Oscar Winning Claude Lelouch iPhone Film Opens Cannes

There’s a common tactic used by professional filmmakers. When “the money is here” they instruct the camera crew to make sure they’re using the biggest camera to impress the funders. My friend who does corporate work says he can’t use a small camera lest his clients think he’s not professional.

Producers visiting the set of Les Plus Belles Années d’une Vie (The Best Years of a Life) would have found Oscar-winning director Claude Lelouch using a small gimbal and an iPhone.

Lelouch is the first well-known European director to employ the camera most of us have in our pockets to shoot a feature film. So far, the most notable features shot with smartphones have come from America.

Claiming first iPhone shot feature bragging rights was Uneasy Lies The Mind by Ricky Fosheim. We had Tangerine from Sean Baker. Then Steven Soderbergh got in on the act. But he wasn’t content to just make one iPhone-shot feature. So he made two: Unsane and High Flying Bird.

Not all iPhone

Les Plus Belles Années d’une Vie opened Cannes Film Festival this year. But Claude Lelouch only shot part of his latest film on an iPhone. However, since then Lelouch has shot a new film – La vertu des impondérables – this time entirely on iPhone.

Maxime Héraud is a cinematographer who has worked with Lelouch on many films before. He found that working with an iPhone was an “interesting adventure.”

Lelouch came to him and said: “Maxime, we are going to shoot a movie with my telephone. I think it will be fantastic.”

Héraud says they faced significant challenges but found the freedom offered was irresistible. Filming with a smartphone creates a new relationship between the actors and director.

Motorised Variable ND Filter

As there’s no adjustable iris on the iPhone, moving between dark interiors to bright exteriors was tricky. Not to be defeated, Héraud designed an adjustable filter with a motor and remote control. Now he could darken the filter smoothly as needed.

FiLMiC Pro & Beastgrip

Héraud and Lelouch used the FiLMiC Pro camera app. They also used a Beastgrip to mount the iphone.

The iPhone is the future of film

Lelouch’s new film was met with a standing ovation for Lelouch and his stars and the iPhone. The audience even sang an impromptu version of the catchy theme tune from the original 1966 film (this is the third film in the series).

“I love shooting with an iPhone as I can film anywhere, anytime! In 10 years’ time it will be the only way to film. It lets us come closer and capture better than anything ever before.” Claude Lelouch

Héraud on using an iPhone

Talking about his experiences with iPhone filming, Héraud said: “…it’s really, really good. It can deliver a picture that can transmit an emotion. Really. What is nice is the weight. Because it’s so small and light you can put the camera everywhere, it can move fast, which is really great.

“It’s like a painter discovering a new colour. This is a new colour. If you have a shot where people are running, it’s perfect for that kind of shot, for example. You can do whatever you want even in situations which are normally hard, like a confined space.”

“There was a revolution in the early sixties, the nouvelle vague, when the 35mm camera meant directors could shoot in many situations that weren’t possible before. You could be free with the camera because it was so light. When A Man and a Woman came out, American directors like Scorsese and Coppola said, ‘I want to shoot like this.’”

“Claude took the 35mm camera and he likes to get close to the actors so it’s not acting, it’s life. You can’t know if it’s life or not.”

“Claude says his eye is his camera. Well, he says he has the same feeling with the iPhone. The control is light, you can see it all, there’s no eyepiece, you see it directly, you can see the reality here. He told me it was the camera he’d been dreaming of his entire life.”

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