When directors Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell set out to create the innovative short film “Taste,” they knew they needed a streamlined camera that could enable them to access places a large film crew and setup couldn’t. With a smaller crew and a Sony Xperia, they were able to tell a unique story in bold new settings that wouldn’t be possible with conventional camera equipment.
“We wanted to put ourselves in a really good position,” explains Caldwell, “but to have the fluidity to react to what was going on to what felt right in the moment and the Xperia really empowered us to do that with far less restrictions than you would normally have.
“Sometimes our film crew, was only four people including the actress and that allowed us to travel to dense, crazy urban environments," says Earl, "and also climb to the top of mountains and access and create images that you just can't do with a large conventional film crew.”
Using The Cinema Pro App In The Xperia
Using the small, unobtrusive Xperia itself was a huge advantage for the team, but there's more to the Xperia's filmmaking capabilities than just being compact. The team used the powerful Cinema Pro app in the Xperia to configure the shooting parameters. Cinema Pro is built from Sony's professional motion picture camera technologies (think VENICE) to give filmmakers high-level, sophisticated controls and features with the Xperia smartphone. For Earl, being able to access the Xperia's multiple lenses through the Cinema Pro app was just one example of how the Xperia opened up creative possibilities. “Being able to instantaneously switch lenses in Cinema Pro allowed for a lot of experimentation,” says Earl. “You go into a scene thinking you want to shoot it on one lens but you can audition the other two lenses so fast that it totally changes the way you think and the way you construct a shoot.”
"What they've achieved with the Xperia," Says Earl, "is bringing in a filmic feel, tone, a dynamic range, that feels more like a high end cinema camera."
See more from the directors and explore the making of ”Taste” in this behind the scenes video:
