Steven Soderbergh believes shooting movies on iPhones is the future

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Steven Soderbergh's self-imposed retirement from feature film-making didn't last all that long in the grand scheme of things, and the director was soon busy with several projects, such as heist-comedy LOGAN LUCKY, interactive murder mystery Mosaic, and the upcoming psychological thriller UNSANE, which Soderbergh shot entirely on an iPhone. Most of us carry some form of mobile device around with us, and they truly are amazing when you really think about it. The world literally at our fingertips, with the ability to do almost anything; it's quite impressive, and Steven Soderbergh told IndieWire that he believes they're the future of film-making.

I think this is the future. Anybody going to see this movie who has no idea of the backstory to the production will have no idea this was shot on the phone. That’s not part of the conceit. People forget, this is a 4k capture. I’ve seen it 40 feet tall. It looks like velvet. This is a gamechanger to me.

When asked whether we can expect all of his future projects to be shot on iPhones, Soderbergh said, "I’d have to have a pretty good reason not to be thinking about that first… There’s a philosophical obstacle a lot of people have about the size of the capture device. I don’t have that problem. I look at this as potentially one of the most liberating experiences that I’ve ever had as a filmmaker, and that I continue having. The gets that I felt moment to moment were so significant that this is, to me, a new chapter." UNSURE stars Claire Foy (The Crown) as a young woman involuntarily committed to a mental institution where she is confronted by her greatest fear, but is it real or a product of her delusion? I can't imagine that many other directors would embrace the use of iPhones over a traditional film or digital camera, but as technology progresses, perhaps the future of film-making really will come in the palm of our hand.

UNSURE will be released on March 23, 2018.