Ghost

Then there’s Dominic (Russell Barnett), a tough businessman, who is somehow involved in Tony’s eventual lockup and still holds a grudge towards him to this day. In other words, Tony’s release was not a source of good news for Dominic.

There are two elements of Ghost worth talking about, its story and how it was made. The story itself is good, but not remarkable. We’ve seen this before about the difficulties of former convicts have assimilating back into society, though it is essential to understand that it’s a common problem everywhere. Overall, Ghost does move at a noticeably slow pace, and since most of our characters’ pain is internal, this adds to slow the film down until it builds up in the third act.

What’s more remarkable is Ghost was filmed entirely on an iPhone using an anamorphic lens. We mention this quite a bit at Film Threat. There is no excuse not to make your movie and tell your stories, and Ghost is an example of this charge.

“…did an excellent job overcoming some of the inherent weaknesses of the iPhone…”

The visual quality of Ghost is excellent. All of its shots are composed well, and the use of a gimbal made tracking shots flow smoothly. Filmmakers also did an excellent job overcoming some of the inherent weaknesses of the iPhone, particularly its difficult control over color and light. I would love to have had better audio and lose some of the echoey ambient sounds. I will also say that the feature still has a video quality to its image versus feeling like it was shot on film—nonetheless, a fantastic piece of independent filmmaking.

Ghost is an excellent example of how to film narratives with your cellphone on almost no budget. Barriers are being broken virtually every day in independent filmmaking, and the lack of money and resources are becoming less of an issue today. Ghost tells a solid story of redemption with good acting and thanks to the iPhone wonderfully shot as well.