“Make your own cinema"

A cell phone film-making tutorial from Benoît Labourdette, to keep the kids busy over the summer!

Appeared in Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace on August 4, 2024.

Make your own cinema

By Charlotte Murat.

All this week, we’re giving you ideas to keep the kids busy over the vacations. In this final instalment, filmmaker Benoît Labourdette gives you all the keys you need to make a family movie, using only your mobile phone.

Making a movie with your cell phone is a simple idea to keep your kids busy on vacation.

How about taking advantage of the vacations to make a real family movie? Don’t panic, it’s not insurmountable. “We all have a tool in our pocket that allows us to make films of excellent technical quality”, says Benoît Labourdette, film-maker and teacher. That tool is, of course, your cell phone, and that’s all you need. No cameras, no microphones, no lights and, above all, no script. Nor do you need to devote days to it. Your film can be a simple sketch, the main thing being to “see it through, together”.

To make filmmaking accessible to everyone, Benoît Labourdette advises you to start by choosing a shooting location, which must be quiet and sheltered from the wind. Go there together, and bring along a couple of sheets of paper and felt-tip pens (more on this later). “The location will provide inspiration for the story we’re going to tell”, explains the filmmaker, who reminds us that a story is ‘a starting situation, something that happens and a final situation that’s different from the starting situation’. “Let yourself be carried away by what you see,” advises Benoît Labourdette. “Do you find a branch? It could be a sword for a film about knights.”

One role for all and all for one film

Once you’ve imagined the story, turn on the camera and start shooting. “It’s by doing that ideas will come. And it’s interesting to do the scene over and over again. Better one minute well done than 10 minutes botched,” insists Benoît Labourdette.

Important note: you’ll be shooting in sequence, i.e. a single shot, as if you were filming a play. “This avoids the major difficulty of editing. It’s a lot more fun, and forces everyone to stay focused,” explains the filmmaker. Benoît Labourdette also advises giving all participants a role, which means you’ll have to find ways of passing the camera around. Start by filming for three or four seconds the name of your film, which you’ll have written on one of the sheets of paper, and end with the names of all the participants noted on the second sheet. “This framing of the title and credits will give your film its cinematographic value,” insists Benoît Labourdette.

A film without words

Your imagination will be your only limit, but Benoît Labourdette does insist on a few technical aspects. “Zooming is strictly forbidden,” he points out. “It makes the image move, and the result is very amateurish. In fact, they’re never used in cinema. When you want a close-up, you have to get in close. The filmmaker also stresses the importance of sound, “more than 50% responsible for the quality of a film”. “The microphone has to be as close as possible to the sound sources. So if someone’s talking, it has to be very close to the phone, which again means finding tricks and moving the camera,” continues Benoît Labourdette.

If you’re worried you won’t get the sincerity of acting worthy of a first-prize drama conservatory with Aunt Christine and little cousin Noah, Benoît Labourdette advises imagining a story without dialogue. “It’s the hardest thing to play,” agrees the director. “You could imagine a clip with music coming out of another phone, or even a film in which no one speaks, but you hear the actors’ thoughts. In this case, whoever is holding the phone does the voice-over. It’s great fun, because it allows you to improvise. And it’s never badly acted, because there’s no role-playing.”

Finally, once your film is in the can, be sure to show it to your friends and family. “You don’t make a film just for yourself. And that gives you the motivation to see the project through to the end,” concludes Benoît Labourdette. So, are you ready? Start your engines.