Okay.

I’ve tried to stay out as best I could. And I’ll admit I took @MicahAzamKhan’s OG tweet about ‘make a movie on an iPhone’ the wrong way. But since I have been both stymied by Powers That Be in H-wood, AND made a #smartfilm, I’m in a unique place to comment.

Let’s begin.

I started my career working on Hi-8, editing vcr-to-vcr, then moved to minidv, the Sony PD150 (and GH1?) followed by my purchasing a Panasonic DVX100 — the very 1st thing I ever owned — and all of this is to say that:
A. I’m old
&
B. I came up in the cowboy days of digital video

As many have stated, I would have KILLED to have the tools that many have today. Not just mobile cinematography and apps like @FiLMiCPro, but mobile EDITING, like @LumaTouch, which essentially turns anyone with an iPhone or iPad into a digital studio.

I acknowledge this.

Copped together with digital music licensing platforms like @themusicbed and you can really put together things that would have seemed impossible in the days of film and the cowboy days of digital video.

And, best of all, you can do it on the cheap!

NOW,

Having acknowledged all of that, here’s the rub:

YOU CANNOT SHOOT JUST ANYTHING ON YOUR IPHONE!

Say again:

ANY PROJECT THAT IS SHOT ON AN IPHONE MUST BE DESIGNED TO EMBRACE THE LIMITATIONS OF DOING SO! YOU CANNOT SHOOT JUST ANYTHING ON YOUR IPHONE!

Cinema has a language. It is ever expanding (like any language) and it pulls from other mediums (ditto) and using the iPhone to speak said language is like using google translate to communicate in a foreign country.

SO,

This is to say that not all projects are cut out for that kind of artistic expression.

SO,

When some gatekeeper/celebrity tells a POC that they’re being stubborn in not shrinking a project to the parameters by which shooting on an iPhone would even be artistically satisfying (or even interesting) it’s disingenuous at best and egregiously ignorant at worst.

Yes,

I do believe in the @MarkDuplass way of thinking in that you can make feature films for $1000. In fact I made a whole series on my YouTube channel about it:

BUT,

I have also written projects that will not fix in the box of “made for $1000 on an iPhone”. And they’re good. And not because *I* say they’re good, they’re “someone offered to pay me in order to make money off them” good.

And when these projects were suppressed by Powers That Be for Fear of a Black Narrative, the problem wasn’t that I was too stubborn to regroup. The problem was that someone with influence used their powers to hold me and my art down.

And not to get really into the weeds, but this also has an effect on an artist who now has to contend with their own insecurities, but the demons of, it’s not that you’re not good enough, it’s that the system is actively rejecting you, personally.

I’ve heard from many mental mentors, from @johnaugust and @clmazin to “make the movies you want to see in the world.”

Well, what happens when you do and the system says, “We’re not ready for this. And we’re going to do whatever it is in our power to stand against you.”

Because the problem isn’t equipment. It was never about the willingness to shoot on an iPhone or be more frugal.

The problem is systematic racism and the degree to which those within said system overlook those stepped on in order to remain comfortable, ignorant, or both.