Welcome to Francis Academic Press
Login | Register

Frontiers in Art Research, 2025, 7(4); doi: 10.25236/FAR.2025.070404.

Filmmaking with Smartphones: A Renewed Dialogue with the Discourse of Cinema

Author(s)

Lianyao Zhuo

Corresponding Author:
Lianyao Zhuo
Affiliation(s)

School of Art, Communication and English, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Abstract

The advent of digital technology has dramatically changed the way films are produced, stored, and distributed, giving rise to proclamations about the death of cinema. This paper focuses on the incorporation of smartphones in filmmaking and adopts a case study approach to analyse how smartphones play out in Tangerine and This Is Not a Film. By enquiring into the effects of smartphone intervention in these two films, this paper aims to open a dialogue with recent debates about the state of cinema today. The paper draws attention to the opportunities that the new medium, with its unique aesthetics, brings to both films, and suggests that media convergence does not herald the death of cinema; rather, cinema is forging new ways of existing in its wandering over different technical supports, remaining alive and able to contribute to politically interfering with other arts and life itself.

Keywords

Cinema, Media Convergence, Smartphones, iPhone, Non-cinema

Cite This Paper

Lianyao Zhuo. Filmmaking with Smartphones: A Renewed Dialogue with the Discourse of Cinema. Frontiers in Art Research (2025), Vol. 7, Issue 4: 24-28. https://doi.org/10.25236/FAR.2025.070404.

References

[1] Casetti, Francesco. 2016. “The Relocation of Cinema.” In Post-Cinema: Theorizing 21st-Century Film, edited by Shane Denson and Julia Leyda, 569-615. Falmer: REFRAME Books.

[2] Baker, Sean, dir. 2015. Tangerine. California: Magnolia Pictures, DVD.

[3] Panahi, Jafar, dir. 2011. This Is Not a Film. Kanibal Films Distribution, DVD.

[4] Stump, David. 2014. Digital Cinematography: Fundamentals, Tools, Techniques, and Workflows. Burlington, Mass: Focal Press.

[5] Malone, Meagan E. 2020. “Celebrating Transness: Tangerine and the iPhone.” European Journal of English Studies 24, no.1: 65-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825577.2020.1730043. 

[6] Callon, Michel. 1990. “Techno-Economic Networks and Irreversibility.” The Sociological Review (Keele) 38, no.1: 132-161. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1990.tb03351.x. 

[7] Brown, William. 2016. “Non-Cinema: Digital, Ethics, Multitude.” Film-Philosophy 20, no.1: 104-130. https://doi.org/10.3366/film.2016.0006. 

[8] Pieldner, Judit. 2018. “The Camera in House Arrest. Tactics of Non-Cinema in Jafar Panahi’s Films.” Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies 15, no.1: 103-123. https://doi.org/10. 1515/ausfm-2018-0006. 

[9] Panahi, Jafar, dir. 1997. The Mirror. Celluloid Dreams, DVD.

[10] Cortés, Rodrigo, dir. 2010. Buried. Warner Bros. Pictures, DVD.

[11] Bolter, Jay and Richard Gruisin. 1999. “Introduction: The Double Logic of Remediation.” In Remediation: Understanding New Media, 2-15. Cambridge. Mass: MIT.

[12] Nagib, Lúcia. 2016. “Non-Cinema, or the Location of Politics in Film.” Film-Philosophy 20, no.1: 131-148. https://doi.org/10.3366/film.2016.0007.

[13] Rahbaran, Shiva. 2012. “An Interview with Jafar Panahi.” Wasafiri 27, no.3: 5-11. https://doi. org/10.1080/02690055.2012.687597.