Smartphone Filmmaking - by Max Schleser (Paperback)

About the Book

"Smartphone Filmmaking: Theory and Practice introduces readers to mobile, smartphone and pocket filmmaking, providing a source of inspiration for outlining creative practices and principles on how to produce your first film and distribute your project via social media. Filmmaker and academic Max Schleser traces the development of mobile filmmaking over a decade from its early experimentation to films screened at international film festivals, such as Sundance or Berlin International Film Festival. Unlike the the how-to guides currently on the market, this book goes beyond technical elements and focuses on the stories that were told and how they were created. Schleser follows the well-cited and established framework of Bill Nichols' documentary theory, to introduce readers to different documentary modes, and more recently, the emerging area of creative practice and scholarship. Included are interviews with internationally renowned mobile and smartphone filmmakers, including Benoãit Labourdette and Susy Botello, sharing their inspirational work, along with a dedicated resource section to illustrate how mobile, smartphone and pocket filmmaking can be used as a form of creative engagement for youth councils, community groups, public and educational institutions"--

Book Synopsis

Mobile, smartphone and pocket filmmaking is a global phenomenon with distinctive festivals, filmmakers and creatives that are defining an original film form. Smartphone Filmmaking: Theory and Practice explores diverse approaches towards smartphone filmmaking and interviews an overview of the international smartphone filmmaking community. Interviews with smartphone filmmakers, entrepreneurs, creative technologists, storytellers, educators and smartphone film festival directors provide a source of inspiration and insights for professionals, emerging filmmakers and rookies who would like to join this creative community.

While not every story might be appropriate to be realized with a mobile device or smartphone, if working with communities, capturing locations or working in the domain of personal or first-person filmmaking, the smartphone or mobile device should be considered as the camera of choice. The mobile specificity is expressed through accessibility, mobility and its intimate and immediate qualities. These smartphone filmmaking-specific characteristics and personal forms of crafting experiences contribute to a formation of new storytelling approaches. Stylistic developments of vertical video and collaborative processes in smartphone filmmaking are evolving into hybrid formats that resonate in other film forms.

This book not only develops a framework for the analysis of smartphone filmmaking but also reviews contemporary scholarship and directions within the creative arts and the creative industries. Smartphone Filmmaking: Theory and Practice initiates a conversation on current trends and discusses its impact on adjacent disciplines and recent developments in emerging media and screen production, such as Mobile XR (extended reality).

Review Quotes

"Max Schleser's book exceeds the 'how to', placing smartphone filmmaking in an original framework, but linking it too to innovative and experimental film traditions. He draws on pioneers, theorists, innovators, artists, programmers and technologists offering up a fascinating look at a transformations in filmmaking." --Annie Goldson, Director of He Toki Huna: New Zealand in Afghanistan (2013), University of Auckland, New Zealand

About the Author

Max Schleser is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. He is also the Adobe Education Leader, Co-Founder of the Mobile Innovation Network & Association (www.mina.pro) and Screening Director of the International Mobile Innovation Screening & Festival. He has co-edited Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones (2014) and Mobile Story Making in an Age of Smartphones (2019), and edited journals for Ubiquity, the Journal of Pervasive Media and the Journal of Creative Technologies. He conceptualised and conducted digital storytelling workshops for a number of city councils in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. His industry consultancy includes projects for Adobe, BBC, Nokia, Frontier Strategy and Open Lab, among other agencies and production companies.

Max's experimental films, moving-image arts and cinematic VR projects are screened at film festivals and exhibited in galleries and museums (www.schleser.nz). His community engaged documentaries are broadcast on TV and online (https: //www.behance.net/maxschleser).