- This is the complete updated guide to shooting videos
with your Android smartphone.
We're gonna cover everything step by step so that
you'll learn how to film with Android,
with all the latest settings tools and Android video tips
to help you get awesome results.
Hey, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video,
where we help you grow an audience and scale your revenue
with online video.
If you're seeing value in this video,
make sure you're giving it a thumbs up,
it really makes a huge difference.
And all the links to everything
that I mentioned in this video,
you can find linked in the description box below.
Let's jump into it.
Now we've created video guides like this before
and the comments are always awesome,
but it's been a few years now and there's been some big
updates on Android and with the phone cameras themselves.
So in this updated version,
we're gonna cover off on all the latest tips,
the coolest smartphone gear that we recommend right now,
and all the key settings and steps that you need right now
to get the most out of your Android device.
And just to be clear,
you don't need any additional gear to get great results
with the process that I'm gonna show you,
but I will mention some of the low-cost tools that I'm using
along the way just in case you're looking
to take things further.
And just the same as last time,
there is no need to take notes as we go through,
we've put together a quick start reference guide for you
to download and use next time you're filming
so that you don't miss any of these steps.
So we'll have a link to where you can grab your copy
at the end of this video.
Okay, so step number one is to prepare your content
for filming.
And I know it sounds obvious when you hear it,
but it is so much easier to create an amazing looking video
much faster and easier if you have prepared your content
ahead of time instead of trying to figure it all out
once you're sitting in front of your camera.
So what I'm talking about here is doing a little bit of
planning upfront and working out what it is that you wanna
cover off in your videos.
Now, for some people that could mean writing
a full-on word for word script, for others
it will mean just listing out a few dot points
or guidelines for what you're gonna cover in your video,
but doing this upfront is gonna make your filming much
faster and much easier
and it's gonna allow you to create a much better video
at the end of the day.
Step number two is select a suitable location for filming.
So here you wanna try and find a place where there is
minimal background noise or distractions for your viewers.
So if your filming spot has a ton of noise
from kids playing outside,
or someone with a leaf blower or a lawn mower going
or planes flying overhead
then it can be really distracting for you creating
the content that can also be really distracting for your
viewers watching your content afterwards.
So you wanna try and find a place where there is as
minimal background noise as possible.
You'll also wanna make sure that the background you have
selected does match the theme, the style,
the overall feeling, vibe of the video
that you're going to create.
So it doesn't make sense to go and film a cooking video
in a gym, the background, the location just doesn't match.
So you wanna make sure that the content you're creating is
a match with the location
that you're going to be filming in.
And I'll also say the most ideal location
will be somewhere where you can just set everything up
and not have to pack it all up afterwards.
So if you are filming in the living room of your house
and you have to set up and pack up everything
every time your family comes home or friends come over,
then that can be a big distraction,
a big procrastination point.
So ideally your ideal location would be somewhere that you
can set everything up, walk in, turn everything on,
and you're good to go.
The next step is to decide whether you're gonna use the
front facing camera, the selfie camera,
or the primary camera,
the main one on the back of your device.
Now there's pros and cons of each.
If you want the highest quality video footage out of your
Android device,
then that's gonna be using the camera on the back.
But that's also gonna be much harder for you to shoot,
especially if you're gonna be filming by yourself
because you won't be able to quickly glance across
at the screen because it's facing back the other way.
Now I'll put a link up in the cards to a video
we did showing you a few different methods where you can
shoot your videos solo using that back primary camera
and still being able to monitor everything.
So I put a link up in the cards
and below in the description for that one.
The other option that you've got is to use the front facing,
the selfie camera on your device.
Now this is typically a lower quality camera,
but in most cases,
a lot of the front facing cameras on the devices these days
are definitely more than high enough quality for you to
create amazing videos.
So the one I'm using right now is the front facing camera on
a Google Pixel 5,
and it looks pretty good.
