"Left-handed Girl" anyone?

[Davide DB]

I saw this film in the cinema few days ago and I wanted to share a few short thoughts on this work, which I found extremely interesting for the balance between neorealist aesthetics and the use of natural light in complex urban environments like the markets of Taipei. The composition of the image and the dynamism of the camera manage to give a rare sense of immersion, keeping a consistent style for the whole film. It is a remarkable example of how cinematic language can work without huge technical equipment: in fact, the film was shot entirely with an iPhone.

The choice of the iPhone 13 Pro Max was mainly due to the need to move with extreme agility and discretion inside the night markets of Taipei, contexts where a traditional crew with bulky cameras would have inevitably attracted attention and compromised the spontaneity of the scenes. By working with such a common and non-invasive tool, the director managed to adopt an almost documentary-like approach.

Reading several articles and listening some interviews, the director gave several details: The film's aesthetics were built around the use of four iPhone 13 Pro Max cameras, integrated into a workflow that used the Beastgrip Pro system as the base for the rig. To achieve the characteristic anamorphic look and typical horizontal flares, the production used a prototype anamorphic lens from Beastgrip, paired with Black Forest diffusion filters to reduce the excessive digital sharpness of the sensor and give a more organic feel to the highlights of the night markets. On the software side, the shooting was managed entirely through the FiLMiC Pro app using the 4K Lux mode, a choice that allowed for a file with a wider dynamic range, which was later processed in post-production through advanced color correction in DaVinci Resolve.

Seeing some BTS shots, this was really a run&gun configuration. An iPhone and a Gimbal et voila!

https://thefilmstage.com/left-handed-girl-director-shih-ching-tsou-on-collaborating-with-sean-baker-and-seeing-the-world-through-a-childs-eyes/

[zerocool22]

I have not seen the film. I just watched the trailer because you shared the name. But I wonder why they chose the iphone 13 as the main camera. I wonder if its not just to tell people "hey we shot this on an iphone".  I get you can win time with just shooting on an iphone, but the image just isnt there. 
Based on the trailer alone, its not a movie I would want to see, as I have not seen a single frame that looks great. It all looks like something a soccer mom or kid on youtube makes these days. Not into that vloggy style of filmmaking myself. 

[Clark Nikolai]

12 hours ago, Davide DB said:

The choice of the iPhone 13 Pro Max was mainly due to the need to move with extreme agility and discretion inside the night markets of Taipei, contexts where a traditional crew with bulky cameras would have inevitably attracted attention and compromised the spontaneity of the scenes. 

 

It looks good. The use of iPhones is interesting. The quality is now more than good enough for narrative. I would imagine the camera operator would have been seen as just another YouTube travel and food blogger and ignored. I don't know how "guerrilla" their approach was though. Did they inform the market authorities they were shooting or did they just go and do it?

Story wise it seems fine. From my perspective (in a progressive city in another country) the left handed thing is so old fashioned that I wonder if it's truly a thing in Taiwanese culture or just a device for this story. 

[zerocool22]

2 hours ago, Clark Nikolai said:

It looks good. The use of iPhones is interesting. The quality is now more than good enough for narrative. I would imagine the camera operator would have been seen as just another YouTube travel and food blogger and ignored. I don't know how "guerrilla" their approach was though. Did they inform the market authorities they were shooting or did they just go and do it?

Story wise it seems fine. From my perspective (in a progressive city in another country) the left handed thing is so old fashioned that I wonder if it's truly a thing in Taiwanese culture or just a device for this story. 

Do you honestly think it looks good? 

[Davide DB]

4 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

Do you honestly think it looks good? 

I think we are missing the point. Does it really matter exactly how it looks? The low-fi aesthetic fit the story perfectly and, to be honest, I enjoyed it visually much more than that Portuguese film shot on the GH7. Obviously, both are deliberate stylistic choices.

If you read the article, the choice to shoot with a phone and minimal equipment was absolutely necessary to be able to film in a real market on an open set.Baker already shot a movie on an iPhone 5 years ago and looking at Anora, it's clear he isn't afraid to spend money when the production calls for it.

 

[eatstoomuchjam]

5 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

Does it really matter exactly how it looks? The low-fi aesthetic fit the story perfectly

At least judging by the trailer, I agree.  The only thing that bugged me, really, was the glow/halation effect - were they actual diffusion filters or did they just smear the lens with vaseline?

Other than finding the diffusion distracting, though, I thought the look was absolutely well-suited to the story being told.  The choice of a phone felt intimate and immersive.

[Davide DB]

1 hour ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

At least judging by the trailer, I agree.  The only thing that bugged me, really, was the glow/halation effect - were they actual diffusion filters or did they just smear the lens with vaseline?

Other than finding the diffusion distracting, though, I thought the look was absolutely well-suited to the story being told.  The choice of a phone felt intimate and immersive.

In one interview the director spoke about a black forest diffusion filter.

The key factor is that they really wanted to go unnoticed. On the first day of filming, they had to abort because the crew showed up all dressed in black; everyone realized they were doing something and a crowd gathered to see what was happening. They sent everyone home and the next day they forced everyone to wear normal clothes and disperse once their tasks were finished. The group following the actors consisted of only 4 or 5 people.

[zerocool22]

2 hours ago, Davide DB said:

I think we are missing the point. Does it really matter exactly how it looks? The low-fi aesthetic fit the story perfectly and, to be honest, I enjoyed it visually much more than that Portuguese film shot on the GH7. Obviously, both are deliberate stylistic choices.

