DIRECT LINK: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/165580313/romance-in-nyc-shot-entirely-on-the-iphone

WE DID IT! You can still be a part of this production and Pledges still appreciated for POST Production!

We are still looking for Musicians who may want exposure for their music or have great music we can license for this film. Please contact us ASAP!

 UPDATE 3: To celebrate 95% funding and hopefully help inspire more people to help us hit 100% here is a Sneak Peak at Behind the Scenes on Day 1 of Filming!

UPDATE 2: We have cast our leading role for Romance in NYC, Rachael McOwen! Everyone say congratulations and listen to what she thinks about the Kickstarter Project!

Remember we are only 25% away from reaching our total funding goal. Please share, like, pledge. Anything you can do to get us over the top would be amazing! Thank you everyone for your support and help!

UPDATE 1: Check out this test footage we took with some of our sponsored equipment! This is not a representation of final product or actual scenes, but gives a feel for what we are going for!

Short Bio

My name is Tristan Pope and I am a photographer/director in New York City. My passion is to combine the everyday with the glamour we see in magazines and films alike. To be able to capture a moment whether it be in a film or photograph can breathe life into even the smallest of moments, forever frozen in time.

You can view my work at tristanpope.com

Tristan has worked as a director of Machinima productions for Blizzard Entertainment based on the World of Warcraft and the upcoming Diablo III engine. He has spent the last years building his photography business, and has loved the synergy between video and photography. He sees it as an opportunity to continue to live out his passion for directing and artistry in tandem.Both his personal and departmental accomplishments with Blizzard—the Emmy-award-winning episode of South Park’s “Make Love, Not Warcraft”, multiple trailers, cinematics, commercials, behind-the-scenes DVDS, the chance to work with state-of-the-art video/film/graphics production and post-production equipment—would make him a great investment for this film. 

The Film

It has been a dream of mine for the day when technology could get small enough for us to get that perspective I often wish I could capture just with the flick of my eyelid. Imagine if you could record those special moments waking up to the one you love, seeing their perfect smile after a funny joke you told, or just capturing for more than a second when they took your hand on the street during a crisp fall day, feeling the warmth shiver up their body to the slivers at the corner of their eyes. To capture what is often called “The Sparkle in your eyes”. Our intent is that when you watch this video it feels as though you were there at one point or another in life with that special person.

I believe today is the time when that is possible. I have been shooting with High end DSLR’s for over 10 years and I am still amazed at what our smartphones can capture. Combined with the right attachments and equipment we can begin to show the world our point of view, with something we hold in our pockets everyday.

I want to use that technology to show everyone, they too have the ability to make truly lasting memories of their lives, loved ones, and the like with the right amount of elbow grease. That instead of saying “Oh put that away” because it is so common place to have a camera out, that like the old days when you broke out the 100lb equipment for your black and white camera and shot on a roll of film that cost half that of our smartphones per minute, you will see it for what it is, a convenience that will help us to remember later on in our lives in a beautiful way. Sure I could shoot this on my DSLR and have the perfect Bokah effects and perfect DoF, but I want it to feel like you are there, like this could be you, like you have been here before, or want to get there soon!

Recently I shot a short film with the iPhone 6 with Dancers all over NYC using the new 240 FPS slow motion shooting mode. The results were better than any thing I could have imagined. Take a look:

The Idea

I have always been an advocate for romance and love. I write about it on a daily basis, I capture it all the time, but we finally have the opportunity to get so up close and personal it feels as though you are actually there. “The best camera is the one you have with you”.

Without giving away the entire plot, I want to make a short film, filmed exclusively on the iPhone 6 that captures what it means to be in love in beautiful New York City in the fall. With the air turning crisp and the holidays around the corner, it is never a better time to feel the warm embrace of someone next to you under the covers or to take a drive out to the orchard to go apple picking for the season, or nuzzle into someones arm as you cram into a taxi to get home after a long day.

The film will follow our male character’s POV(point of view) from waking up in the morning all the way through a day with his loved one in the busy streets of New York City. It will capture those moments you probably have had yourself, where you held someones hand tighter as the light turned and the cars came speeding by, it will embrace the cold mornings on the fire escape as you are waking up to see your beautiful lover sitting in the fire escape wearing your t-shirt sipping on the coffee she blended before you woke up. It will show you the mundane of shopping for new clothes or getting groceries, but embodied with the love and small moments in the air because it is with the person you call your girlfriend.These are all things only a smaller camera could achieve.

