Shooting on Mobile

CLEAN THE LENS

It sounds silly and simple, but this is always a great place to start. It’s the equivalent of remembering to take the lens cap off of a camera. It’s something so obvious that it’s often easy to forget. Before you shoot any video with your smartphone, make sure the camera’s view isn’t obstructed, and give it a quick swab.

CHECK AND SET YOUR SETTINGS

Smartphones might be limited in functionality compared to more dedicated video cameras, but that doesn’t mean they’re only capable of shooting one type of video. Most premium smartphones these days have a few different resolutions and frame rates to choose from.

On Android phones, these settings are usually right inside the main camera app, either tucked behind the settings gear wheel, or accessible via a toggle button. Apple, however, has buried these options in the main settings menu. You have to back all the way out of the camera app, go into Settings, scroll down to Photos & Camera, and then scroll down to the Camera section.

Once you’ve found them, here’s a quick breakdown of the three most commonly used video settings:

• 1080p at 30 frames per second: the other standard resolution / frame rate combination. The difference here is your video has more frames displaying every second, which gives the footage an even more fluid look that is closer to how you would have seen the scene in real life. The choice between 30 fps and 24 fps is mostly an aesthetic one — both should display correctly wherever you post.
• 1080p at 24 frames per second: one of the two most standard settings for shooting video. 1080p is the resolution, a stand-in term for how many pixels (1920 x 1080) are captured in each frame of the video. 24 frames per second (fps) means you’re capturing 24 frames every second. That speed is just above the low end of what our brain is able to perceive as fluid video, but with just enough imperceptible stutter that it creates a pleasing, cinematic look. (That balancing act between fluid motion and intangible surrealism is why 24 frames per second is what filmmakers use in most movies.) Note: You’ll only be able to shoot in 24 fps if you use an app that allows this frame rate, like Filmic Pro.
• 1080p at 60 frames per second: shooting at 60 fps will give you an even more fluid-looking video. It’s also where we can start to talk about…

SLOW MOTION

Anything shot at 60 fps or higher (like 120 fps or 240 fps) can be turned into slow motion footage. If you have a phone that shoots in 120 or 240 fps, there’s a good chance it already has a way to slow this footage down for you. For reference, 120 fps is about five times slower than normal speed, and 240 fps is 10 times slower.

To shoot in slow motion on an iPhone, open the camera app and swipe right on the modes listed above the shutter button until you get to “Slo-mo.” (You can also just tap on it when you see it at the edge of the app.) In order to change how slow your footage is, you’ll have to go back out of the camera app to the main Settings page and change the speed there. With most Android phones, these settings can again be easily changed inside the camera app.

To view the slow motion video, tap on it in your phone’s photo gallery or camera roll. Your phone will automatically slow down the middle 80 percent of the video. To change when the slo-mo effect starts and stops on an iPhone video, tap the settings icon below the video, and then drag the little hash marks to the left and right.

PACE YOURSELF

Shooting a lot of video, especially 4K video, is going to clog up your phone’s storage faster than almost anything else. So making sure you have a solution in place to back that footage up is key.

Find a storage solution that works for you, whether that’s cloud-based (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, etc.) or local storage (external hard drives, or maybe even just your laptop or desktop) and get into the habit of backing up your footage regularly.


I have chose to include this because for the interview we are using a DSLR to shoot the interview. But for our b roll we are going to use an iPhone. This research is helpful as it tells you all the settings you chan change and different things that phones can do.