- Searching For Sugar Man recently won a Bafta for best documentary - and is hoping to win an Oscar
- Producers were forced to use the '8mm Vintage Camera' app, described as 'like Instagram for video'
By Mark Prigg
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An Oscar-nominated documentary about an elusive musician was filmed using a 1.49 iPhone app after producers ran out of money to buy real film, it has been revealed.
'Searching For Sugar Man' tells the story of two South Africans who set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock 'n' roller, Rodriguez.
To recreate the feel of the 70s, the team decided to record using 8mm film - but ran out of money before it could be finished.
Scroll down to see a trailer for the film
Searching For Sugar Man follows two south African fans trying to track down their musical idol, Rodriguez (pictured). Part of it was filmed on an iPhone after producers ran out of money
In a world of Hollywood blockbusters with multimillion pound budgets, Searching For Sugar Man director Malik Bendjelloulhas revealed that instead, parts of his film were captured using a 1.49 app.
'I started shooting on super-8 film, which is expensive - and I ran out of money,' he told CNN.
'I needed more shots, and then realised there was a one dollar app, and it looked basically the same.'
The app, called 8MM Vintage Camera, was created by Chinese developers Nexvio.
The firm said it was stunned by the development.
'It's crazy, we're crazy thrilled,' said one of the developers.
The app, described as 'like Instagram for video' lets users add retro looking filter to video footage.
The 8mm Vintage Camera app can add retro effects to video, such as this 1920 filter
Another filter, Indigo, gives a 'sunny' feel to video footage
While the total time shooting was only about three months, the entire film took approximately four years to complete.
'We used a Super 8 camera to get the beautiful colors and gritty look of film on quite a few shots.'
'When we ran out of money I started to use the Super 8 app of my iPhone. The result was almost as good as the real stuff, quite amazing.'
The low budget film features lots of cityscape shots of South Africa and Detroit.
Malik Bendjelloul (L) and Simon Chinn, filmmakers of the Oscar nominated 'Searching for Sugarman'
'We did use a crane but we used it very economically, only one single day with two shots.
'It's all about where you place those two shots that hopefully gives the film a sense of scope,' Bendjelloul says.
The film has a 70s 'gritty' feel the director says was easy to reproduce using a 1.49 app
I have this app and can testify it's AWESOME.
- DeafMute , Pasadena, United Kingdom, 22/2/2013 18:23
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