Have you ever tried filming yourself using the high-quality camera on the
back of your iPhone? It can be a nightmare because you can't see yourself
on that iPhone's display. One approach would be to adopt the trial and error
method. You would mount your iPhone on a mini or full-size tripod and make an
educated guess for the correct height and angle of your iPhone. Set the Filmic Pro
camera app recording, take up your presenting position for a few seconds,
then go back and check the clip you just shot. If the framing wasn't right, adjust
the iPhone height or angle the camera slightly, hit record and stand in the
same spot as before.
Now repeat.
And repeat.
Until the framing is right although this method does work it's not
very time efficient and can be really frustrating. We want an easier and
quicker method.
One option is to shoot 4k Ultra HD footage but intend to edit and
export as HD 1080p footage.
If you have a more recent iPhone you should have the
ability to shoot 4k Ultra HD footage.
That's twice the resolution you really
need for your final online HD video.
So there's plenty of scope to reframe the
footage by scaling and cropping without losing HD quality.
One of my other
courses talked about installing reflector 2 on your PC or Mac and
enabling AirPlay Mirroring on your iOS device.
You can then share your iPhone's display on your PC or laptop monitor
which allows you to frame
yourself properly by positioning yourself correctly in front of the lens.
That's ok if you're shooting indoors with a good Wi-Fi connection but if you
want to be a bit more mobile and shoot outdoors or where you don't have a Wi-Fi
connection you need an alternative. One possibility is to use the filmic pro
camera kit, a two app bundle costing about $19. The kit includes the filmic pro
camera app and filmic remote.
Install filmic pro on the iPhone you're going to
be filming with and install filmic remote on an iPad, 2nd iPhone or iPod
Touch. Although you can connect your 2 iOS devices over Wi-Fi you can also
connect peer-to-peer using Bluetooth. So you can shoot outdoors, controlling
filmic pro remotely.
Filming remote displays what your iPhone is seeing and
allows you to control focus, exposure, white balance, zoom, and record operations.
If you have multiple iOS recording devices you can create a Multicam setup
and control each device from the one copy of filmic remote.
With filmic Pro on your iPhone and filmic remote on another iOS device
enable remote in your filmic Pro device settings. Tap on the Settings gear wheel
in the bottom right corner of the screen. Go to DEVICE and where it says enable
remote slide the button to the right. Now open the remote app on your other iOS
device. From within the remote app tap the plus button in the bottom left of
the screen to search for the iPhone running filmic pro. When you see your
iPhones name tap to connect. Your iPhone will ask for permission to pair the two
devices. Select the length of time you're willing to give permission for. If filmic
remote keeps searching without finding your iPhone go into your filmic pro
settings on your iPhone, disable and then re-enable remote. Filmic pro on your iPad
or other iOS device should see your iPhone almost straight away and you can
connect. With the app set up, mount your iPhone on a tripod and get it roughly at
the right height and angle. You can now use your iOS device as a monitor to help
frame yourself correctly. In order to frame yourself according to the rule of
thirds tap the ">" symbol at the top
left-hand corner then tap the rule of thirds guide icon. Use those third lines
and their intersections to compose your shot. If you're unsure place yourself in
the center with your eyes or the middle of your head on or close to the top
third line. Now drag the square focus reticle over your face to focus there.
Then tap so that the reticle turns red showing that the focus has now locked.
You can now drag the round exposure reticule around until the exposure is as
you want it, and again tap to lock the exposure. The circle will then turn red.
When you're ready to start recording, tap the record button and it will become a
larger solid circle and the time counter will start advancing. Once you're done
tap the record button again to stop. Don't worry if the footage looks choppy
on your iPad or whatever you're running remote on, filmic Pro will record the
footage correctly. Incidentally, if you have Bluetooth earbuds you should be
able to monitor your sound whilst you're recording. Although I found it to have a
slight delay and that probably will be distracting if you're listening to
yourself whilst recording. Working with the two apps will take a little practice,
so I urge you to spend about half an hour or so trying out the filmic pro
camera kit. With just a little practice you will become more proficient at using
the two apps together, and that way you'll make more videos and more content.