- Welcome to Hollywood.
Look at the Hollywood sign.
Can you see it? - Yeah.
- This is actually a nice spot, huh?
All right, so today we're talking all about
getting the most cinematic images we can
out of a camera phone.
And I think we're about to get kicked out right now.
Do you think we're gonna get kicked out or no?
What do you guys think?
No we didn't (gasps),
we didn't get kicked out, wow.
A ranger came by.
See, usually I wouldn't be worried
about getting kicked out,
but look at how Sam looks right now.
Look at that he's just.
This is just asking to get kicked out of places.
But actually while we're filming on the iPhone,
let's just look at some of this footage real quick.
You know, it could be a little bit tricky
to put your finger on it,
but when you see this footage,
you look at it, you go, "Oh, that's a camera phone"
'cause it just has a certain look to it,
opposed to when we come back to this camera,
where everything just looks
a little bit more professional, right?
So the goal is to try to make this camera
look as much like this camera as possible.
So PolarPro has just announced this Litechaser Pro
which is gonna help us get one step closer.
And PolarPro is sponsoring this video
so we are gonna be giving away some cool stuff
in a second.
But let me show you what we're working with.
So first of all, we have our phone case.
It definitely helps add
quite a bit of protection to it,
and it's also nice and rigid
so that we can attach some of these accessories on here.
A few things I do like
is how the case kinda protects the lenses,
'cause without it I feel like these lenses get
kind of mushed and rubs up against stuff over time
and they start to become a little bit hazy,
not as clear,
so I like that it's indented a little bit now.
Next up is this grip, which is pretty nice.
There's a button here
so when you press that, it spreads out
and essentially clamps down to
any of these indentations on the side of the phone.
So you can mount it down here, up here.
For me this feels pretty comfortable,
I like just holding it like this.
It's actually really nice
to have something that you can squeeze
when you're holding,
just like Sam's camera right now.
The handle gives you a little grip
that you can kinda squeeze onto
and it feels like you're getting a nice and stable shot.
We also have a quarter inch right on the top and bottom
so we can attach some accessories to it
and we can also mount this on a tripod.
And also you can sit this down nice and flat
and it'll stay standing,
which is also a nice touch.
Don't you guys hate it when you have your phone case
and you're trying to lean it up against something
so you try to build some kinda crazy teepee,
oh that actually worked too.
Usually it doesn't work that nicely.
And obviously it's removable
because you don't wanna be carrying
this thing around in your pocket like that,
and, of course, most importantly, the filters themselves.
I've got PolarPro filters for these cinema cameras
as well as my vlogging setup.
And this just pops onto the case
and covers all three lenses in one swoop,
which is actually awesome,
'cause now I can just switch
between the different lenses on the camera,
not have to worry about where that filter is placed.
And this is the variable ND filter,
which means we can change the density
by turning it from three stops to five stops.
Now the reason why we wanna limit the amount of light
coming into this camera
is for the shutter speed.
So first of all, let's look at this footage,
and look at my hand.
See how it's kind of blurry?
Let's just pause the frame
and look at how my hand looks.
Now it looks pretty blurry, right?
Now at first that might sound like a bad thing,
but when you actually take your hand
and wave it in front of your actual eyes like this,
it does appear to be kind of blurry.
It's not like every frame is perfectly sharp.
So adding a little bit of this blur
really helps make everything
feel more organic and real.
So that's usually one of the very first tells
that you're looking at a camera phone.
Now look at this footage of Sam
karate-chopping the air
and showing us his self-defense skills (laughs).
The cinema camera definitely looks a lot more natural,
so by slowing down the shutter speed,
that's gonna make the image too bright,
so this is where the variable ND filter
is gonna come back in
to help re-expose our shot.
So I would say this is step number one,
adding an ND filter,
which stands for neutral density.
It brings down that exposure
while maintaining the neutralness,
is that a word?
So with the filter,
I can now put my shutter speed at 1/48 of a second,
which is right where I want it,
and now the footage from the iPhone
looks very fluid and much less digital.
Now when it comes to the ND filters
for this Litechaser,
you have a few options.
You have the variable ND like I have,
but there's also the solid ND filters.
Now I love variable NDs because they're so convenient.
I only have to carry around one, slap it on there.
If I need more light, I turn it one direction.
If I need less light, I turn it the other.
Super easy.
But that convenience comes with some sacrifices.
There is a polarizer in here,
so it may affect your image in certain ways
once in a while,
but most notably is when you use
the ultra wide-angle lens.
