Did you ever wonder if you could shoot a whole video production with just an iPhone?
Well there’s a little computer tech company called, Apple, they shoot almost all of their video content marketing for their iPhones on the iPhones themselves. In fact one of our favourite videos from Apple from 2019 was this brilliantly shot snowball fight, “SNOWBRAWL“. As technology has progressed over time the number of new apps to help someone create content has gone up. Not only can people just edit a photo for their instagram they can now animate, film and edit a whole video production. But just how can you do it ? Well below we’ll show how you can create a video production with your phone (These tips don’t just go for iPhone they go for any phone, although some app names may change,)
There are so many examples of great projects made using just an iPhone, a YouTube search is all you need to do to see what people are capable of. A lot of the iPhone adverts now claim to be made on only iPhone however Apple never mention if there has been any additional equipment used.
The best way to film on an iPhone is the apple standard camera app, while some features are limited it has the basics there to get filming done, the only problem you may have is that some sliders are limited which means if you need to change anything mid shot, whether that’s brightness or something similar, you’re incredible limited, there are a few ways around this however. There are apps on the app store that allow you more control over the camera. An example of something like this would be ProCamera, this app provides a more detailed interface in which the user can have more control of their videos with controls ranging from iso & shutter to histogram and white balance. You can also export files in a RAW format. The app also has live filters which may be more suited to fun projects however if you are filming any professional videos i.e. corporate videos, it would perhaps be something to skip. While the app does cost $5.99 with a rating of 4.6/5 stars it’s definitely worth a punt. Whatever app you use, if you get it right the quality of your filming before editing will be second to none. To film footage on an iPhone it’s not hard at all. All you’ve got to do is press the record button and capture what you want. A tripod is a great addition to any setup and just because you are filming on an iPhone, doesn’t mean that you should be lazy.
When it comes to audio it’s quite easy to capture crisp audio, the audio recorder on the normal camera app is alright, it does the job well but don’t expect too much quality if your in a windy environment. For the best quality it would be recommended to use a mic with a filter on it, one mic that works with a phone would be the rode videomic me L. It’s an affordable mic that works with all iphones with a lighting cable. An alternate to this would be a lavalier microphone, however one flaw to this would be the wires however there’s plenty of ways about it. One app that may help you with your audio is AudioShare while it does not have the necessary editing tools such as cut, copy and paste functions. If you want to edit your audio and add effects, you have to do it in a different application then import to Audioshare. But for the organization of your tracks and audio files, it’s the best application to do that.
When it comes to editing your productions there are a plethora of apps to help you edit your footage. One example would be imovie. It comes with iPhones now so won’t cost you a penny, its set up like your usual video editor with a timeline. Its easy to use with a simple drag and drop format with pre loaded effects and transitions, however whether you choose to use these just depends on the type of production you’re making, like most things mentioned though it is still relatively basic and you will never have the same amount of options as you would on a desktop project. Another alternative to iMovie would be Adobe Premiere Rush, this is essentially a sister app to the main premiere pro cc. Again it comes down to the problem that it’s not as in depth as the main app, this is because the app is mainly marketing towards social media stars so it has a simple workflow so it’s more fitting for simple projects like corporate videos as these require less cuts and next to no effects.
When it comes to exporting your final project it’s really easy and you have quite a few options, should you choose to upload it straight away to either Facebook twitter or YouTube or export it in many of the usual file types (MP4,Mov etc.) If you don’t want to upload your project straight away just export it in the setting you like and it’s possible to upload it to any social media at a later date, the only apps you need for that are the files app and the social media app that you want to upload the video to
In conclusion it’s really simple to create your own video production using just a phone, while your still able to create a production of very good quality it still won’t be up to the standard of a full blown professional production, but If your just getting started off on your videographyjourney it’s a great way to get clients and build up your portfolio before you can afford better equipment. Making content productions with an iPhone is better for some genres then others though, as previously mentioned with the editing side of things, corporate videos are great to make on iPhones as they don’t require too much complex editing as the whole project is quite simple.
Is it worth trying out though even if you are an experienced videographer, absolutely it’s great to keep the creative juices flowing by creating quick and easy projects once in a while