Independent filmmaking is a rough business. Without the budget of a Hollywood studio, every bit of minutiae is left up to the creative minds behind the project, scraping together resources and equipment to get a finished product on-screen. But for one Los Angeles-based screenwriter and director, the limitations of a low-budget camera were actually an inspiration. Shooting a feature-length film on an iPad 2 may sound crazy, but it's part of what gives Standards of Living its indie charm.
When Aaron Mento set out to produce his first completed feature film, he understood the limitations of his budget. But his decision to shoot the entire affair solely on an iPad 2 wasn't just born out of a lack of high-end camera equipment. Instead, Mento wrote the screenplay with Apple's now 19-month-old tablet concretely in mind.
"At this kind of low-budget level that I'm working at, I found that a lot of the equipment was almost getting in the way of telling the story, because the equipment was so high-end. You needed a real solid team to wield these cameras and get good focus," Mento told Mac|Life. "I had an iPad 2, and it just kind of occurred to me, why can't I just make a movie on this? So, I wrote this specifically for the iPad 2. It wasn't like I wrote it for something else and just kinda moved over to the iPad 2."
Standards of Living tells the story of struggling comedian Peter (Scott Yarborough). Having a difficult time making a lasting impression with his — admittedly awful — routine, Peter finds himself involved with Mr. Randall (Bill Ferris), a strange man conducting teleportation experiments. Randall claims the teleportation can actually improve its subjects, but the desperate comedian quickly finds out the process has consequences.
The result of Mento's efforts is a darkly funny, campy film with an aesthetic – provided by the meager abilities of the iPad 2 – that works surprisingly well within the genre. The filmmaker found inspiration in other low-budget, science-fiction horror when penning the screenplay. The limited sets of The Twilight Zone, and the low-res camera work of David Lynch's Inland Empire were an influence.
"I'm not trying to say that you should use an iPad 2 to record every movie, ever. I like a lot of older horror and sci-fi movies that have that kind of gritty, low-budget texture to them," said Mento. "And because [the iPad 2] is only 720p, it almost felt like you were shooting with 16mm or 8mm; it just has a different feel to it that I really liked. I find that sometimes with 1080p, it's so obvious everything is low budget."
While there are a ton of camera apps available on the App Store, with varying filters and functions, Mento opted to stick with the native iPad Camera. After off-loading the footage from the 64GB iPad 2 to a hard drive every night during the two-week shoot, Standards of Living was edited in Final Cut Pro, without the assistance of filters or color correction.
Aaron Mento films a scene with actors Bill Ferris and Nicola Singer
"I used nothing else on the movie. I wanted to make it basic and raw," said Mento. "I just wanted to embrace all the limitations. I like the weird look the iPad 2 gives [the movie]. And trying to make it look like anything else, other than what I kind of fell in love with, didn't really seem to make sense to me."
Beyond sticking to the purest functions of the iPad 2 camera, Standards of Living was shot without the help of third-party lenses, or even a tripod. Amazingly, Mento chose to capture nearly every scene in the movie with handheld shots, attempting to keep the device steady – a decision which, at times, seemed to wreak havoc on the director's arms during longer takes. Instead of shooting shorter clips, Mento would often keep the iPad rolling, with some shots lasting well over 20 minutes.
"Yeah, I didn't really think that was going to be a problem, but it was like you're doing the P90X workout sometimes," Mento laughs. "You're holding it, and the actors are performing. At the end of the take I would just, like, crumble. And then you think: oh God, we have to do it again."
Mento did decide to utilize a sound crew for capturing the film's audio. When we asked the director why he chose to steer away from the on-board mic, Mento seemed to like the contradiction of quality. "What if a movie looked like it was shot on an iPad 2, but the sound is pretty good? It doesn't sound like what you would associate with that image, you know?"
Terry McCoy acts out a scene while Aaron Mento films
Despite the obvious challenges of shooting a feature-length film on an iPad 2, including the device's tendency to auto-expose or capture strangely intermittent frame rates, Mento has no regrets about his decision. While the director has no immediate plans to use an iPad 2 for his next film, he's not entirely ruling out the possibility.
"I wouldn’t write anything off. I would use any camera if it fit the project; if it fit the story," said Mento. "I would use [iPad 2] for another project that I wanted to use it for, but I wouldn’t use it for a project where it just wouldn’t make sense."
Standards of Living is currently submitted to a number of film festivals, awaiting a decision on acceptance. While the film is clearly one of a kind, Mento acknowledges the movie's subject matter and genre may not fit in with every program. But he's still hopeful.
"I know I'm going to get some upturned noses. I fully know that," said Mento, laughing. "That's kind of why the trailer had this kind of snobby guy saying, 'You can't make a movie on an iPad 2!' I don't know – it may not fit into the festival programs with the other movies there, or, it may stand out as something different and get in. I don't know."
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