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Smartphone screens have been acting as mobile multiplexes for a while, but now they’re starting to be used on the other side of the curtain—to make real movies.

Movies made with small screens have been hitting the big screen for the past two years. South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook won the Grand Prix at Cannes for his 2003 revenge thriller Oldboy, but used his iPhone 4 to shoot the 2011 short Night Fishing. Made for less than $150,000, the fantasy-horror film was released worldwide and won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival. That same year first-time filmmakers Hooman Khalili and Pat Gilles picked up a Nokia N8 and started filming Olive, a feature-length movie starring Gena Rowlands that had a limited theatrical release. This year’s Macworld debuted Departure(Opens in a new window), a film shot on iPhones by three different directors in three different countries.

In the movie industry, digital filming remains not just a contradiction in terms but also a controversy. The documentary Side by Side(Opens in a new window) features Keanu Reeves sitting down with directors, colorists, cinematographers, and engineers to discuss what is lost and what is gained as the industry moves, sometimes unwillingly, toward digital. In an interview with film critic Peter Travers(Opens in a new window) Reeves lists the virtues of working in digital and when asked the negatives, pauses and laughs, “It wasn’t shot on film.”

While the love of film may be ineffable, one thing is clear about digital: with so many cheap and proven options to film with dedicated digital cameras, shooting on a smartphone is a very deliberate directorial choice. It might be the less cumbersome gear to carry that drives smartphone filmmakers, or it could be how their greater portability opens up previously unexplored creative possibilities. Then there’s the draw of apps that let you add special effects(Opens in a new window), edit entire movies(Opens in a new window), and weave together multiple viewpoints(Opens in a new window) into one cut, all from the device they were shot on.

Smartphones are not standalone gear for filming movies though. Directors need external lighting and microphones; while getting the perfect shot will usually require steadicams, dollies, and all sorts of flexible solutions.

Here we put a spotlight on what smartphone cineastes need to make their own short, or even feature, films.