sms sugar man: phoning it in
The world’s first full-length movie to be shot entirely on cellphones has just been wrapped up in Joburg, writes Ryan Fortune
‘We are re-writing the book on cinema here. It opens up a whole world of possibilities for African filmmakers’
IT’S 3AM on Christmas morning 2005 and, while Santa makes his final deliveries to good children around the world, a bunch of filmmakers in the pool bar of Johannesburg’s Melrose Arch Hotel are accelerating the digital cinema revolution.
They’ve been shooting for over a week now, mostly nights. Everyone’s dead tired, so this particular scene is taking a bit longer than usual to get in the bag. “Action!” says the director for at least the 20th time in as many minutes, prompting the two female leads to start doing their thing at the pool table. As the girls hit the balls, chat and flirt, their movements are recorded by the cameras embedded in two of Sony Ericsson’s slick new W900i cellphones. That’s right: once this film, SMS Sugar Man, is completed, it will be the first feature film in the world to be shot entirely on cellphone cameras.
At this point, every tech head in the room will begin to sneer derisively and mutter words like “pixellation” and “let’s just wait and see”. None of them will have reckoned with the persistence of the film’s director, Aryan Kaganof, who loves nothing better than to disprove all doubters and naysayers. In 1996, just a few years out of film school in the Netherlands, he made Naar de Klote! (Wasted!), the world’s first 35mm feature film shot on mini-dv tape — and a Dutch box office hit. A week before shooting began on SMSSugarman, a Swedish lab returned the test blow-up to 35mm film. It looked great, rich in colour, grain and contrast. The doubters will be disappointed.
“We are re-writing the book on cinema here, Ryan, things will never be the same again. From now onwards, all you’ll need [to make a film] is a good idea, a cellphone, a laptop and you’re off. It opens up a whole world of possibilities for African filmmakers …”
It’s another long night on the shoot of SMS Sugar Man and Kaganof — film director, poet, writer, photographer, musician and, for the purposes of this project, a top-end pimp named Sugar Man — is waxing lyrical as he guides his gleaming white Valiant down a deserted Oxford Road. I’m in the passenger seat and the two “hookers” — Leigh Graves and Deja Bernhardt — are chatting and touching up their lipstick in the back. “I haven’t thought about film as much as I have in the past two weeks,” he says, “and I’m learning new things all the time on this shoot.”
That sounds a bit disingenuous, I think, coming from someone who has made nearly 40 films and videos in the past 15 years, many of them such radical breakaways from conventional form and structure that they earned him — besides international awards and critical acclaim — the label “underground cinema’s baddest bad boy”. “I can now shoot what I like,” he says, with the glint of the true believer in his eyes, so I don’t disagree.
Kaganof first hove into my field of vision towards the end of 1999. We were introduced to each other by a mutual friend, an actress. She told me he was a South African filmmaker just returned from exile and that I should interview him, but I never got around to it. His craggy features, hulking posture, combat fatigues and the Glock he wore on his ankle conspired to dampen my enthusiasm for the idea.
Having attended several of his many book launches and performances in recent years, read his online short stories and browsed his website, I have had cause to modify my initial impression, if only slightly. Kaganof is, indeed, a dangerous man, but only because, like the 20th century’s best artists and philosophers, he has a far lower tolerance for bullshit than the rest of us. Poured into art — visual, musical, literary — his particular kind of madness, if that’s what you’d like to call it, poses no threat to anyone on a personal level. Instead, like Ed Norton’s dual character in Fight Club, he is intent on bringing the whole damn superstructure down.
Apart from all of the above, SMS Sugar Man is emblematic of what anthropologists refer to as the “leapfrog effect”. This is when people in developing nations adopt new technology and use it in ways that allow them to overtake users in developed nations. To extract maximum value from leapfrogging, however, you must be an early adopter.
The future is right here, right now.
January 31st, 2006 at 9:59 am
Dear Aryan
How are you going to pay those expensive film-star hos, except from the well-gotten gains from selling jou ma se poems?
