The pocket film 95 manifesto

Courtesy of my Cell Freak Blog

Ever wake up one day and feel like starting a film movement?

Today I realized that with the second annual Pocket Film Festival just being held in Paris, it's time for a movement to be started around cell phone video. For those of you not in the know, movies made from cell phone footage or pocket films, so noting their diminutive size, have probably been around since video camera cell phones were first put on the market back in November of 2000, but it’s only the last couple of years that the art form has started to be formally recognized.

As a medium, cell phone video still has some major problems; the visuals look grainy and washed out; the phone’s microphone has no way to distinguish background noise- so most dialogue needs to be rerecorded in editing; and even getting to the editing process is a task. Most video editing programs still don’t recognize phone video, so uploading the footage becomes a tedious conversion process.

But pocket film also has some distinct advantages; some people enjoy the washed out visuals likening it to impressionist art; there’s a much greater sense of movement than most of the self shot footage on YouTube, which is usually just someone sitting in front of a stationary web camera talking. But above all, the biggest selling point is the freedom and accessibility; no matter how crap the sound and visual, if you’ve got the storytelling chops, there’s always the chance your inner filmmaker will shine through anyway.

Trying to maximize those advantages this is what I came up with; borrowing heavily from Dogme 95, the movement created by Breaking the Waves/Dogville director Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, which consist of ten rules meant to strip cinema of special effects and post production gloss, instead focusing on story and acting; theoretically giving the viewer a purer movie going experience. While the veracity of the ideals is debatable, the Dogme 95 technique also happens to give filmmakers with severe financial limitations the discipline and structure to make a quality film for next to nothing.

Rule 1: Shout outs are okay, but no props. All scenes must be shot on location and any props used need to be native to the environment.

Rule 2: If a tree falls in the forest, you must hear it. No fixing audio in post; particularly tricky given the problems with cell phone microphones but the idea is to embrace the reality of the situation, not run from it.

Rule 3: Lose the tripod. If you’re not strong enough to hold up a cell phone, shooting the movie is probably the least of your problems.

Rule 4: Let there be light… naturally so. It’s a bright idea only to use found sources, throw everything you know about three point lighting out the window.

Rule 5: If you must smoke, no lights. Filters and other optical tricks are prohibited.

Rule 6: Bullets are cheap, but not fake ones. Avoid all superficial action, you can’t afford it anyway.

Rule 7: The present is to be accounted for. Right here and now means your movie won’t have to worry about procuring exotic or period costumes.

Rule 8: Closing the loophole for silly costumes. No genre flicks.

Rule 9: Must be shot on cell phone camera.

Rule 10: No taking credit. If you’re able to follow all those rules and still produce a product you’re proud of, you’re in line for much bigger and better things.