How to Achieve This

For the video above with the dancers, it was shot in 3 days and edited on the 4th. Everyone worked for the love of the project and gave their time freely. It was also easier to in terms of scale and continuity to shoot on random days. This time around we need to make sure every shot matches the next. We need the use the proper equipment to stabilize and truly let the iPhone 6 shine. To get the tiny nuances of emotion from someones face we need to have a good actor! We will be holding tryouts in a week from when this was published and we will be aiming to shoot right as this kickstarter completes. We expect 2 weeks of shooting and 1-2 weeks of editing. A very quick turn around.

What We Need

Some people don’t think of films as being a slow drain on the wallet. But we are putting every dime of raised funds of this project into only what we must have and quality control. With my experience in the industry I don’t even take a paycheck here, I just want to make sure the film looks the best it possibly can at the end. To keep each shot, usually shot over x amount of days, consistent you have to keep a lot in mind.

• Tryouts (a location to hold them, assistant)
• Locations (a taxi, an apartment, permits etc)
• Make up Artist
• Hair Stylist (continuity over a few days of filming to show pretend it is only one is IMPORTANT)
• Someone to help you light the nighttime shots to look natural

And that is just some of the things, next we move on to:

Equipment:

A steady-cam rig for walking shots and following shots to give the fluidity of actually viewing life from this person you are watching, but also avoiding the camera shake that you would see in a movie such as Clover-field that will give you vertigo.

Photo by: http://instagram.com/muradosmann

A set of attachable lenses for the iPhone to get those close up macro shots and the depth of field telephoto shots, all while keeping the viewer convinced they are looking through someone else’s eyes. At no point do we want to make this feel as though you are not seeing exactly how your eyes would see, with a little bit of movie magic here and there of course!

While this camera is capable of some amazing quality it does suffer slightly in low light settings, so we want to be able to rent the proper lighting for any nighttime shots we end up doing.

Extras: Battery Backups, Harddrive Space, Permits, and the time and effort of all those who will be involved.

All in all, with this extremely humble budget, we are doing this for the love of the art, not for the massive paycheck, or any paycheck for that matter, in return, and we would love if you could be a part of that through your donations!

What You Get

All backers will get an exclusive link to the video when it is completed for a private viewing. Depending on what tier you support us with will grant you other rewards. Take a look to the right to see what you can do to help support us and get a little something in return! From your name in the credits, to a brain storming session over Skype with the director, to full executive producer status. (depending on how much we raise we may even do a meet and greet after the filming is done for a private screening for all the donors of a certain level)

This has been an idea very close to heart idea for a long time and when I finally looked down and saw my phone which was capable of capturing such an intimate body of work, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

My Work:

Tristan Pope Photography has been growing steadily since moving back to New York city after being a cinematic director for Blizzard Entertainment in California for 5 years and has a great track record for short films and images that really help to tell a story. Please help us turn this concept into a story worth telling to share with the world. We will be submitting this to short film festivals around the world as well.

View all Tristan Pope Photography’s work here: http://tristanpope.com

Other Ways You Can Help

I know some of you are in the same boat as us and cannot contribute monetarily. That is OK.

We will be holding castings for extras as well as the main female lead. So if you can act, there may be a place for you.

We will be looking for the perfect apartment to call “home” to this couple, so if you have a great place feel free to tell us about it!

We are always in need of dedicated interns, so if you would like some experience in a real world short film scenario, contact us.

For the rest of you, word of mouth is the best form of advertisement we could ever ask for. If you could help share this on social media and your blogs, websites, refrigerators, snapchats, etc. We would be eternally grateful.

The best part is Indiegogo has share tools built right into this form. Click one or click them all.

Thank you again for your support and we hope to bring you a truly innovative short film.

SPONSORS

Currently have been sponsored by

If you wish to sponsor this film by donating equipment such as glidecam, steady rigs, lighting, lens adapters for the iPhone 6, battery packs, locations to shoot, or any thing to make this process go smoother, please contact us directly and we will make sure to promote you in the video, this campaign, and all associated social media via proper branding and credits as well as any website this video is released along side.

Please contact us at tristanpope (at) gmail.com, SUBJECT: Tristan Pope Photography Indiegogo

Stretch Goals

9,000.00$ : We will shoot the exact same short film but from the reverse angle(POV) of the male actor.

What we already have

We have already begun to knock out the script, locations, and auditions for the primary female lead.

My name is Tristan Pope and I am a dance/fashion photographer. I mix Glamour and Fashion with the Strength and Movement of dance. I find the dance world to be invigorating, a refreshing way to show off that perfect clothing line or product, all while pushing the human body to the limit and focusing on strong passion. You can view my work at http://tristanpope.com.

When I first heard about the 240 frames per second on the iPhone 6, I knew I had to get it. I make a series of behind the scenes short videos for my Photography(viewable here: http://alttabme.site.nfoservers.com/portfolio/behind-the-scenes/) Using just the 60 frames per second, I can capture some amazing moments during the photoshoots I do with dancers from all over NYC. Well the idea that I could slow down some of the beautiful and powerful dance moves I have been shooting, I couldn’t pass up on this opportunity.

