Xiaomi, one of the world's leading technology companies, has partnered with Sundance Collab, a global community and training platform for content creators, to jointly create a curriculum and training program that provides tools and opportunities for professional filmmaking on mobile phones.
The Xiaomi Studios and film experts from the Sundance Collab, will explore the filmmaking techniques offered by smartphones and share behind-the-scenes secrets on how to use your phone to shoot a film in a way that resembles a professionally shot film. Each episode will focus on a different aspect of phone filmmaking. For example, there will be episodes on the possibilities offered by phone cameras, while others will look at the choice of equipment and the dilemmas of choosing a location. The episodes will also feature Xiaomi Creators' creations and participants in a talent development programme that offers talented filmmakers and photographers a platform to share their work on their phones.
The course will be hosted by Steven Senshan, Head of Xiaomi Studios. He has previously led some of Xiaomi's most exciting smartphone film projects, including the recent Xiaomi Film Festival, which featured a number of international award-winning filmmakers with their own smartphone short films.
"Over the past decade, many artists have made great films, which have been screened as short films and shown on the Sundance Film Festival on the programme. We are delighted to be working with Xiaomi Studios to build this course, which will also cover the mastery of filmmaking. It will put new tools in the hands of filmmakers around the world to maximize the potential of their devices," said Beth Tripmacher, Sundance Collab's Head of Product Development.
The full training material, consisting of seven episodes and related activities, will be available for free on the Sundance Collab platform on 4 October. The first six episodes will be published on Xiaomi's official social media channel on a weekly basis starting from that day.
The Sundance Collab is a unique digital platform that is open, inclusive, where independent creators can interact, share stories, learn from each other and grow as creators in a safe environment. The platform was launched in 2018 by the Sundance Institute, a non-profit organization that actively supports independent film and theatre makers, but is best known for the Sundance Film Festival, held annually in Park City, Utah.
