Award winning director's iPhone 4 film Night Fishing gets theatrical release

This is quite inspiring. The famed director of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance has shot his latest film on the iPhone 4.

Pan Chan-wook (Quentin Tarantino is known to be fan), a South Korean director shot Night Fishing (Paranmanjang) with two iPhone 4's, with a further 8 handed to the crew for free-shooting around the set (similar to how the HOUSE crew used the additional 5D Mark IIs). The result is a 30min fantasy-horror set around a fishing trip. It's theatrical release is set for 27th January.

You can see the trailer on the official site here and a short video news report here.

I like Chan-Wook (IMDB) and I think it's less a gimmick (though it seems that way as the film spreads virally around the blogosphere) but more a creative choice, because the low-fi look of the iPhone 4's HD video mode really does suit a low budget horror like this. It's for the same reasons DV suited the look of The Blair Witch Project and 28 Days Later - there is something more visceral and disturbing about a grainy deep depth of field image, which doesn't conjure up comforting images of cinema's classics, even though it's being played in a theatre.

Needless to say, phones were not banned on the set of this one.

I like the way they're using Canon L lenses on the damned thing!

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