From 16mm to iPhone 16

At Heritage Film Project, we have taken an important resolution: to progressively adopt the iPhone as a more permanent tool for documentary filmmaking. This decision is the natural evolution of a journey that began decades ago — a journey rooted in the need and choice to adapt to technology, while keeping subject and story at the heart of it all.

Moving forward, this is what documentary filmmaking will look like. In fact, already does.

When I was making documentaries in the 80’s, my only real option was celluloid by Kodak or Fuji, perhaps Agfa if neither Kodak not Fuji were available. Filming was always on 16mm and later Super 16mm, rarellyever in 35mm. Back then, production demanded not just artistry, but also complex logistics and considerable budgets.

That changed for me and many of my friends when Thomas Vinterberg came up with The Celebration (1998),. The film, entirely shot in video, received numerous awards and served as inspiration for established filmmakers and students alike. For The Celebration Mr. Vinterberg used the Sony Vx1000 which operated with digital mini-cassettes, and to make life even easier he filmed using only the available lights on location. The concept served to inspired many who viewed Mr. Vinterberg aproach as a means to get closer to the industry. Few were successful, particularly those who understood that hardware is not all and that for a film to be successful one still needs to come up with a good story and figure out a marketing strategy. What Digital video did for many of us was opening a door to the future.

A work of art, a great camera, under the right circumstances I will use it again

Sony Vx1000 and the Dogma Revolution

In 1998 I received an award from the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografia (Argentina) to produce a feature documentary film about Osvaldo Soriano and his tribulations in Europe during a prolong exile. That was my last film shot entirely on s16mm. The production plan for "Soriano" call for interviews in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Mainz, Rome, Torino, London, Rio, New York and Buenos Aires. What was shot in Europe was dveloped and trasnfered to video in Paris, the rest of the footage was either sent or droped wat DuArt in New York. Logistics were a nightmare.

My film after "Soriano" was “Tells of a Helmsman” wich represented a major leap. During the production I married Soledad Liendo who would later become my producer. While in Rome we became pregnant with our first child. That film was entirely shot with a Sony Vx1000 like the one used by Mr. Vinterberg to create The Celebration.

It was difficult at first to attract investors to contribute to a film shot on video, but that will also soon change. Celluloid was beautiful, but video — even in its infancy — was allowing me as the director to get closer to to the subject without the interference of the crew, ultimately leading to a dialogue that was closer to a confession than a rigurous interview.

The Sony Vx-1000 was followed for more sophisticated camcorders, eventually the DSLRs 35mm cameras bacame the gold standard. Nikon and Canon were compeatingfor an ever growing market of young men and women filmmakers from just about everywhere inb the world. The documentary revolution was unstopable. The DSLRs were promptly replaced by their mirrorless version and I ultimately moved to the Sony FX3 which I used in serveralof my most recent films including "Alice", "Black Fiddlers" and certainly "The Piccirilli Factor". Meanwhile, the phone stoped being a phone to become a camera that will keep evolving in a parallel world. In fact I started to use my iPhone11 as early as 2015 during the production of "White: A Seasson in the Life of John Borden Evans". However, I di not anticipate then that the iPhone was, someday going to become a main tool in the box which is what happen when Apple introduced the iPhone 16Pro Max.

If you can afford it, for it! Still my favorite and most impractical support for my current projects.

Bolex 16mm. Nothing will ever replace the feeling of holding and filming with her.

From 16mm to the iPhone 16

Today, almost anyone can film with an iPhone but that hardly makes anyone a cinematographer. The phone is a tool that in the right hands can and it will serve to tell a story, although that might not always be the case. For me the iPhone means freedom, freedom from complex production hurdles, permits, embarrassing situations. One can transform oneself and past for a turinst filming at the Pope’s funeral without permits and use that footage efficiently and legally in the production of a documentary film for theatrical release.

In conclusion, advance audio, lighting and editing  technologies supporting the latest iPhones, added to the considerable lower budgets will act as liberating factors for for profesional filmmakers and that is happening as  we embrace the ideal and everyone will benefit with this transition just as many cashed on the advent of the early video camcorders. We can now produce films for the educational market at a lower cost allowing more stories to fall into the lineup of production entities like Heritage Film Project and producer-director, such as myself, now considering to shoot his next project with the latest iPhone and supporting technologies. The future of filmmaking is in our hands.