ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

12 years, 2 months ago - John Owen

The Film Riot guys created a nice short on an iPhone and go through the details (apps, etc) of how they created it all here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptz_ybNRavg

12 years, 2 months ago - SP User

I don't think anyone who has asked you to create a project using a smartphone is going to expect broadcast quality footage. Sounds like it's an opportunity to have a lot of fun.

As Andy Lewis points out there are bits of kit you can buy / borrow that are going to radically improve the quality of smart phone video. You don't say what kind of phone but you can get special stabilising and tracking equipment at a very reasonable price. Glidecam do a iphone stabiliser and Glidetrack have something called the mobislyder ( sounds like a bad heavy metal band!) at a really decent price for those little tracking shots.

If you are filming in good light conditions the iphone produces pretty decent results. It was actually one of the cameras used in the last Zacuto shootout, albeit on a really well lit set, and it produced astonishingly good results. and there will be lots of great things you can do with you edit or graphics package.

Just sticking it on a good tripod and turning off auto iris is a good start.

12 years, 2 months ago - amine Yahia-Cherif

Hey everyone:
Thank you very much for all the tips, The Film Riot guys are nutters, what a video? The project I am involved in is a smart phone soap opera, they have been making it a while, but couldn't enter the phone video market, so they are marketing themselves as a first smart phone soap opera to be shot on a smart phone. We are three directors, me personally, I have developing my cinematic style over the year, my last film that's in post was shot by Canon C300, so I don't want to feel like I went backwards with this project. I am using a pro crew and will record the sound separately, just need to find the best way to get the picture I need. I will share all your tips with my DOP, and will let you know how it goes, thank you very much.

Amine

12 years, 2 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

For starters, lets be straight - it's a phone, not an Alexa. It will always look pony next to one. It records at a narrower bitrate with less colour information, highly compressed.

'Cinematic' look is a combination of so many elements, it's not possible to fake them all. However, you can cheat some - phones have a massive depth of field thanks to their tiny sensors, you can try applying selective Gaussian blurring to narrow the depth of field, for instance. Or a 2.35 ratio. Others you can't replicate, such as the colour richness. Sound will be horrible unless you just ADR the while lot.

What really drives 'cinematic' though is spending real money on getting a shot well lit, with professional cast and crew, they bring something special together. It's not about gimmicks, but about a whole workflow and skillsets.

I'd be inclined to recognise the limitations of the device, but also the advantages. So many of the things people try to emulate as being 'cinematic' (24fps, narrow depth of field/rack focus, lens flares, progressive shooting, pushed reds and colour balance, etc) were limitations of using old kit and celluloid. Dark lenses and large sensors meant narrow depth of field, for instance. It's just physics. Those cinematographers would have bitten your hand off for a small, lightweight device line the phone, so what can the phone do? How about a waterproof bag? How about mounting it on a skateboard or hot air balloon? The phone will make a poor job of being an old cine camera, but a great one of being small, portable, etc, so maybe play to its strengths?

12 years, 2 months ago - ANDY LEWIS

I made a short using an iPhone http://vimeo.com/34461374
There are limitations and I wanted to make it an easy shoot. It was a weekend away after all My star in the film had bought me an iPhone screw on lens ( £60 ish) otherwise I would not have considered making the film. If you do shoot get the add on lens, use two cameras and record sound on a digital recorder. Don't shoot inside unless you have lights. Good luck and I'd like to see the result. Best wishes Andy