Yesterday I gave a presentation titled “Smartphone Shorts” at Tufts University which was part of the Boston International Kids Film Festival program. This post provides follow-up notes I promised to share with participants.
For a good introduction to visual storytelling, regardless of the camera you are using, read Visual Storytelling by Nancy Kalow, an e-book published by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and available as a free PDF download. This is one of the best introductions to making short documentaries using a camcorder, D-SLR camera, or mobile phone.
Another good resource is the book Filmmaking for Teens: Pulling Off Your Shorts 
The standard video recording app on the iPhone is no frills. Once you have been shooting video for a while you’ll start expecting more from the camera and FiLMiC Pro is a video recording app that provides a range of features that turns the iPhone into a pretty good video camera, giving you manual control over things like exposure, frame rates, resolution, and other key features like slow-motion, time-lapse, aspect ratio guides, and high-quality encoding. The bare bones FiLMiC Classic is only $0.99 while the full-featured FiLMiC Pro sells for $4.99. There’s nothing quite like it for the Android yet.
For iPhone owners the latest version of iMovie ($4.99) provides a straightforward and easy way to edit and share videos with your iPhone or iPad (it’s also available for MacOS). I think it does a nice job of mixing multiple audio tracks and automatically ducking music under the voice-over you record in sync with picture. iMovie provides a variety of templates for videos, however, the “simple” template turns out to be the best and least cheesy way to go when it comes to editing. While I wish iMovie offered a wider range of effects and editing options, for the price it’s a good basic app to start editing with. The current version does not allow moving the project to iMovie on your Mac (as the previous version did) but this is expected to return in a future update. The current version does crash on me once in a while, so I hope future updates will deliver a more reliable editing experience.
If you’ve got an Android phone two editing programs you might want to take a look at are Movie Editor from Goseet ($2.58) or Magisto Video Editor & Maker (Free, w/ in-App purchases for additional features, available for both Android and iOS.) I can’t say much about them because I don’t have an Android phone and thus have not actually used them myself.
Another alternative for editing, especially if you’re on a tight budget and want a basic editing system that will not break the bank, consider Adobe Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements ($199.99, available for both Mac OSX and Windows).
For iPad users who outgrow iMovie, you might want to to take a look at Pinnacle Studio from Corel ($12.99) which looks like an intriguing option (though I’ve not used it myself).
If you want more capabilities than iMovie and other basic tools can provide, what’s next? If you’re on a Mac, the next step would be to move up to Final Cut Pro X, a full-featured editing system that’s surprisingly easy to learn considering what it can do. A cross-platform alternative that’s a proven professional workhorse is Adobe Premiere Pro which I like because of the integration with Audition (for sound work) and After Effects (for motion graphics work). While Final Cut Pro X is a new application (not to be confused with Final Cut Pro version 7 and prior, which is similar in name only) Premiere has been around for a while and has more in common with earlier version of Final Cut Pro that X itself does, curiously.
Also, check out my blog posts on related topics:
- Seven videos shot with an iPhone, June 7, 2013 (includes link to Framed by Mael Sevestre, shown during the session)
- Olloclip expands iPhone field of view, March 3, 2013
- iPhone camera support accessories, March 2, 2013
- FiLMiC Pro transforms iPhone into sweet and respectable video camera, February 23, 2013
I will answer additional questions if you post them as comments to this post.
Minor updates were made to this post on November 5 and 7, 2013 to correct typos and clean up some wording.
Great work does not always require a fancy camera. While I love shooting with my Panasonic HPX170 DVCPro HD camcorder, sometimes the iPhone is a better choice when I need to maintain a low profile and I can shoot what I need with the iPhone’s fixed lens or with a wide-angle lens attachment. There are lots of great examples on Vimeo and YouTube of videos shot, in part, with the iPhone, as well as examples of works shot entirely on an iPhone. Here are seven examples of videos shot entirely with an iPhone.
To put it in one sentence, sound is vibrations in air that touch us. Like the proverbial tree that falls in the forest, if nobody is around to hear it, did it really make a sound? The vibrations caused by the falling tree don’t become sound until they touch us. And these waves literally touch us, according to developmental psychologist Ann Fernald, who describes sound as “touch at a distance” in the 
, Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter suggest that social relationships are strongly influenced by the way that space changes sound. Every environment has an aural architecture, whose attributes contribute to the fabric of human culture. We can sense spatial configurations through hearing, for example, with our eyes closed we can find an open doorway or know if we are in a room with low ceilings. The aural imprint of Tokyo is quite different from that of New York, and once we have experienced one of these cities we are likely to recognize their aural imprint much in the same manner we recognize images. Sound recording on a documentary need not just be about getting clear dialog, it can also be about capturing the aural imprint of the spaces we are observing. Whenever possible, when I am out observing with my camera, I try to record stereo ambience as well. Given that a good stereo audio recorder can be had these days for about $200 there’s no reason a separate audio recorder can’t be capturing the aural landscape when you are out capturing video with your camera. In fact, given where things are heading technologically and aesthetically, perhaps we should go the distance and record surround ambience. It is all well and good that Hollywood features create amazing soundscapes during the post-production process, but as documentarians, we should try when we can to capture the actual aural landscape of the locations we observe.
