You don’t necessarily need a large crew, bulky cameras or a set built to tell a story capable of reaching people very close. Sometimes, for reality to emerge without becoming rigid in front of the lens, technology must almost disappear.
It’s what happens in The Condition of the Shrimpa short documentary film directed by young Italian directors Davide Piras and Giammarco Boscariol and shot entirely with two iPhone 15 Pro Max. However, at the center of the project is not a technical experiment, nor the desire to demonstrate that a smartphone can simply replace a film camera. There are the lives of Morgan, Samu, Andy, Aziz and Willy, boys suspended between past and future, between difficult choices, unfulfilled desires and the search for an identity and a place in the world.
The Condition of the Shrimp is a documentary born from the meeting between Sugar Play, an audiovisual production company, the two Italian directors Davide Piras and Giammarco Boscariol, the creative studio The Hills and Kayros, a community in the Lambrate district of Milan which welcomes minors and men reported by the juvenile court, social services and the police.
Founded in 2000 on the initiative of Don Claudio Burgio, Kayros promotes autonomous and responsible social reintegration paths, identifying the quality of relationships as one of the fundamental resources of educational intervention.
From music to kids’ stories
The initial spark of the project came from the music. Some of the kids from Kayros were aspiring artists, they wrote lyrics and recorded their own songs using music as a form of personal expression and as a space in which to give voice to experiences, fears and desires.
Music therefore represented the most natural starting point. The project was born together with Sugar Play, a reality of the Sugar group which already knew Kayros and had supported the creation of a recording studio within the centre.
As they frequented the community, however, Piras and Boscariol discovered that much broader stories lay behind the songs and artistic ambitions. The project thus gradually changed direction. The focus has shifted from music to people, from artistic paths to their lives, to the consequences of the choices made and the difficulty of imagining what comes next.
Through the stories of Morgan, Samu, Andy, Aziz and Willy, the documentary accompanies the viewer into the daily life of young people who experience a condition of transition. They are no longer only tied to their past, but have not yet reached the future towards which they seek to move.
It is precisely from this feeling of difficult progress that the title was born. The crayfish, in the common imagination, is the animal that seems to proceed backwards. The condition evoked by the film is that of someone who tries to move forward, but continues to deal with something that holds him back, with mistakes, expectations and possibilities that never follow a linear trajectory.
Six months to build a relationship
Before filming began, the two directors spent six months together with the Kayros boys. A necessary time to truly enter their world, get to know them and overcome the inevitable distance that is created between those who tell and those who are told.
It wasn’t just a matter of preparing the film, but of building a relationship of trust and friendship. It is precisely this closeness that makes a deeply immersive narrative possible, in which the presence of the camera does not seem to continuously interrupt or alter what is happening.
The film observes the protagonists without transforming them into symbols and without forcing their stories into an edifying structure. It does not seek spectacular redemption, nor a reassuring conclusion. Rather, it shows an everyday life made up of conversations, expectations, silences, contradictions and desires.
In this way, The Condition of the Shrimp it restores humanity and complexity to a context that is often told through rigid categories and stereotypes. The kids are not only represented through the difficult paths from which they come. What also emerges are aspirations, irony, personal relationships and the way in which each of them tries to build their own image of the future.
Why shoot everything with two iPhone 15 Pro Max
Spin The Condition of the Shrimp entirely with two iPhone 15 Pro Max was not a simple technological exercise, nor the attempt to demonstrate that a smartphone can take the place of a traditional film camera. The choice of the device was born first of all from the needs of the story: entering the kids’ daily lives discreetly, following their movements and conversations without transforming every moment into a constructed scene and without imposing the cumbersome presence of a crew.
In a documentary based on trust and observation, even the size of the camera can change the behavior of those in front of the lens. Cameras, lights, external microphones and technical supports risk creating an immediate distance, continually reminding the protagonists that they are being observed.
An iPhone, on the contrary, is an object now perfectly integrated into daily life, familiar and less intimidating. It allowed directors to get closer to kids without interrupting the natural rhythm of their days and without transforming community spaces into a film set.
«iPhone allowed us to blend into the daily life and environment of the protagonists in a discreet way, to remain close to the fabric of their days», explained Davide Piras and Giammarco Boscariol.
Technology thus becomes an almost invisible presence. It doesn’t try to impose itself on the content, but adapts to the people and environments the narrative passes through.
