Oscar Winner Steven Soderbergh obviously doesn’t have the same meaning of retirement like everyone else. As it would appear, his productivity has only doubled since the announcement. The prolific director of noted films such as Sex, Lies and Videotape, The entire Ocean’s Trilogy, and Erin Brockovich has been talking about his retirement for several years now, while he was making movies such as Magic Mike, Haywire and Side Effects etc. within a short period of time.
Soderbergh, so to speak came out of his retirement recently, to direct his movie ‘Logan Lucky’ starring Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, and Adam Diver that is all set for release next month. Now, he is already at work on his next project. His affinity towards low budget, independent movie-making is already well-known. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that his new movie has entirely been shot on an iPhone.
Soderbergh- the “poster boy of the Sundance generation” – has reportedly titled his iPhone movie as ‘Unsane’ which will star The Crown’s Clair Foy and Broadwalk Empire’s Juno Temple. He also plans to distribute the movie by himself through his company, Fingerprint Releasing.
Unsane wouldn’t be the first film to be shot entirely on iPhone. Over the course of last five years, numerous big names have been associated with similar experimentation, such as Michel Gondry, Clement Deneux, Sean Baker, and many more. Sean Baker won critical applause for his film ‘Tangerine’, which debuted at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and caught the audience by surprise at the last line of the ending credits which listed the iPhone 5s as the camera on the set.
The use of iPhone in Soderbergh’s new project will raise the handset’s profile as a movie-making tool without a doubt. While Apple also upgrades the camera and software of the iPhone with each generation, we can certainly look forward to smartphone-shot movies to become a genre in itself.
Soderbergh’s movie Traffic won an Academy Award for cinematography. According to Tracking Board, the film industry press is going to plead for information on the iPhone movie while he is promoting his new movie Logan Lucky.
The prolific director, on a wittier note, was quoted suggesting a fellow Redditor on an “Ask Me Anything” session while enquired for advice on getting financing for a film.
“Get a script and an iPhone and start shooting. Seriously,” Soderbergh said.