Nokia N8 Filmed Feature Film "Olive" Hits Theaters This Month
This week we're to understand that not only has a filmmaker taken it upon himself to film an entire movie with only a set of Nokia N8 smartphones, it'll be released in theaters soon, too! This movie goes by the name Olive and will bring a story of "a little girl who transforms the lives of three people without speaking one word" to the big screen having been filmed in its entirety by a Nokia N8 smartphone double-taped to a set of traditional film-camera lenses. The director of this film, Hooman Khalili, does admit he had to hack the smartphone to turn the auto-focus and auto-zoom off to make it all work – beyond that it's nothing but Nokia greatness in the clicker!
When asked why he wanted to turn off the auto-focus and auto-zoom features on the device when we're sure many people can't live without them in their daily lives otherwise, Khalili noted that "the camera thinks it knows what you want to focus on, but it doesn't know." When the rest of the film came to the bit where production had to be planned for, a more traditional set of means were used complete with location scouts, make-up artists, and a casting director. There's even a big-time Hollywood actor, as they say, in two-time Oscar nominee Gena Rowlands – whom you may remember as the older version of the protagonist in the love film The Notebook.
The amount of money this film is going to cost to make is $500,000, and all of it has been supplied by former chief privacy officer of Facebook mister Chris Kelly. Good thing too, because without his help, the money that Khalili had been turned down for from Nokia might never have turned up. That's what happens when you make a movie with a sponsor in mind and don't contact them until you've filmed it!
This film will be shown first at the Laemmle Fallbrook 7 cinema in West Hills, Los Angeles, on the 16th of December, 2011. This date puts it in line for the Oscar race, of course, and with an odd factor such as the N8 behind the capture, they might just have a chance! Have a peek at the first five minutes of the film here: