We all have it and we all use it and it keeps us connected with our families and friends
and businesses. And it's got great cameras. Ahoj. This is Zdenka. Today's video will be all about
smartphone filmmaking, everything from the basics for beginners, how to set up the camera,
how to use the lenses, how to actually film, the best filming apps, gimbals,
LOG profile, all the way there.
Everything you need to know to get the best video possible from your smartphone. Right now.
Lots of people don't realize the power of the smartphone camera. Sure you can
turn it on, you can press the record button and... and then
you might end up with something like this.
No, you can do better. You can end up with something like that.
Let's start with the basics, building it up all the way
to advanced. Camera settings and resolution. When was it the last time you looked at your camera
settings? Wait, did you actually ever looked at these phone settings and went to camera? What's
even there? 720p, 1080p, 4k.. some smartphones even offer 8k. The best quality possible you're
going to get if you're gonna be filming in the highest resolution on your phone.
In my case it is 4k. Now I'm going to be filming in 4k because I know that I have a lot of storage
on my phone and I also have quite strong computer so I know I can edit it in the post
if I choose to edit my footage on the computer. It is good to film in 4k because you're gonna
get the best quality possible, you're gonna get that very crisp and sharp image. It's also very
good to film in 4k if you're gonna be publishing your final video in 1080p because you have a lot
more flexibility. Meaning that if I want to reframe a little bit the video in a post,
if I'm gonna crop it a little bit, I have a lot of room to work with and I can actually do so.
I can also zoom in and zoom out in a post, I can do a lot of stuff with it. What you don't
want to do though, you don't want to film in 1080p and upscale the footage to 4k because whoever's
gonna watch it on a 4k monitor, might notice a bit of a loss in quality. Filming
in 1080p is quite good as well. The quality is pretty good. Actually a lot of the videos you're
watching on Youtube are in 1080p. 720p, I would not really use as much. It is not going to be
such high quality. I would only use it if I'm running out of the storage on a smartphone or
if I need to send somebody very quick video in the email or if I need to make myself just a video
note. Frame rates. What I can also select on my smartphone, on your smartphone in the camera
settings are frame rates. 24, 30, 60, 120 and 240. Now, what those numbers mean? Every
second of a video is made out of photos or pictures,
so 24 frames per second means you're gonna get 24 pictures played in that one second. Now
a lot of people are preferring to shoot 24 frames per second over 30 frames per second which
is a normal speed because you're gonna get the natural look. This is the closest to what your
eyes naturally see. You're gonna get a little slight motion blur. 60 frames per second will
give you normal speed as well and will record sound as well. I will be recording in 60 frames
per second if I know that I'm gonna be using some of the clips in a post. I'm gonna be
actually slowing them down to get slow motion, a bit slower clips. To get the typical slow motion
which you see everywhere, you would be filming in 120 frames per second. And to film very high
action sequences, to get even a slower slow motion, you will be filming in 240 frames per
second. One thing you need to remember though is that if you're gonna be filming slow motion,
you will be using fast shutter speed. You're gonna be filming a lot of frames per second and
you will need a lot of light. If you're gonna have low light, you will end up with a lot of
grain. Very not nice pleasing footage, so avoid filming slow motion in low light. Now, if you
really want to film in 24 frames per second but your phone only films in 30 frames per second
with your native camera app, that would be the app already built in, in your phone, you can
get other apps which can do just that. I would highly suggest to get Filmic Pro or Protake. you
can certainly film there if you are not going to be using gimbal. If you're going to be
using a gimbal, a lot of these apps which come with the gimbals already
have 24 frames per second built in. Lenses. If you have a smartphone with only one lens,
then that's it for you. You're set. You will be
filming with that lens unless you buy external lenses which you can actually attach to it.
Now, if you have a smartphone like me which has multiple lenses, I have
three here, then you want to take advantage of that so your video gets more dimension,
it looks more interesting. So it's not looking the same like you would get the same look with one
lens only, if you will be filming a video with one lens only. I've got three lenses. Wide angle,
standard and telephoto. What you do want to do when you are filming is to use digital zoom,
just zooming with your fingers because if you're gonna be zooming in, you're gonna really destroy
the quality of the video. What you want to do instead is to select the correct lens and
move yourself physically. Of course, sometimes you might have to use digital zoom but if you
can work around it, the result will be so much better. Wide angle lens is used for landscapes
and the wide nice revealing shots or overall shots of a location but remember that there is
a distortion at the edges. Standard lens is nice for the middle range shots and telephoto you
might want to use if you are filming a person or close-up of an object because when you get very
close to it, you will get nice blurry background. Bottom line, it is very nice to mix them
together because you're gonna get very nice diverse shots in your video. If you are someone
who wants to go beyond, wants to get extra lenses, then I would suggest to get an amorphic lens
and maybe even a macro lens. Anamorphic lens will give you the nice flare in the shots
but also gives you the wide movie like look, those black bars at the top and at the bottom. Night
filming is especially nice with this lens. Macro lens is for those extreme close-ups
which can be really interesting at times. There are a number of other lenses you can get, it all
depends on your preferences and the effect you want to achieve. To be honest, I use the most
just the smartphone lenses and also the anamorphic lens. Lock exposure, focus and white
balance. Let me show you this video. Watch very closely and try to figure out what's actually
wrong with what you see. What is wrong with the video? Automatic exposure, automatic white
balance and the focus was not good at all. Did you notice how the video was suddenly getting
lighter and darker, lighter and darker? It was kind of flickering. Did you notice how the
colors suddenly shifted and the focus was a little bit off too? Before you press the record button
get in a habit to locking up a few things. If your smartphone native app allows you to
select correct white balance, then do that. Lock it up. If it is sunny, use sunny. If
it is overcast, use overcast. If it is shade, use shade. If you don't do that, whenever you change
your angle, colors will change. You should also lock exposure so it's not getting brighter and
darker on its own. Tap on the screen and hold until it is all locked. Now watch out as it
will also automatically lock the focus as well. Now, let's be honest.