Happy 2006/year of the dog
Owen
January 31st, 2006 at 10:00 am
Shit! I just finished a book on cinema and thought I was rewriting the book on cinema.
Professor Jan
January 31st, 2006 at 10:01 am
hello
Genius! What a brilliant concept. Thank you for the
email.
nicole
January 31st, 2006 at 10:04 am
Dear kaganof
am proud of you, i read the media release they put out
about sms sugarman.
so you have made the first digital movie and now the first
cellphone movie. it’s impressive.
when is the preview or premiere?
muff
January 31st, 2006 at 10:05 am
Just got the press release for your new film.
Sounds fucking incredible!!! I can’t wait to see it.
Leading the pack, as always
Much love
James
January 31st, 2006 at 10:07 am
core! That’s great, I’ve been waiting for someone to do this.
How long can each cellphone film for or do you pipe it directly into the laptop? Have you fashioned some sort of tripod for the cellphone?
Looking forward to this
January 31st, 2006 at 10:09 am
Hey, I saw this and am sssoooooo proud of you!!
I hope when my cellphone contract needs renewing that
I can get one of those with the SMS Sugar Man trailer on it. Has Rodriguez seen it yet?
Best wishes from us both,
Karen and Claus.
January 31st, 2006 at 10:11 am
Hey, good for you, Aryan. Great idea, too. Hmm, a notion I can copy here.
The technological technique isn’t copyrighted, i presume.
Wish you all the luck on the production. And if you can send a copy over, I may be able to get you invited to a digital filmfest.
Warm regards
— Krip
January 31st, 2006 at 10:12 am
You never fail to amaze me, Aryan. This is genius stuff.
I hope this recognition is truly gratifying and gives you a deep sense of your value to our society as an asskicker of note. Let nobody be caught napping by an AK with a cellphone.
I salute you, pal.
Hope I don’t sound too breathless and gaspy…
Just go do it again, man.
Liesl
January 31st, 2006 at 10:32 am
hi aryan,
i hope you’re doing well. i read the article about you on the sunday
times, and think you’re fucking crazy, but am glad you’re doing what
you’re doing because the world would not change without people like
you. me: a few years ago i wrote a song called the ’sms song’, it’s
short and sweet, and think that it would be really ironic if played on
the kind of film you’re currently completing. i would love for you to
hear the song, i stay in joburg and would be willing to meet you to
listen to it.
i know this is a bit of a wildcard, but i ask you to consider it, i
truly believe you could make great use of it.
faithfully,
langa.
January 31st, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Can’t wait to see it!
Well done Kaganof…
January 31st, 2006 at 9:03 pm
I’m marveling at the pictures..including the actresses..Those breasts are huge…Kan je een bierglas opzetten
January 31st, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Ai..this is some sort of Roman Catholic mystery..You send an e-mail and like magic it appears on somebodies blog…Huuhhhh weird man..OK..Must go..I am meeting a close friend of my sister..She is an evangelic (my english is crap sorry) alcoholic and tonight she is going to convert the two of us to alcoholism..By making b52’s (she also works in a bar..perfect combo..she drinks 42 b52s in a row without getting drunk,mixes that with huge quantities of camels sigs and large amounts of hashish… she is made out of concrete )
God I feel like a teenager..but with wrinkles
February 1st, 2006 at 1:10 pm
CONGRATULATIONS! Cannot wait to see it. Congratulations.
Regards,
Storm
February 2nd, 2006 at 6:08 am
wesome stuff. when and where can we see?
Mike
February 2nd, 2006 at 6:09 am
the first cellphone movie–is this interesting? bear with me my dear pal. 2 minds here, one is publicity, first of this or that, so what. the other, well, your commitment to real (i mean real, not avantgardist bullshit) exploration has always been tremendous and tremendously interesting. so: i’m absolutely thrilled you did this thing and can’t wait to see it. great!
love r