First feature-length movie shot with Nokia N8 smartphone

PanARMENIAN.Net - An independent U.S. filmmaker has made what is believed to be the first feature-length movie shot with a smartphone, to be released next week - with actress Gena Rowlands in the starring role, AFP reports.

"Olive," about "a little girl who transforms the lives of three people without speaking one word," was filmed using only a Nokia N8 cellphone, with a high-resolution camera adapted with a 35 mm lens to give added depth of field.

"Technology is moving so quickly and cellphones are really going to be the thing that does everything eventually," director Hooman Khalili said ahead of the U.S. theater release of his movie on December 16.

"They already do so much, and in January 2010 I came up with this idea and I saw there was nothing out there that existed," added the 37-year-old, who began pre-production of the movie last year.

The first five minutes of "Olive," viewable at www.olivethemovie.com, have already set tongues wagging in Hollywood, where the movie industry is gearing up for its annual awards season.

Set for release in Los Angeles next week, the movie is eligible to be nominated for the Oscars in February.

In pictures posted on the Flickr photo-sharing website, the filmmaker, who also hosts a radio show in San Francisco, holds acellphone taped to the 35 mm lens and mounted on a tripod, with a viewfinder sticking out one side.

The movie cost less than $500,000 - a fraction of a typical Hollywood budget - and is financed by Chris Kelly, an executive with social network giant Facebook, and William O'Keeffe, a San Francisco-based philanthropist.

Technology aside, the film boasts the involvement of the two-time Oscar-nominated 81-year-old actress Rowlands.