They do not recommend using the ultra wide-angle
when you have this variable ND on here
because of physics and the ultra wideness
of the ultra, I don't know.
Basically you're gonna see some weird things
around the edges.
So if you want that perfect image,
it's better to get those solid ND filters
but it's not gonna be as convenient as this.
And PolarPro also has this circular polarizer,
which I have a whole video
explaining what these and ND filters do in-depth
if you wanna check that out.
But long story short,
basically you can turn this
and cut out certain polarized lights,
which can result in bluer, richer skies.
You can see through a reflection sometimes,
shooting through a window or through water,
this can pierce through some of that.
So thanks again PolarPro for sponsoring this video.
I'm gonna throw a link
down there in the description
if you wanna pick up one of these for yourself.
But we're not done with our journey yet.
We have our filter,
we have a good way to grab it
as well as a way to mount it on a tripod.
Now we need to mess with software
to really get control over this camera.
Now there's a couple different apps
that will give you more control over the phone's camera
but the one I'm most familiar with is Filmic Pro.
First things first, I have to go into the settings,
make sure my resolution is where I want it.
So I have it at 4K right now.
And then there's also the different levels of codecs.
So you have Economy
if you're looking for lightweight files.
Apple Standard, FiLMiC Quality and FiLMiC Extreme.
I just like to max it out,
might as well get as much as I can outta this.
Frame rate, 24 frames per second.
It's the same frame rate
I'm using on this camera, this camera,
and I just want it to all match.
All right, now back to the home page.
There's really only a few things you need to know
to get started.
So you see a circle and a square
which you can move around the frame.
So your circle is exposure.
So right now it's on the background,
so that's why the shot looks kind of overexposed
but if I bring it into the light,
it's exposing for this light
so everything gets darker.
So circle is exposure
and square is focus.
And if I tap on either of these,
they turn red
so that basically means it's locked.
So if I put the red dot over here
and I like where it's exposed
I can tap it,
and now my exposure is going to stay locked
no matter what my frame looks like.
And since we had this variable ND on here,
I'm gonna go ahead and press and hold on the circle
which is the exposure.
Notice this thing pop up on the left here
and as I slide it up and down,
you can see that I'm more manually
adjusting the exposure.
That top number is our ISO,
so right now it's at 45
and the bottom number is our shutter speed,
which is a little bit too fast.
So what we're gonna do is we're gonna tap the ISO.
So notice that the ISO turned red,
which means locked.
So now as I slide it around,
the only thing adjusting is that shutter speed.
Now what we want ours at is 1/48 of a second.
Now that I got my shutter exactly where I want it,
I can tap the shutter speed
and that is gonna lock that in.
So now I can go ahead and adjust the ISO.
But generally speaking,
I want my ISO nice and low like that.
And then I could do my final adjustments
with this variable ND.
Now in a professional camera
I would also adjust my aperture for exposure.
On this lens specifically,
I'm locked into an F1.8,
exactly why it's necessary to have an ND
to get that shutter speed correct.
So we got our shutter speed locked in.
Now I usually just drive this square around
to wherever I want in focus.
And if I want it locked I just tap that.
Focus is locked, good to go.
Now getting into white balance.
Usually auto will get it pretty close.
I just don't want it shifting around during a shot
so I can actually just tap that auto white balance.
Now auto white balance is locked.
But of course you can go into daylight, cloudy,
and manually go in and change all this.
You have full control over that.
And then I'm gonna down here
to change my color profiles.
By default we're over here on Natural,
but I'd recommend either Flat or Log V2
which is gonna be the flattest
in case you plan on doing some color correction.
That's gonna give you the most dynamic range.
So we have our lenses, we have our software,
now let's talk about movement.
Now my current gimbal of choice for mobile phones
is the DJI Osmo Mobile 3,
and there we go, it's looking pretty smooth.
It doesn't seem to be struggling
with the balance of the new filter
or anything like that.
So should we go take this for a little spin?
Let's go.
(mellow Latin music)
Oh no, Carrie, you okay, you okay?
You okay, you okay?
Oh no, you're okay. - I can't breathe.
(Carrie groans) - You're okay.
- [Carrie] I still can't breathe.
- [Gene] You're okay, you're okay.
You're gonna be able to breathe in a second.
It's gonna take a second for it to come back, okay?
- No I'm fine,
my arm hurts a little bit.
- [Gene] Yeah, for a second you couldn't breathe.
