Korean director Park Chan-wook, who brought us the bloody cinematic feast OLD BOY, has shot his latest movie entirely on the iPhone 4. It's a 30 minute short that he made in Seoul last fall and is now starting to show in theatres there. He used multiple iPhones shooting simultaneously to create a horror-fantasy-comedy film called PARAMANJANG which is about a man who catches a woman while fishing. The film will show in South Korean theaters starting January 27th and will get it's international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival next month.
So the question is why? "The new technology creates strange effects because it is new and because it is a medium the audience is used to," Park said. It almost sounds to me like more of the growing trend of "branded entertainment", meaning the film was created as a promotion for the iPhone in Korea. Apple is not officially involved and Chan-wook claims that he had no special iPhone made for the shoot. He added that he made no changes to the existing model, except for the addition of lenses. Not to be a stickler but I'd say that's a pretty big change as you don't see many people taping jury rigged Zeiss lenses on their phones.
Anyway, I'm curious to check it out. Could it be the future of cinema? Will Hollywood start making feature films on the iPhone? Like all technological changes, it's still not going to make movies cost nothing. The budget on this 30 minute short was $133,000.