If you read the article, the choice to shoot with a phone and minimal equipment was absolutely necessary to be able to film in a real market on an open set.Baker already shot a movie on an iPhone 5 years ago and looking at Anora, it's clear he isn't afraid to spend money when the production calls for it.

 

Well for me it is taking me out of the film right away. I feel there is something off in each shot. ( color, dof, detail, dynamic range, bad lighting,...) So for each their own I guess, but this is not for me. As I am constantly wondering why each shot looks off and that is keeping me off the story.. (not sure if people with no film experience can spot it, I think they can). But just my 2 cents. The only film I ever saw that kinda worked that way was "the blair witch project" but they tell you in the first minute. This is the footage of some students that went missing in the woods" so I could give it an place.

[kye]

On 12/30/2025 at 9:37 PM, Clark Nikolai said:

From my perspective (in a progressive city in another country) the left handed thing is so old fashioned that I wonder if it's truly a thing in Taiwanese culture or just a device for this story. 

In a lot of cultures these things are still very present.  You only need to go online and listen to the children of immigrants talk about their struggles of living in their new culture but still respecting the wishes of their parents, and these are the parents that were open-minded enough to literally move their whole family overseas.  The people who live and are completely immersed in the culture they were born in could be far more traditional than that, especially in Asian countries where there are thousands of years of history and culture.

The progressiveness of modern life in western liberal democracies is also quite deceiving as there are a great many superstitious things embedded in those places too - not a lot of skyscrapers have a 13th floor for example.  We get used to the peculiarities of the culture we live in, and find the peculiarities of other cultures odd.

A fun exercise is to watch the "culture shock" videos of people moving or travelling to where you live.  If the person explains their perspective well, you can get a real sense of how strange some things are, and not just different but actively backwards!

On 12/31/2025 at 5:07 AM, Davide DB said:

I think we are missing the point. Does it really matter exactly how it looks? The low-fi aesthetic fit the story perfectly and, to be honest, I enjoyed it visually much more than that Portuguese film shot on the GH7. Obviously, both are deliberate stylistic choices.

I found the image from that GH7 film to look very video-ish actually.  It's odd because when I paused the trailer and studied the image, they seemed to be doing almost everything right.  The only thing that I could think of was that they didn't use any diffusion, whereas the vast majority of movies or high-end TV show that have shots with bokeh will reveal they're using netting as diffusion.  Those that don't may well be using glass diffusion and that might not show in the bokeh.

Maybe the difference is more than diffusion, but that's my current best guess why it looked like that.

On 12/31/2025 at 5:15 AM, eatstoomuchjam said:

At least judging by the trailer, I agree.  The only thing that bugged me, really, was the glow/halation effect - were they actual diffusion filters or did they just smear the lens with vaseline?

Other than finding the diffusion distracting, though, I thought the look was absolutely well-suited to the story being told.  The choice of a phone felt intimate and immersive.

I think there are different kinds of diffusion, with some looking overbearing at low strengths and others being fine at much greater strengths.  The majority of movies and narrative TV will be using a decent amount of it.  Maybe it's the type that you didn't care for?

I've also found diffusion filters to be almost impossible to use in uncontrolled situations, even at 1/8 which is the lowest strength available - on some shots it'll be too weak and you turn around and a light hits the filter and now the image is basically ruined because half the frame is washed out.  Maybe because of the uncontrolled conditions they just had some shots that suffered.

On 12/31/2025 at 7:56 AM, zerocool22 said:

Well for me it is taking me out of the film right away. I feel there is something off in each shot. ( color, dof, detail, dynamic range, bad lighting,...) So for each their own I guess, but this is not for me. As I am constantly wondering why each shot looks off and that is keeping me off the story.. (not sure if people with no film experience can spot it, I think they can). But just my 2 cents. The only film I ever saw that kinda worked that way was "the blair witch project" but they tell you in the first minute. This is the footage of some students that went missing in the woods" so I could give it an place.

When I started in video I couldn't tell the difference between 24p and 60p, now I hate 30p almost as much as I hate 60p.  I also couldn't tell the difference between 180 shutter and very short shutters except on very strong movement.

Now I am seeing the odd shot in things like The Witcher which 'flip' in my head and look like video and I don't know why.  

Some people outside the industry/hobby will be able to see the difference between something shot on a phone and a cine camera, but I suspect most won't, and those that can probably don't care because if they did they wouldn't be able to watch almost anything on social media, no home videos, nothing they record on their phone, etc.

A surprising number of people will just think that a smartphone vlog looks "different" to Dune 2, rather than "worse" than it. 

[eatstoomuchjam]

10 hours ago, kye said:

I think there are different kinds of diffusion, with some looking overbearing at low strengths and others being fine at much greater strengths.  The majority of movies and narrative TV will be using a decent amount of it.  Maybe it's the type that you didn't care for?

Probably.  I just found it really overbearing.

10 hours ago, kye said:

I've also found diffusion filters to be almost impossible to use in uncontrolled situations, even at 1/8 which is the lowest strength available - on some shots it'll be too weak and you turn around and a light hits the filter and now the image is basically ruined because half the frame is washed out.  Maybe because of the uncontrolled conditions they just had some shots that suffered.

I personally don't bother with diffusion filters at all.  The short, lacking detail reason is that I'll just use a vintage lens if I want a vintage look.

And yes, your observations align with mine about using diffusion filters.  On low-budget sets, they also add headaches on controlled shots as the DP is now complaining that the lights are interacting with their diffusion filter in a bad way, causing time loss due to coddling the darn thing.