- Yeah, I got the wind knocked out of me.
- [Gene] Yeah, nothing hurts?
- No, like, not, like, nothing hurts that bad.
- The bell, like, went ding ding
as you went down.
(Carrie laughs)
Oh my God.
I don't know think it's on video, no.
'Cause I think you fell right as you left frame.
Turn your head real quick.
There's a rock in her helmet.
There's a rock,
oh, that rock is, like, lodged in there.
All that.
But I'm glad you're okay,
that was scary. - As long as we got the shot.
If we didn't get the shot, I'm gonna (laughs).
- Now we got the shot.
Should we check to see if we got your fall?
- (laughs) Yeah. - Let's check.
See the shot looks really nice,
and you fall right after this,
and then you immediately, oh yeah,
you just see me, like, run up. (Carrie laughs)
Very brief
tail end of you falling. - That's actually
kind of funny (laughs).
- Look at that you're just,
that would have been all transferred onto your head.
Look at all that.
So kids, wear a helmet.
- Oh look, it's really, babe, look.
See all the groove right here from a rock?
- [Gene] Good thing is the shot looked beautiful.
- You better use that shot.
- I will use that shot, girl, you bet.
- And you might need to rub my neck later.
- Don't worry guys, Carrie is okay.
She is a little bit achy,
but she's gonna go get a massage today,
she's gonna be fine. - I can't breathe.
- I mean, the right half of her body hurts,
but, you know, aside from that she's good.
As far as the footage goes,
I think some of the shots came out looking really good.
In my opinion it's a step towards cinema cameras
but it still has that camera phone characteristics,
which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I've actually had clients ask me
to make videos look like they were shot on a phone
because sometimes they engage better
on different platforms.
But I'm still amazed
at what camera phones can look like now.
I mean, camera phones used to look like this.
So it's definitely cool to see how far these have come.
Now speaking of giveaway,
PolarPro is giving away a Litechaser set
and we're also giving away
two of these DJI Osmo Mobile 3s.
So for a chance to win
drop a comment down there
within the first 12 hours of this video going live
and three people will be randomly chosen,
so good luck.
Also this grip is designed to flip inverted like this
to kinda go vertical.
Yeah, that's pretty comfortable.
Oh, and keep in mind that currently
PolarPro is only making cases for the iPhone 11 series,
but we'll probably see other cases
roll out for other phones
in the near future.
Anyways, let's wrap this up by reading a few comments.
Last video was all about lenses.
This was a 38 minute video about lenses.
It was a very nerdy, in-depth video.
"When PotatoJet is scared of dropping something,
"you definitely know it's expensive."
You know how much a set of Signature Primes is?
Let's look it up.
Man, it really depends on how many you get, you know?
You could just buy one if you want.
Oh yeah, look at that.
Okay, see, there's the set of six.
I can't find how much it costs to buy all of them,
but for a set of six of them it's $153,000.
You could just count how many more there are.
Fifteen, sixteen, there's sixteen lenses in this photo.
So six is only a part of it.
For all the lenses it would be lots of dollars.
"I'm waiting for the giveaway."
(laughs) I'm not on that level yet guys.
I'm here giving away Osmo Mobiles.
"I love PotatoJet already knows all of this,
"but still listens to him carefully and respects him."
I honestly did not know half of the stuff.
Like, literally half the video
I'm learning it as he's saying it
and it's blowing my mind (laughs).
People would watch my face and be like,
"Oh my God, you look so bored",
but that's me trying to, like,
intake all that information.
"I need a count on how many times PotatoJet says
"'Interesting.'" (laughs)
Oh man, I actually noticed that while I was editing
'cause when I'm learning stuff
my default answer is just "Interesting",
and then I actually,
I cut out a whole bunch of "Interesting"s,
but I still apparently left so many
that you guys are noticing it.
"Most 'wow's, 'interesting', and 'right's
"in every episode."
Next time I have a guest on here,
I'm gonna look up a thesaurus.
That way I don't have to repeat those three words
over and over.
"Oh that's so alluring,
"amusing,
"beautiful.
"Wow that's still compelling.
"Fascinating", that's a good one.
"Impressive, intriguing,
"riveting", ah I should use that one.
That'll be my new word.
Every time he tells me a fact,
I'll just be like, "Riveting".
Anyways, I owe Carrie a neck rub for that fall she took,
so gotta go do boyfriend duty.
See you guys later.
(slow hip hop music)