Park Chan-Wook shoots film with iPhone 4

Just in case you were still wondering if the iPhone can really be considered a filmmaking tool, here’s a very interesting story:

Acclaimed South Korean director, Park Chan-Wook just debuted a 30 minute short film shot entirely with the iPhone 4.  Sure, there’s been a TON of videos on YouTube and Vimeo, all claiming to be the first short, the first feature, the first music video… but Park’s “Paranmanjang” is claiming to be first cinema-class film. That’s a pretty bold statement considering the iPhone’s limited resolution, and lack of professional controls.  But, considering the $130,000 budget, and the director’s track record (Oldboy, anyone?), there’s a pretty good chance this film is going to be killer.

The film was made with a crew of 80, and took 10 days to shoot.  But here’s the truly awesome aspect of the story.  Since many of the crew also owned an iPhone 4, they were able to shoot the action from alternative angles. Talk about collaboration!  I don’t think this is the perfect model for all media production, but it certainly gives credence to the concept of crowd-sourced filmmaking.

The Wall Street Journal has a nice article describing the project.

UPDATE: Thanks to HHH Reader, Misa, for pointing out another article about Park’s film.

Want to see the film?  “Paranmanjang“ is scheduled for a very limited release on Jan 27th (for 4 days).  If anyone’s got more details, please post them in the comments.