Smartphone to silver screen
Mobile Journalism Smartphone Films are winning top film festivals and being shown to cinema audiences from Sydney to Los Angeles.
I teach mobile journalism at several journalism schools and as part of my ongoing research, I entered a few of my recent films into film festivals around the globe.
Normally I make films to use for teaching my classes and to test new concepts for storytelling in extreme environments. Where things are harder to do, not easier. Those films become invaluable for teaching the next generation of mobile journalists with real-world examples.
This adventure into cinema journalism led me to inviting a bunch of top journalism school colleagues to found the Mobile Journalism Awards and bring this experience to our students and journalists we train.
Below is the winner’s list from my little research adventure of placing these into competitions.
You could say that my research has been validated.
Especially since my little Smartphone films were winning competitions where people were using much larger cameras and crews. The L.A. Live film festival in Hollywood doesn’t even have a category for smartphone films. Yet, ‘Sophie Stutton’ too top prize in a documentary category.
This is an amazing and surprising result from my recent research into this area.
Through this process I also made a realization.
That my strongest short documentary films feature fearless women who are making brave life choices. I guess it is no surprise that I support a pro-female perspective in my filmmaking because I have three older sisters and two daughters (AND a German wife). I am quite happy to be around when they are in charge of things.
My top-prized film is one that took four days to film in the frozen harbor of Helsinki.
“Ice Swimming” won Best Smartphone Film at the Sunlight International Film Festival.
The festival attracted 2,500 entries from more than 80 countries.
This is proof that mobile journalism stories can make it to the big screen and find new audiences.
A woman goes ice swimming for the first time in the frozen harbor of Helsinki in February.
Shot with FiLMiCPro and edited with LumaTouch.
Join me on the Red Carpet!
This award-winning documentary short film has also won best film in the Mobile Journalism category of the International Mobile Filmmakers competition.
The film previously was awarded the following honors:
- Finalist in the One World Film Festival
- Official selection in the MINA Film Festival in Melbourne Australia.
- Semi-Finalist in the Berlin Flash Film Festival
Ice Swimming is not the only non-fiction #MOJO film to earn distinction in global film festivals.
“Sophie Sutton” is a documentary shot on smartphone by a mobile journalist is winning top prizes at glitzy film festivals in L.A. and elsewhere.
“Sophie Sutton” won top prize at the LA Live Film Festival – the festival did not even have a ‘shot on smartphone’ category.
This #Mojo mini doc was shot with smartphone and tiny mobile gear that all fit into a bike bag while filming in Berlin.
“Sophie Sutton” joins “Ice Swimming,” “The Treehouse” and “Altitude” in earning international recognition for storytelling and cinematography.
Watch all these 4 films – Winners in 6 global film festivals. The non-fiction films were shot on 3 continents by one filmmaker with a smartphone.
More examples of #MOJO films made with smartphones.
I like to edit my shots while still in the field. The best tool I have found for working in the moment to capture and present an authentic scene is LumaFusion video editor for iOS. I show this process in a Pro Filmmaker profile hosted by Luma-Touch.
Here is a screener of that award-winning #Mojo film . . .
The Treehouse
Visit to the tallest treehouse in the world. This award-winning film was named a a FINALIST in the @FiLMiCPro One World film contest.
Altitude
SF3 Film Festival writes: “‘Altitude’ by Mojo filmmaker, Robb Montgomery, is a visit to cloud factories in Chile and Austria. This is one of the most spectacular expressions of smartphone cinematography and what he can do with a time-lapse will take your breathe away.”
‘Altitude’ debuted on the silver screen (which is how you need to experience this film) on Sunday 23rd September, 2018 in Sydney Australia.
Shot on location at the Hintertux Glacier and San Pedro de Atacama.
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