Guide to Professional Smartphone Video Production
Smartphones have increasingly high quality cameras. As time goes on, the difference between video produced on a smartphone and that from dedicated video cameras is becoming less obvious. But what do you need to know to shoot professional quality video with your iPhone or android?
We at the Mobile Motion Film Festival have been involved in smartphone video production for over half a decade. We have witnessed the dramatic advances in quality and creativity produced using the camera most of us have in our pockets. Over the last 15 months we have been producing articles to help people get started with smartphone video production.
In this post I’ll be collecting together all the essential articles needed to take your mobile from your pocket and get filming!
The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Smartphone Filmmaking
An overview of video production using your smartphone, from stabilization to editing. This post covers all the areas you will need to think about when using your smartphone for filmmaking.
Read the Ultimate Beginner’s GuideBest Smartphone for Video Production
Once you have had an overview of the basics of production, you might want to think about your next mobile upgrade. What are the best smartphones available for producing video using your smartphone?
Read: Best Smartphone for Shooting Video in 2020Video Production Basics
Professional looking video is created using manual control of your camera. Find out what the settings mean and how they affect the look of your video.
Frame Rate
Read: Frame Rate for Video – the Basics ExplainedShutter Speed
Read: Shutter Speed for Video – the Basics ExplainedISO
Read: ISO for Video – the Basics ExplainedManual Control
Now that you understand what you need control over, you’ll need to find a way to achieve that control.
Smartphones are designed mostly for consumers to shoot home videos. Therefore, they often have no manual control features for video shooting. To get manual control on our smartphones and iPhones we usually need a 3rd party app installed, such as FiLMiC Pro.
Read: Beginner’s Guide to Manual ControlSmartphone Camera Apps
Read: Best Camera AppsStabilization
One of the most important features of professional looking video is stabilization. This can come in many forms:
- inbuilt OIS (Optical Image Stabilization)
- inbuilt EIS (Electrical Image Stabilization)
- Tripods
- Grips
- 3 axis motorised gimbals
OIS or EIS
In the following article we provide an overview of the 2 main video stabilizing sytems that can come inbuilt in your smartphone.
Read: Smartphone Camera Stabiliser – EIS or OIS?Tripods
In the next article we look at some of the best tripods designed to be used with smartphones or iphones.
Read: best Tripods for SmartphonesGrips
There are a number of grips available to provide you with more stable (less shaky) video. In the nest article we look at some of the options.
Read: Best Grips for Smartphone Video Production3 Axis Smartphone Gimbals
A very popular addition to your smartphone video production kit is a 3 axis motorised gimbal. We have created a buyer’s guide to help you decide which gimbal is best for you.
Read: Smartphone Gimbal Buyer’s GuideAudio
Great quality audio is essential for certain video production projects. If you are filming interviews, vlogs, fiction films documentaries you will need to think about recording sound.
Smartphone Microphones
There are a number of microphones designed specifically to be used with smartphones or iPhones. When filming interviews, for example, a lavalier microphone can be very useful. But you can also use other mics too.
Read: Best Microphones for iPhone (iOS) Read: best Microphones for Smartphone FilmmakingEditing
You can edit using a desktop, laptop, tablet or even on the same smartphone you shot with. If you are editing on the latter two and on iOS (iPhone) many people recommend LumaFusion as the editing app of choice.
Read: 5 Best Editing Apps for Android
Read: best Editing Apps for iPhone (iOS)
Smartphones usually produce H.264 or H.265 video files, which can cause your editing system to grind to halt. Find out how best to deal with these files.
Read: Editing H.264 VideoFREE Film School
The articles above should be enough to get you on the road to shooting professional video on your smartphone. In addition, we also provide weekly articles on how to teach yourself to be a filmmaker. So, if you want to be seriously pro, jump right in and take part in our FREE Film School.
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