one way to bring a real-life quality to a movie. And it also eliminates some production headaches — smartphones are so small and portable, having various “camera people” shooting a variety of angles had to have been ridiculously easy. The cost-savings was probably a factor too — the film cost only $133,000 to make, a mere pittance in the entertainment world.

As for the movie itself, it’s as unusual as Park’s choice of filming equipment. The title, Paranmanjang, is Korean for “life full of ups and downs, which is sort of an under exaggeration of the plot: A fisherman discovers that his big catch of the day is a woman. Stuck, tangled in the line with him in both a physical and metaphysical way, she then does something surprising — she strangles him. When he comes to, the characters have exchanged clothes, and she’s calling him “Daddy.”

It’s billed as horror, fantasy with a little comedy thrown in there. That’s a lot, considering the run-time is only half an hour. So how does this crazy storyline get resolved? We’ll find out on January 27th. That’s when Paranmanjang is hitting Korean theaters. Hopefully, it will be available online shortly thereafter. I can’t wait to see how good a true “iPhone film” can be.

Via: Associated Press via Yahoo