On Sunday, when I picked up my iPhone 6, I immediately put out a call to everyone I had worked with before and those who might be able to put a shout out for me as well (thank you Luis Pons). Within hours I had 18 dancers booked for Monday – Thursday. This was going to be a long week.

I looked through my camera gear and found my old iPhone 4S and 5S tripod adapter… needless to say, the new iPhone 6 didn’t fit, so I ended up tearing it apart and rigging my iPhone 6 with rubber bands and luck. Equipped with my tripod, an Anker battery pack(can charge my iPhone 8 times from 0 before it runs out of juice!), my laptop, duct tape(always carry duct tape), and a protective pouch(no one had any cases in stock) for my iPhone 6 I was ready to begin!

Over the next few days I traveled to many of the iconic NYC locations to capture that perfect dance pose, with a dancer booked every hour or less. I quickly learned what this camera was truly capable of. For me, I have stuck with Apple’s iPhone because of the camera. Sure an Android phone may have some features I like, but the camera is never the main focus, but for Apple it has always been a major priority. I headed out to Brooklyn for my first shoot and was taken aback at how intuitive the interface was for shooting these videos(minus the screen being covered by my 20 rubber bands). I could have the dancer perform one move and immediately play it back to see if we had gotten “the take”. With the bigger screen, it was easy for us to view it together to make sure we were happy with their form and composition.(It was especially helpful to be able to see it live in slow motion to pinpoint what needed to change or what could be improved) It took about 10-15 minutes per dancer to get the perfect shot. Then I would toss the phone into my pocket and head back to the subway to my next location.

For slow motion I used Apple’s stock camera app and for timelapse I used Hyperlapse by instagram. The built in image stabilization made it ideal for quick shots without having to worry about keeping my hands still. If only the stock camera app could utilize this same technology to give the iPhone 6 the same stabilization as the 6 +. You may wonder why I didn’t just get the 6 plus… well, I enjoy my skinny jeans and have girlishly small hands, just ask my piano teacher from middle school.(Although they are rather soft…) Regardless the screen was the perfect size for viewing.

Overall this thing shot like a beast, capturing what would otherwise be impossible via small corners, angles, and discrete shots in popular locations. As a photographer, when you carry around a DSLR with a 200-400 lens on your camera and put down a tripod, you can guarantee the cops will want to “chat”, with a phone, they are more or less confused why you have it on a tripod, and usually just walk off mumbling something about hipsters. I even had a guy come up to me with his DSLR and ask if I wanted him to take some “real” shots for me. I giggled.

The only issue I ran into the entire time was nighttime shooting. With any high frame per second camera, you need a serious digital ISO to counter the fact that you are essentially shutting down your exposure the more fps you shoot, and unfortunately the iPhone can’t quite handle that load yet. While the footage is still viewable, for this video it just wasn’t on par with what I wanted overall. I had two great shots with ground lighting effects and overhead lighting, but the grain to me was unacceptable(even with post applied to it). I believe this is just not something such a small sensor can accomplish quite yet, but still for what it is, it is damn impressive. Had I taken that same shot with normal 1080p 30 frames per second, the grain would have been more than halved. But the 240 fps just eats your light.

The second issue I ran into is my tripod literally snapped in half at one point because I have had it for 10 years and it finally died. Luckily I have amazon prime and got myself a new one for the next day. Amazon tripods are actually very good quality for the price tag of 14 dollars. I also bought a Reticam iPhone 6 tripod mount. My god what a difference from my ghetto rig. This thing was easy to use and held the phone still while protecting it and giving full screen access.

Regardless of the tiny hiccups along the way, I am very pleased with the outcome and I hope you all enjoy the video. A lot of people’s time and effort went into making this a reality. I want to thank all the dancers I got to work with, without you this wouldn’t have been possible. You came ready to work, with a wonderful positive attitude, and gave great input. I know when someone shows up to a photoshoot with just a camera phone it can be a little… disconcerting. But we made it happen!

I can’t say I will ditch my Canon for this, as I felt naked at times without it, but this truly pushed me to try things I would have never thought to do with it.

All dancers in order of appearance:

Anna Pinault
Callie Lyons
Arielle petruzzella
haylee Nichele
paulina bracone
Candace Can Dance
Jacob Melvin
Brittany Cavaco
Julian Watson
Ashley Marinelli
Bjorn Bolinder
Lindsey L Miller
Noreen Hughes
Mckenzie Mullan
Kailee Felix
Natalie Deryn Johnson

Photographer Assistant:
Alana Nicole

Directed/Filmed/Edited:
Tristan Pope

Website:
www.tristanpope.com