I like the convenience of being able to quickly glance back
at the screen to make sure that, "Yes, I am recording."
Now if you are gonna be using the front facing camera,
you wanna make sure that you're making eye contact with
the camera lens, not the screen itself.
This is one of the biggest things we see all the time.
There's a disconnect, you're looking at yourself
but you need to be looking at the camera lens
so you're making eye contact with your viewers watching,
so make sure you're looking at the camera lens
and not at yourself.
The next step is to clean your camera lens.
I know it sounds very obvious when you hear it,
but most people don't do it.
These are our phones that are up against our faces,
they could be our fingerprints, dirt, grime, makeup
even on your camera lens
and this will lower the quality of your videos,
it will create a smudgy, smeary looking image,
looks pretty bad.
So all you to do is to clean that camera lens before you
create any videos or even any photos for that matter,
build that habit of just wiping it on your shirt
if that's all you've got.
Ideally you're gonna be using some sort of
microfiber cloth or lens cleaning cloth,
glasses cleaning cloth will also work,
but you wanna make sure that your camera lens is clean
before you take any photos or videos.
The next step is to stabilize
and position your camera for filming.
So unless you're after that blare witch style shaky video
footage look,
you're gonna wanna try and get your phone out of your
hands wherever possible.
Holding your phone outright is the shakiest position,
the worst position for you to be creating your videos in,
even using a selfie stick is gonna be better than
hand holding your phone,
it will help take some of that shake out
if you're gonna be walking around,
but also if you're gonna be walking around,
that's where you could look at some sort
of gimbal stabilizer like an Osmo Mobile
to really help you take that shake out.
But if you're not gonna be moving around and you're gonna
have a static shot, a locked off shot like this,
then all you need to do is position your smartphone with
whatever you've got so that it is just below eye level,
I do mean ever so slightly just below eye level,
whether you're gonna be sitting or standing.
Now, ideally here, if you have a tripod,
that's gonna make it much easier for you.
A great little portable tripod that I like and that I'm
using right now on this setup is the Arkon tripod,
it even comes with a little smartphone holder so that you
can hold your phone in both portrait and in landscape mode.
And these is currently selling for around
the $20 price point, so ridiculously cheap.
And you can also see in this shot that I'm literally just
using a box to get that tripod and specifically the camera
up to the right height, so it is just below eye level.
So for you, if you've got a tripod,
you wanna set that up now to the right height.
If you don't, use whatever you've got to get that phone
out of your hands, to get it stable
and to get it to that right height.
It could be that you're just placing your phone up
on a shelf or on a bookcase or a TV cabinet,
whatever you've got to get it out of your hands
and to get it at the right height.
The next step then is to set up your lighting.
Now the most important piece when you're lighting your shot
is to light the subject of your video,
whoever is in it or the whatever you want your viewers to
focus on, that is the most important piece.
So you wanna light that first and then if you've got any
additional lights, then use those to light the scene
or the background to make that look good too,
but the priority is always whatever the focus
of the video is going to be.
Now, if you don't have access to any lights
then you can just sit in front of a window
and get that nice natural light coming in
through the window,
but really any light that you've got access to can help
improve your shot, it could be a desktop lamp,
it could be a bedside table lamp,
whatever it is that you've got access to, pull it in
to again help light up the subject of your video.
Now a great portable light that I use and that I recommend
is the Yongnuo YN300 Air; crazy name, amazing light.
It is ridiculously cheap
and it throws a really nice soft light.
So in terms of this shot here,
I've got a lot of light coming in front of a big window
that's right in front of me,
but I've also got a lot of light
coming in off the side as well.
So to even up some of that light,
I have got one of those Yongnuo lights behind the camera
here which is lighting up and filling in
some of those darker shadows on this side.
So it's not a totally remove them,
but just to lighten them up a little bit
so the shadows aren't so harsh.
And this is what it looks like with that light off,
so it's not a massive difference
but it definitely adds to the overall shot having it on.