The two directors already knew the potential of the device, having used and experimented with it in some previous works.
«For years we have been fascinated by the look that iPhone gives to images», they said. «In addition to its aesthetics, we have always loved its visual quality, its versatility and the possibilities it opens up from a creative point of view. For these reasons, it seemed like the most consistent choice with our way of working.”
For the short film, the three main lenses of the two iPhone 15 Pro Max were used, which allowed us to quickly switch from wider fields to close-up shots, following the protagonists without having to constantly interrupt filming to change equipment.
The easy handling of the smartphone made it possible to work even in confined spaces, get closer to faces and find observation points that, with bulkier instruments, would have been more difficult to reach or would have required greater preparation.
Piras and Boscariol have also chosen not to use particular external supports, neither for images nor for audio. Video stabilization and built-in microphones were used to preserve a streamlined, immediate way of working, allowing directors to react quickly to what was happening in front of them.
«We made the most of the three main lenses, without any particular external supports, neither for filming nor for audio, thanks to the quality of the video stabilization and the microphones», they explained. «It allowed us to maintain total creative freedom, without any compromise of a formal or productive nature».
That freedom also allowed us to experiment more with shots.
«We found particular points of view that, with more traditional tools, would have been more complex to achieve. Between new angles and close-ups on the faces, these choices too, made possible by the adaptability and ease of handling of the device, contributed to giving strength and value to the protagonists’ story.”
The lightweight format allowed the camera to move with the kids, rather than waiting for them to adapt to the needs of the production. The result is a photography that is very close to bodies and expressions, capable of dwelling on the silences, gestures and seemingly minimal details that make up everyday life.
In this sense, the smartphone is not just the means with which the documentary was shot. It becomes part of the method adopted by the two authors. The ability to quickly start a shot, change positions and stay close to the protagonists favored a more spontaneous and observational narrative.
The choice of device, however, would not have had the same value without the work carried out in the previous months. Technology can reduce the physical distance between those who film and those who are filmed, but it cannot build a relationship of trust on its own. It was above all the six months spent in Kayros that made the naturalness of the images possible.
It is precisely in the balance between human preparation and technological agility that one of the most interesting aspects of the film lies. The tool expands the possibilities of the story, but never claims to replace it. Technology works because it chooses to take a step back.
Black and white to put faces at the center
The choice to shoot in black and white also strengthens the approach of the project. The absence of color focuses attention on the faces, expressions and relationships between the protagonists, removing their stories from a representation that is too tied to a specific place or moment.
Black and white also gives greater universality to the events told. It doesn’t transform the kids into abstract figures, but eliminates some distracting elements and lets emotions, gestures and silences emerge more forcefully.
The balance between aesthetic research and the desire to preserve the truthfulness of the story was central. The result is an intimate, direct and visually suggestive reportage, in which the formal choices do not cover reality, but try to get closer to it without invading it.
Technology that chooses not to be seen
In recent years, films shot with smartphones have often attracted attention, above all for the novelty of the medium used. In the case of The Condition of the Shrimpthe paradox is that technology works best precisely when it ceases to be the center of the story.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max allows filmmakers to get closer, move quickly and find less conventional angles. But the goal is not to show off the device’s potential. It means allowing the viewer to enter the protagonists’ days without continually perceiving the presence of a production apparatus.
The film avoids the rhetoric of redemption as much as that of “difficult kids.” It does not hide the mistakes or consequences of the choices made, but also leaves room for aspirations, irony, relationships and the struggle to imagine a place in the world.
In this story, technology remains at the service of people. It does not become a barrier and does not try to draw attention to itself. It’s a tool that allows you to look closer, letting Morgan, Samu, Andy, Aziz and Willy really take center stage.
From the Sheffield DocFest to the Lucania Film Festival
The Condition of the Shrimp was selected for participation in the Sheffield DocFest, one of the main international festivals in the United Kingdom dedicated to documentary cinema.
The short film also entered the official selection of the twenty-seventh edition of the Lucania Film Festival, scheduled in Pisticci, in the province of Matera, from 2 to 9 August.
Two awards that allow the stories of the Kayros kids to leave the community spaces and reach a wider audience, without transforming them into a social case or a technological demonstration.
The result is a small film about the distance that separates a person from their future, about the difficulties that can bring them back and about what can happen when, instead of observing them from the outside, someone decides to stop long enough to listen to them.
