ZHIYUN Announces SMOOTH 5 Mobile Movie Contest Winners

As one of a very talented jury for mobile filmmaking contest by Zhiyun, I’m pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 contest:

Entrants created a video that followed one the five categories: narrative, mini documentary, adventure, music and dance, and how-to. ZHIYUN received over 400 submissions submitted from all over the globe. The judges noted the overall quality was extremely high, with the narrative category receiving the largest number of entries and included many outstanding creative works. The competition gave many new creative teams the opportunity to showcase their abilities, with many stating they were challenged to embrace new styles and techniques, and that the entries also showed the true possibilities of smartphone videography, which can produce quality that approaches close to professional cameras.

Top Prize: Filmmakers’ Choice

Shelly – Tim Hamilton

Comments: “Incredibly creative and imaginative visual storytelling with a suitably offbeat narrative”

Category Winners:

How-To

How to set up a skateboard – PJ Madd

Judges’ comments: “Lots of interesting tricks, and we can see the author’s intention to work with composition. It’s very well formed into one united story”

Music & Dance:

Words – Polar Eyes

Judges’ comments: “Innovative shots fit perfectly with the music and dance to tell a story.”

Mini-Doc:

Something Is Coming – SJ van Breda

Judges’ comments: “Every element looks harmonious, not a single wasted shot, excellent camera work, good editing.”

Narrative:

The Speed Date – TRIO Stories

Judges’ comments: “Feels like a movie, really cinematic and great storyline. Impactful mise en scene as well.”

Adventure:

Life Breath – Leo Markov

Judges’ comments: “Very time consuming and excellent planning of shots … the order of the shots. Well done.”

BTS Winners:

Camelot – Max Prod.

This is my adventure – Romuald Kabala

The Painter – Roberto Eduardo Mazzarago

Smartphone Video – Beginner to Advanced

If you want to know more about smartphone filmmaking, my book Smartphone Videography – Beginners to Advanced is now available to download for members on Patreon. The book is 170 pages long and covers essential smartphone filmmaking topics:

Things like how to get the perfect exposure, when to use manual control, which codecs to use, HDR, how to use frame rates, lenses, shot types, stabilisation and much more. There’s also my Exploring the Film Look Guide as well as Smartphone Colour Grading.

Members can also access all 5 episodes of our smartphone shot Silent Eye series, with accompanying screenplays and making of podcasts. There’s other materials too and I will be adding more in the future.

If you want to join me there, follow this link.