So now that you've got your lighting sorted,
the next step is to connect your microphone,
now audio, I would say is probably more important
than the video, the picture itself.
If you've got amazing audio,
it can be much easier for your viewers to stick around
and watch your video longer than if it was scratchy,
if it was distorted, muffled, or really hard to hear you.
Also if you've captured good audio
and something happened to the video piece
and it wasn't usable,
you could still create a piece of content using
B-roll stock footage, photos, text, graphics,
whatever it is, you're still able to create
a piece of content because you've got decent audio.
If it's the other way around and you've got an amazing
looking shot and you're talking in it
but there's no audio or the audio is not great
then you're not gonna be able to create an effective
piece of content.
So audio really important.
What I would suggest wherever possible is that you are using
an additional microphone and not just relying on the
built-in one inside of our Android devices.
If that's all that you've got, just the built-in one,
still use it, still create videos,
but at some point when you can upgrade,
it is a solid investment
and will be my number one pick for anyone.
If you're gonna buy something to level up your videos,
it's gonna be a microphone.
Now the microphone I'm currently using for this video
is just a $20 wired lapel microphone called the Boya BY-M1,
and actually a lot of the early videos on our
YouTube channel we just filmed with this exact microphone.
So for just $20,
this microphone sounds amazing and will work on both
smartphones and on DSLRs.
Now if your phone doesn't have a headphone jack plug on it
then you will need to use an adapter from USB-C to that
headphone jack plug so that you can plug in
and connect this microphone.
Or as another option,
if you are gonna be moving around a lot with the videos
you're creating, then another great microphone is
the Rode Videomicro, a little mini shotgun microphone
that again you will need an adapter
to use with your smartphone
but it's gonna give you amazing audio without the need to
be tied or tethered or physically connected to your phone
like I am here.
Next up, we're gonna prepare our phone for filming.
So we're gonna make sure that we have enough storage
space available on our device to hold the recording
of our new videos that we're making.
So if your phone is full of photos and videos and stuff,
I would say back those up,
remove them from your phone so that you have room
for the new videos you're going to make.
You'll also wanna check to make sure that you have enough
battery life, you don't want your phone going flat
in the middle of filming.
You'll also wanna make sure that your camera recording
quality settings are correct as well,
and ideally set as high as they can be for your particular
device.
So you wanna open up the Camera app on your device,
then go to the "Camera Settings",
and in there you'll be able to see your
video recording resolution.
So if you've got the ability to do 4K,
I would recommend it.
If you've got the ability to do 1080,
then 1080 is gonna be fine.
And if you've got an older device in the highest quality
setting that you've got access to is 720P,
I wouldn't say that that's a deal breaker, it's not ideal,
but 720P will still be enough to get you good results.
Now there's one more setting that I wanna mention,
which is mainly found on the newer devices,
and that is that they have a setting for HEVC recording,
for high efficiency video codec recording.
Now if you have this on,
it is gonna let you create a smaller video files,
but there is still a lot of video editing apps and programs
that won't be able to read those files.
So if you wanna create a video file that will work in
pretty much any app or any video editing application
then I would recommend that you are disabling
or turning off HEVC recording.
For me, I normally turn it off just so I've got
the ability to use any app
or any program without any issue.
Next up, I would strongly recommend that you are
enabling flight mode
or "Do not disturb" mode or blocking mode on your device
so that you're not being interrupted
while you're recording your videos.
So it could be that you have a phone call coming through,
a video call, lots of emails,
I mean, these are our main communication devices.
So using it as a video camera,
it's likely that you're gonna have distractions
and things come through.
So turning on flight mode or turning on do not disturb mode
can save your sanity and your video files as well.
Next up, you wanna lock down your camera settings
so that nothing is going to change while
you're actually recording your videos.
So by default, our phones are set to auto,
which means that they're gonna automatically make
adjustments as things change in your shot.
