Making Movies with the Nokia N8

Vimeo and Nokia recently collaborated on a filmmaking contest. The multi-national communications corporation solicited the users of the internet’s go-to video sharing service for alt and creative filmmakers to submit ideas of what type of HD content they would create and shoot with a Nokia N8.

Eight submissions were selected by a jury comprised of Vimeo, Nokia, advertising, and directing representatives. The eight individuals behind those submissions were each given two Nokia N8s, $5,000, a list of criteria (the budget cannot exceed $5,000, the film must be between 90 seconds and eight minutes, etc.), and a few weeks to complete their projects. The results are incredible.

All of the eight productions premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival, but it was Splitscreen: A Love Story by JW Griffiths that took home the $10,000 top Jury Prize. It’s kind of like that divided scene in Rules of Attraction, except instead of characters played by James Van Der Beek and Shannyn Sossamon running into each other on their way to a Saturday class at a fictional Ivy Leage college, it tells the incredibly well-edited story of a couple of tourists (one from Spanish Harlem and one from Paris) meeting each other on vacay.

Other films tell tales of a post-pandemic world, showcase sentimental scenes of kids finding, playing, and discarding a cardboard box, depict a runaway man taking a fish back to his/her home, and more. You should watch them all, if for nothing else than to see how beautifully they’re shot. The iPhone may have its own (but possibly now defunct) Oscars, but when it comes to making films with a phone, it looks like it may not have much on Nokia’s N8.