The native camera app on the iphone is not the best. It is very basic.
It doesn't really allow me to control everything the way I would like to. So
as I mentioned before, those apps Filmic pro and Protake,
that's something I would choose to film with because I can control pretty much everything.
Apps. Since I'm talking about apps, let me give you a list of apps. For filming handheld
without a gimbal, top of the list is Protake as it has insane stabilization. This is not a free
app but you can access some features there for free. Filmic pro is another one I would
recommend. I would also like to recommend Moment app which is available on Apple devices. When it
comes to editing, if you have newer or stronger computer I highly suggest free Da Vinci Resolve.
It is a very powerful program quite similar to Adobe Premiere Pro. You can do pretty much
everything there. If you are editing on the phone, there are many apps available. I use
iMovie on Apple. Lumafusion is excellent as well. On Android Filmora GO would be the way to go.
Filming handheld. For those who don't have a gimbal, you will get a smoother video if you
are filming with not only one hand but you are holding your phone with both hands and moving
slowly and steady the entire body. Now, if you want further stabilization you can use
app Protake. Here is a sample video where I'm walking filming handheld.
Gimbals in stabilized selfie sticks. Market is flooded with stabilized
selfie sticks and gimbals. Now, don't get too over loaded with them. Don't get too stuck up on
choosing which one is the best because they are all pretty much very similar. What is more
important is to get the skill, what you are actually doing with it,
how you are filming, capturing the story and editing it together. What you
need to remember though is that stabilized selfie sticks are usually two axis gimbals. That means
that the stabilization is not gonna be as good as you would get with three axis gimbals.
So if you really do care about stabilization, get three axis gimbal. I have made so many
videos about gimbals. I'm gonna create a playlist for you and link it below for those interested.
Manual filming. So you've mastered everything up to this point but your video, your footage
still looks a little bit digital, it looks kind of smartphone like video. And on some devices,
especially if you upload it to Youtube, you notice that sometimes the movement is a little bit jerky,
the video is kind of skippy and it skips once in a while. That's because you are
filming in automatic mode. What is happening is that the shutter speed is extremely high and
sometimes it changes on its own. It's variable. So what you need to do, you need to film in
manual mode. You need to bring the shutter speed down, you need to double it. So if you're filming
in 24 frames per second, your shutter speed should be 1/48 of a second but for that you
need ND filter. Now what's that? Those are sunglasses for your camera. Now filming in manual
mode is a whole different chapter. I'm gonna link tutorial which I luckely created in the
past below the video for those again interested. Sound. When you're recording sound on your
smartphone, the latest smartphones have pretty good microphone already built in. But if you
want a little bit more professional sound, then I would consider getting external microphone. And
there are so many to choose from. The tricky part will be to figure out which one is
actually compatible with your smartphone. For my smartphone which iPhone 12 pro I like to use
lavalier microphone just because when I have it clipped on me, I can move away further from
the camera and I can still be heard. So here's a sample of me talking on a smartphone
with a built-in microphone. So this is the sound you are going to get if you are not going to be
using any external microphone but you're going to be using just the internal built-in on your
smartphone. And here's the sound I get on this smartphone with lavalier microphone. And this
is the sound you're going to get if you're going to be using external microphone. I have
one right here. LOG and color grading. If you're someone who wants to control the final look of
the video when it comes to colors, you might consider filming in a LOG profile. It is very
flat looking like image, no contrast, no colors and stuff like that. What you need to do, you
need to color grade that in a post or apply LUT preset. Now, you can film LOG profile and Filmic
pro, Protake, Moment app. If you are interested to see how to color grade LOG profile from
scratch in Adobe Premiere Pro, let me know in comments below in the comment section
and I'll create tutorial on that. Practice. The rest is just practice. Don't get overhelmed by
everything I was saying in this video. Pick one thing, practice a lot. Master it until you know
you can do it 100% and then move on to the next skill. Practice now so you're ready for the
big event you want to capture. Don't wait with the practice for the actual event because it's
probably not gonna go that well. Well, hit the thumbs up if you found this video informative
and if you want to subscribe to this channel for future videos and if you want to
comment below and I'll see you my friends in the next video. Cau.... Ahoj...