![]() “I had shot clandestinely before, with small equipment and a small crew. On top of that, new tools had just come out, including Filmic Pro, the app they wound up using. It was a big jump, a big technological advancement,” Baker said. “It just happened that the 5S had just come out with HD video. After breaking down the script and its many locations, he and his team realized it would be impossible to make with their budget. The film was executive produced by Mark and Jay Duplass, who had given them a specific (read: small) amount of money. It really did come from a truly organic place,” Baker explained. “I still get this, that it was a stunt, shooting on the iPhone. Baker said shooting Tangerine with a smartphone is a good example. Still, form is sometimes born of necessity. You actually see the 24 frames, you can touch it.” “It should be experienced for one time in your life - to get to actually see the film when you put it up to the light and just feel the organic nature of what you’re cutting. It’s a waste of time.” Still, he hopes young filmmakers at least get a taste of old-school editing. But there’s no way I’m ever going back to that. “I’m glad I did get to edit 16 and even 35 on a Steenbeck. When he studied at NYU, he didn’t learn editing on an Avid. “It’s awesome when new tools come about, especially what non-linear editing did,” Baker said. He and his co-director, Shih-Ching Tsou (who’s produced his last four films, including the short Snowbird), were inspired to shoot Take Out (2005) on a Sony PD150 because of the Dogme 95 movement, as well as a flurry of films, like Tadpole and Pieces of April, that were also made with standard-definition cameras. Why don’t we explore that?’”īaker has always been one to embrace new tech. I was like, ‘That would be a unique perspective on New York. They’re both working in the wholesale district. With Prince of Broadway, of the two leads, one is an undocumented immigrant from Ghana and the other is an Armenian immigrant. Take Out and Prince of Broadway were responses to what I wasn’t seeing at the time. “These sorts of stories, this approach to storytelling, has been around. “Unless they’re making calling cards to Hollywood, the films most filmmakers make tend to be responses to what they want to see and what they’re not seeing in cinema,” Baker explained. And like most Baker movies, they find a filmmaker immersing himself in a world he didn’t know before he happened upon it. The protagonists are younger too: They’re kids, including a six-year-old named Moonee (newcomer Brooklynn Prince), who live in a dingy motor lodge in the shadows of Disney World. This time the setting is the Sunshine State. The Florida Project is another blindingly bright and candy-colored Sean Baker film about a community dwelling in society’s margins. We’ve actually done a lot of tests we did a film-out on the digital moments in The Florida Project just to test it.” There’s an organic quality to celluloid that, no matter what filters you have, what grain you want to throw on your digital, no matter what you’ll never be able to achieve that. It’s this new medium that we should embrace, because obviously you can find beauty in this medium.”īut he’s also torn. For documentaries especially it should be used. “But it’s weird, because it felt like has been inspiring. ![]() “I was becoming the iPhone guy, and I wanted to flip it,” Baker told New York and Vulture critic Emily Yoshida, who moderated the talk. (He also spent years as the co-creator of the show Greg the Bunny.) As if to prove his age and the breadth of his CV, his latest, The Florida Project, due in theaters November 10, was filmed on glorious, gorgeous 35mm. The others weren’t obscure Four Letter Words, Take Out, Prince of Broadway and Starlet were all acclaimed. As it happens, Tangerine was his fifth film. ![]() ![]() And it was shot on an iPhone 5S, which made him seem like some millennial who’d never even heard of a Bolex. (Or at least he’s 46.) Back in 2015, Tangerine put him on the map. “I’m old,” Baker remarked during his talk at IFP Week 2017. Sean Baker is amazed some people still think he’s a new filmmaker. IFP Week, IFP Week 2017, Sean Baker, Tangerine, The Florida Project In Directors, Festivals & Events, Filmmaking, Interviews ![]()
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