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THE MOMENT IT ALL BECOMES CLEAR YOU must have heard of the Hollywood film Unsane – you know, the one that stars the magnificent Claire Foy and was shot entirely on an iPhone?
Director Steven Soderbergh harnessed the power of the iPhone’s sensational camera to capture 4K video that works and looks great even on the big screen in cinemas. But it wasn’t all down the phone.
To shoot Unsane, Soderbergh used three iPhone 7 Plus phones, kitted out with three special add-on lenses from a company called Moment.
The best thing is, anyone can get their hands on these three lenses (18mm, 60mm, and a fisheye) and they’re also available for other phones, like the latest Google Pixel 2, the Samsung Galaxy S9, and iPhone X (as well as older Google, Samsung, and Apple phones).
But there’s even better news than that – over on Kickstarter, Moment has just launched a new project to bring a brand new anamorphic lens to market as part of a “Filmmakers Collection” of phone accessories – making it easier for you to be the next Soderbergh.
The 1.33x anamorphic lens brings the organic look and character of 2:40:1 Cinemascope to mobile. In other words, it’s like shooting a wider focal length in the horizontal direction and a longer focal length in the vertical. You can now capture a super wide-angle image with the inherent shallow depth of field and perspective of a telephoto lens.
To complete the kit there’s a wireless-charging battery case, a counterweight you can attach to a steadycam to make it work when your phone has the lens on it, and a filter adapter so you can use regular DSLR camera filters on your phone.
It is, as the name suggests, an all-in-one filmmakers’ kit that’ll help you get pro results from your mobile camera.
The Kickstarter campaign is ongoing and will end on April 20, although it was fully-funded within 40 minutes of going live. You can save if you pre-order, so it’s worth visiting shopmoment.com to find out more.
You’ll pay around £100 for the lens and battery case, £20 for the steady cam counterweight and £20 for the filter mount.