Man, IFTN must be feeling like a complete idiot about now. Avengers cinematographer Seamus McGarvey announced in an interview with Hollywood Reporter that he was misquoted about portions of The Avengers being shot on iPhone. The confusion came from a discussion of the increasingly different technologies used on a film set. Here’s McGarvey clarifying the mistake made by IFTN.
I was talking about how up and coming film makers have access to a whole range of new technologies which expand our options as filmmakers. I mentioned that the iPhone and the Canon 5d Mk2 were devices currently used on many Hollywood productions. I used the Canon on some shots on Marvel’s The Avengers movie…Unfortunately, this was edited to read that I shot some of the film with the iPhone. This is not true.
Disney has also confirmed that no part of the film was shot on iPhone. That’s a bit of a let-down. My original story on this matter can be found after the jump, and you can see that I was pretty excited at the notion of big-budget work being done with low-cost materials. I guess it was unrealistic to think that good-looking work could be done on a fairly basic device. Anyway, read the original story after the cut, and I’ll sit here dreaming of the magic world where The Avengers can be shot on a $200 phone, and Denny’s has a sandwich that’s just a grilled cheese sandwiching mozzarella sticks sandwiching a T-bone steak. That’s the world I want to live in.
[Via THR]This isn’t something I expected to wake up to read. Avengers cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, in an interview with IFTN about his work on the upcoming We Need to Talk About Kevin, revealed that certain shots in the hotly-anticipated blockbuster were shot with a simple iPhone 4. Not only that, but they’re shots we’ve already seen in the trailer. Here’s what he had to say to IFTN
The beauty of photography or cinema is that you make every choice based on the content at hand. On The Avengers, I did a couple of shots on the iPhone and they are in the movie. In fact, they are in the trailer! I understand that sometimes there is no choice and you have to go for the cheapest option, but if you are limited for choice, you can still make poignant decisions that will effect the look of the film.
This isn’t the first time filmmakers have used an iPhone. Oldboy director Park Chan-wook planned on shooting a movie entirely on an iPhone. What baffles me is that, after watching the trailer for The Avengers a couple times, with this in mind, I think I can see a shot or two that might be from an iPhone, but there’s really not much obvious quality drop anywhere. Someone more technically-minded, please feel free to refute my statement. I’d love to know exactly what shots were done on the iPhone. While a lot of people might be angry about this, I think it’s amazing when filmmakers use less-than-traditional means to film. I figure if you can shoot a big-budget picture like this, even in small parts, with an iPhone or all things, and it still looks good? More power to you!
[IFTN, via Dark Horizons]
