The two minute film “Splitscreen: A Love Story” (watch it after the jump) won the Nokia Shorts 2011 Competition. The contest featured short films shot entirely on Nokia cell phones, and the winner and finalists’ films will premier at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
This is the first time Nokia’s mixed cell phones and film. They announced in 2008 that Spike Lee would direct a film made up of people’s submitted cell phone videos (watch it here).
While the contest does a lot for low-budget filmmakers, the fact that it’s shot on cell phones doesn’t mean just anyone can make a movie now. Looking at “Splitscreen,” we can see that a lot of traveling and clever editing was needed. That’s time and money.
There’s also the director, J.W. Griffiths. Despite shooting the entire film on a Nokia N8 cell phone,
He’s hardly a newbie. According to his official site, he’s filmed a commercial starring Ray Winstone (“The Departed”) as well as a book trailer for best-selling author James Ellroy (“L.A. Confidential”).
via Low budget is no problem for cell phone filmmaker | The Upshot – Yahoo! News.
The contest may not mark a low-budget, proletariat revolution in cinema, but the charming film and the contest itself shows that talent and hard work still matter more than technology.
The film and other finalists can be found here.
Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.
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