The film-maker bringing art to life – using only a smartphone | O2 OnePlus stories
People will probably be surprised how much I use a phone for my work as a film-maker. There’s something so responsive about taking photos or filming on a phone, something so immediate, and often when I see something that inspires me, my phone is what I reach for. It is also much lighter and nimbler than carrying around a clunky SLR.
I’ll use my phone to make visual notes, they make it easier to share ideas with members of my crew. The other evening, a peloton of cyclists passed my house and they all had their bike lights flashing. They were moving in unison in the sunset, and I kept seeing flashes of their bike lights â€" it looked so pretty. They gave me an idea for a shot I might use later. It’s important to collect your inspirations together somewhere so that you can return to them.
Today, I’m going to find out if the new OnePlus 5 phone is up to the job of making a film. With no other kit on me, I’m heading out to shoot a friend of mine, Farouk Agoro. He’s been painting for about a year, but has never showed anyone his work. I find it intriguing that he’s so creative, but that this side of his creativity (he’s also an architect) is a kind of secret. I think it’s a shame that no one has ever seen his stuff, so I want to film him and his creative process, and tell the story of his work.
Farouk’s style is intriguing, he uses really small brush strokes and adds layers until they become a big, bold visual statement. Whenever I see his work, I wonder what it would be like to be a fly on the wall witnessing his creative process; that was my starting point â€" thinking about how I could capture someone fully immersed in their process and communicate that.
It’s so compelling to watch someone doing something meditative. I found myself thinking of everything he has to consider when painting: the colours he will use, the order he will apply them, how he sets a mood for himself in his studio through music and light â€" and how that comes through in his work.
The OnePlus 5 camera shoots 4k, which is pretty good. It’s so interesting to watch how cameras in phones develop in comparison to professional cameras, and 4k is a great example of that. Most professional cameras are great because they shoot 4k quality images, which is about the best quality you can get commercially. So seeing that replicated in a phone is pretty unique. With the right amount of lighting and grading of the footage, it could pass as a high-end film camera.
The phone has a bunch of features that I was surprised to see â€" you can change the frame rate and use slow motion, for example. I think for anyone willing to get into the phone technically, the Pro mode is interesting. It ups the level compared with other phone cameras, it makes it as good as anything out there without spending a lot of money. It’s basically DSLR capability in a phone.
To tell Farouk’s story I used the time-lapse feature â€" most other phones don’t have that â€" it can be interesting to experiment with the pace of a film. I also put the phone on a gimbal to steady the motion, because phones are very sensitive and I wanted to give the shots a cinematic quality.
When I approach a story, I’m always thinking about the reason it needs to be told, asking myself: what is the urgency or necessity? In the past, I co-hosted a talk show on NTS radio where my co-host Stephanie Hegarty and I discussed a range of current and challenging topics. The thing that ties up all my work is an interest in what is relevant right now and why.
I’m a bit of a killjoy with my friends and collaborators, because I feel like we only have the chance to make a finite number of pieces of work. To me, that means we have a set amount of time to say something, so I always want to make what my work says valuable, rather than just fun. Anything I make has to live beyond what it’s needed for right now.
I try to be selective about what I film using my phone. As much as possible, I keep my phone away when everyone else has theirs out. I capture quite a lot of things that other people might consider boring or mundane. I like shooting the simple things, because with film you can draw attention and bring a kind of magic to it. The things people see everyday, but don’t really notice, can often be the things that translate really well on screen.
Since I committed to becoming a film-maker, I buy a lot of photography books. I’m not a photographer â€" I’m not actually that technical at all when it comes to image making â€" but I love composition and studying photographs for how they use visual markers to tell a story. I also get my inspiration from just looking around. I really love to ride the bus, my bike and the train so that I can see what’s happening around me. Getting out and seeing people live their lives gives me plenty of inspiration; I find people super compelling.
I’m interested in the everyday, but as a film-maker I’m always challenging myself to find new angles. I found shooting Farouk’s story entirely on a phone to be a challenge, but in a good way â€" I think the restriction of using only a phone brought something new to his story. I was happy to finally film Farouk at work â€" it’s something regular for him, but for me every little detail of how he worked, right down the music in the background, was fascinating.
The OnePlus 5 is available now, exclusive to O2
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