So it could be that someone walks through your shot,
your phone might brighten the shot up just to expose for
that person walking through or something happening in
the background might change the overall brightness,
might change the overall focus of your shot as well.
So we wanna lock these down so that you are in control.
You're setting things the way that you want
instead of your phone having that
automatic adjustment capability.
Now for most devices out there really can be as simple
as tapping and holding on your screen
and there'll be a yellow box that appears,
and that yellow box will then pop up and say that
auto exposure and auto focus is locked at that point.
So if you wanna make minor adjustments to brighten
or darken your shot
then you can do that there on the screen,
and when you let go, when you remove your hand,
then it's gonna lock it and hold it at that point,
so it's not gonna change.
So your focus will be locked and your brightness
or your exposure will be locked at that point.
Now if you're gonna be filming by yourself
and you're going to be filming using
the back primary camera on your device,
then you could bring something else into shot to focus
and set the brightness on.
So it could be a light,
it could be a pillow, whatever you've got,
something to set that focus point
and to set the brightness as well.
Then obviously move it back out of shot
to get ready for you to produce that content.
Now there's some devices out there that have a pro mode
or professional mode that will give you much more
granular control over your shot
to be able to really lock everything down,
to be able to adjust things like your shutter speed,
your ISO, your white balance,
and even your microphone volume level as well.
If your phone doesn't have that capability built in,
then there are amazing third-party camera apps
like Filmic Oro, which is our top pick,
which gives you access to all of those DSLR like settings
or professional camera like settings
from your Android device.
And they'll even let you record at higher qualities as well.
So if you want the most amount of control,
and if you want the best footage out of your Android device,
then I would strongly recommend using an app
like Filmic Pro, or another great alternative
that's close to Filmic Oro, but free, is Open Camera.
So one of those two is gonna give you a lot more options
for your video recording.
All right, we're nearly there,
you're nearly at the point
where you're gonna create your video
but there is one really important step
that a lot of people miss
and it creates a lot of headaches
and stress for people when they miss this step,
and that is to record a test video.
So now that you've got everything set up,
you wanna get into position,
you wanna do a test run as if it's the real thing,
you gonna press record,
you wanna create a short little video,
10, 15, 20 seconds,
test your audio,
make sure that your shot looks the way
that you want it to look,
that the lighting is how you want it,
that your focus is set correctly,
and obviously that there is sound and good quality sound
coming through your microphone as well.
As simple as this step sounds, a lot of people miss this
and they'll end up recording a whole video without
their microphone plugged in,
or it could be out of shot
or the brightness could be totally wrong
and they've just wasted an absolute ton of time.
So save yourself some time and some sanity
and do a quick test video
before you create your real actual content.
Now it is important here that obviously
you're playing this back to check that everything
is the way that you want it,
but this will mean, depending on your device
and the microphone that you're using,
you might need to unplug the microphone to be able to hear
and make sure that everything is how you want it.
So the most important thing then is
after you've done that test,
that you plug everything back in,
otherwise that test was pointless and you could end up
creating a video without your microphone plugged in.
And I'm sharing that because
it's happened to me more than once.
So that brings us to the last step
which is to hit that big record button
and record your video.
Now while you are recording,
again remember to keep your eye contact on the camera lens.
Don't look at your cell phone camera
if you're using that front selfie camera,
eyes on your viewers, the camera lens,
and also make sure that you're monitoring
what's going on around you,
just in case there is something distracting happening
in the background
or even monitoring the noise in the area
that you're filming as well.
So if a plane is coming over,
a big truck pulls up outside,
you could just pause and wait for that to move on
or potentially relocate if you have to just so you can keep
creating an amazing video.
Now earlier in this video, I said
I would share with you the downloadable checklist
that you can download print out
and use when you're creating your videos from here on in
so that you're not missing any of these steps.
There is a link to download your free copy
linked onscreen now,
there's also a link in the description,
so grab your copy and I will see you in the next video.