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) which consists of three lenses: fisheye, wide angle, and macro. The olloclip includes lens caps for the wide and fisheye lenses, and a cute case made of microfiber lens cleaning material. The product packaging is a little excessive (they could learn a thing or two from Studio Neat who sells the Glif) but I guess it needs to be striking in order to stand out among all of the iPhone accessories at the Apple Store, though perhaps the mail-order packaging could be more minimal. Be careful when purchasing from non-mainstream retailers, a lot of clones have sprung up like weeds and their optical quality varies. Below is the olloclip kit (case not shown) along with three configurations (left to right) on an iPhone 4S: wide angle, fish eye, and macro.
The olloclip wide angle lens approximately doubles the standard iPhone lens field of view and the macro lens multiplies the magnification of the iPhone lens by a factor of about ten. The overall fit and finish of the olloclip is very good. It’s obvious they have gone through great lengths to assure quality manufacturing and probably accounts for the additional cost compared to other adapters.The optical quality is reasonably good, chromatic aberration is not excessive, however, with the fisheye, you’ll see quite a bit of lens flare from light sources in or close to the edge of the frame that will exhibit blooming, much like when you stick a Soft F/X or similar diffusion filter on your D-SLR or video camera lens. Shooting macro is a tad awkward because you have to unscrew the wide angle lens elemnent from the macro lens element before you shoot. The macro lens opens up a whole new landscape that is now within reach of the iPhone lens. Below is a frame grab from video shot with FiLMiC Pro using the macro lens and the iPhone solidly positioned on a tripod with a Glif:
I really like the olloclip. This lens kit is small enough to carry with you so you’ll get a lot of use out of it. As someone who’s been a D-SLR photographer with a collection of lenses since I was a teenager and later started shooting with 16mm film and professional video cameras, I have become accustom to having lens choices. But the Canon D-SLR and Panasonic prosumer camera I use for my documentary work are too large to take everywhere, especially both at the same time. Given the iPhone is always close at hand, it’s nice to be able to shoot wide or close with the iPhone when the situation presents itself. If you embrace the inherent characteristics of the olloclip, rather than expect it to provide D-SLR optics on a beer budget with a shot glass form-factor, you’ll be happy with how the olloclip expands the visual possibilities of the iPhone for both photography with the 
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If you’re going to use an outboard microphone, an LED light, or a wireless receiver with your iPhone, or if you want something solid to grab onto, or perhaps even both, you’ll need to choose something from the many accessory shoe brackets available. The choice can be overwhelming and there are so many designs and price-points. I like the Vello CB-500 Dual Shoe Bracket ($19, available from 
) because it is reasonably priced and has a standard 1/4″-20 threads that mount between tripod and camera, has a rubber side grip, sports both top & side accessory shoes, and is well made. When combined with the Glif, it provides a cost effective and versatile device for holding on to the iPhone and attaching accessories.
I like to place a hand grip like the iKan Universal Grip Bar ($19, available from 
) between the Vello CB-500 Dual Shoe Bracket and the Glif for a complete support configuration that can be held with two hands for maximum stability and control. I use this as the basis of my iPhone shooting rig (described below) that provides the flexibility I need to build it in a variety of configurations depending on the requirements of a particular shoot. This versatile grip can also be used alone with the camera mounted on it via the Glif or it can be used as a remote pistol-grip for a shock-mounted microphone or LED light.
In order to use an external microphone with the iPhone, you’ll need something along the lines of the iPhone Microphone Input Jack Adapter ($24,50 from 
). This will allow you to make smoother shots by resting the lip of the grip bottom in your cupped hand to form a mount. By extending the legs you lower the center of gravity of the camera and you can make very smooth shots, similar to what you might get using a Steadicam-like device. Your arm is taking the place of the Steadicam arm and the monopod and your cupped hand taking the place of the Steadicam sled and gimbal mount. With some practice, you can create smooth, gliding shots.
An interesting alternative to the Glif is the SmartMount ($20 from 
It’s so handy to shoot with the iPhone camera because I always have it with me, but the quality is limited. David showed us how to circumvent that, to get steadier shots, better sound, and more professional quality. My favorite part of the workshop was watching the kids connecting, asking questions, showing videos that they’ve made (some very sophisticated!). This next generation is going to do things we never envisioned, including making great films on their iPhones. Bravo for a great workshop, David!