- Can you shoot cinematic videos with your phone?
Honestly, the short answer is a yes,
but if you want to know the long answer,
if you want to know all the tips and tricks,
well, just stick around
because that's what we're covering in today's video.
My name is Chris and I'm here with Invideo
and in today's video,
we're talking all about cinematic phone tips and tricks.
(upbeat music)
So the first tip that you're going to want to use is,
stop using the selfie camera.
If you're vlogging, you're talking into camera,
the front facing camera is actually a worse camera
than the back camera, the rear camera.
So if you're serious about shooting great quality videos,
regardless of whether you're shooting cinematic,
travel videos, dance videos,
music videos, or vlogs into camera,
well, you're going to want to start using this rear camera.
And two, as we're talking about the cameras,
it's also really important as well
that you should use the normal lens, the main camera lens.
So the ultra wide and the portrait mode,
they're both really cool options,
but the problem is,
these aren't quite as sharp
as normal video mode on your phone.
Yes, ultra wide is going to allow you to see more
and yes that telephoto lens
is going to allow you to get closer.
But the problem is the image quality
just isn't at the same level
as the standard lens on your phone.
So if you're really serious about shooting
high quality video,
then make sure you're using the standard lens
on the rear of your camera.
Not the front facing camera,
not the wide angle lens and not the telephoto,
just the standard camera.
And then of course,
if I was doing a how to create cinematic video in general,
then I would tell you on your digital SLR camera
to jump into the manual settings
to control your shutter speed,
your aperture, your white balance, your ISO,
and I'm actually going to take all of that advice
and apply it to this video as well,
because there are so many apps available to us now.
We can actually take full advantage of the camera sensor
and the image processor in our phones
and we can actually use manual mode
rather than settling for the automatic mode built in.
Now there's loads of different apps available to you,
just search for pro camera, professional camera,
manual settings on your camera
into your app store of choice,
and just download one of those apps,
because these are going to allow you
to control your frame rates,
your shutter speed, your aperture,
and all of these different settings
to allow you to shoot really cinematic videos.
You see, the problem is
when you're using your standard video mode in your camera,
the problem is it's always adjusting the settings,
so if you go from a light part to a dark part of the frame,
then the camera will automatically adjust.
And the thing is,
if you're trying to achieve cinematic effects,
then sometimes you don't want it to automatically adjust.
If there's a bright light in the frame
and then the rest of the frame is dark,
then you won't get that same level effect
because your phone will try and boost everything up
to be a nice bright level,
but if you're going for a moody look in your video,
then unfortunately there's no way of controlling that
with the automatic mode.
So that's where you can go into an app
and change the manual settings,
and you can set your shutter speed to one over 50,
you can set your frame rate to 25 frames per second,
you can set your ISO to a number that gives you the exposure
that you're looking for
and then of course you can play with your aperture
and you can have a low aperture
to get a nice blurry background.
Typically, if you're shooting cinematic video,
the look that we're looking for
is this nice bokeh in the background,
so that blurry background.
So if you download a professional video app onto your phone,
and then you set the aperture down to a smaller number,
like F 2.8, F four,
then you're going to get a really nice blurry background,
if you're close to the camera.
The problem is, when you're just in your automatic mode,
you can't control any of that.
You just kind of get what you shoots
and it's great that you can just very quickly
and easily just set this up and you can start rolling,
but you're just not going to get that professional look
from the automatic standard camera mode
than you would do versus the manual mode.
So download a professional manual mode,
camera app for your phone,
take control of all of those settings
and treat your phone more like a digital SLR camera,
rather than just a point and shoot camera.
For tip number three, we're talking about stabilization.
Because nobody likes shaky handheld footage,
you can kind of get away with it
when you have a larger camera,
but the problem is when you're trying to handhold a phone,
you're going to see every single shake and vibration
from your hand.
So if you're just holding your phone up like this,
then unfortunately, all of that shake in your hands
is going to be converted into your footage
and you're just going to end up with shaky bumpy footage
that doesn't look professional.
So there's a few different ways that we can fight this.
The first option is to get a tripod,
a mountainous so that is static.
So you could get a phone tripod,
get some sorts of clumps to mountain that's
and then when you're talking into the camera,
you've just got a really nice static shots
and it's not distracting.
Alternatively though, if you wanted to move,
then you could actually get a gimbal for your phone.
So the DJI Osmo is a great example of this,
where you just clip your phone into this gimbal,
and then you can run around
and get really nice seamless gimbal shots
and that's going to give your videos
a really nice professional look.
Now, next up is lighting
and it doesn't matter if you're shooting
on a 50,000 pound red camera or an iPhone,
lighting is the make or break.
If you have bad lighting,
regardless of what camera you're using,
you'll have bad looking video.
And of course, if you have great lighting,
then again, you'll have great video
regardless of what you're shooting on.
So, if you're shooting inside,
then I would seriously recommend getting some lights
and using these in the room that you're filming in.
In this room for example,
I've got a large soft box right in front of me,
and then I've got these four strip lights behind me,
which are adding a nice backlight onto myself.
Now, of course, this is a slightly different setup,
I would generally recommend the three point lighting setup.
So in a three-point lighting setup, you have three lights,
you have two in front of the subject and one behind.
So your main light is your key lights
and this is going to throw the most amount of light
onto your subject.
Then you've got to fill lights,
which is on the opposite side
and that's just going to fill in any shadows
that the key light might put onto your face.
And then of course, you've got a backlight
where'd you just go into catch the back of your hair
and just make you pop from the background.
Of course, though this is just a really standard
and really basic lighting setup,
you can get really creative with lighting,
just make sure you're giving your camera sensor
enough light so that you don't have, noisy grainy footage.
And then of course, if you're outside,
then there is no bigger light source than the sun.
So, try and avoid filming at nighttime
and if you do happen to film at night,
then try and use some lighting.
But if you can try and film during the day.
Now filming during the day does come with some challenges,
because if you have the sun glaring
into your subject's face,
it's going to be distracting
because they're going to be squinting,
there's going to be harsh shadows.
So try to put the sun behind them
and then if you can't try and grab some diffusion
or a reflector, so that you can bounce lights
or soften the lights on the subject.
You can get five in one reflector and bounce
and diffusion kits from Amazon for around $30.
Next up we're talking about audio,
it doesn't matter if you have the best looking video,
you could have Hollywood or Bollywood level video
and unfortunately if your audio quality isn't there,
then it's just going to look amateur.
So make sure you put the time and the effort into capturing
great quality audio,
because that will make your video look more professional.
And generally, if you're shooting
a piece to camera, you're inside,
there's a few different options that you can use.
You could use a vocal mic like this,
which you can get really close to
and you can get really nice sound.
This is quite an expensive setup though,
so, I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner.
If you're a beginner,
I would recommend maybe a Rode video Mic pro
or a Rode NTG two
and then you just basically want to try and get that
as close to the person talking as possible.
You could even use the voice recording app
on your phone for example,
as long as it's close to the person talking,
then you're going to capture great quality audio.
So you could have the best microphone in the world,
but if it was placed 20 meters away
from the subject talking, the audio will be terrible.
But if you took that same microphone
and took it very post to the person talking,
then it will sound great.
I'll give you a quick example.
So this microphone sounds really good up close,
but unfortunately the audio just doesn't sound the same,
it's not the same quality.
So get yourself a separate microphone,
you could go for a higher end option like a Rode NTG two,
you could go for a Rode video Mic pro
or alternatively, you can just get a shotgun microphone
that goes onto your phone.
Just make sure that you're filming very close to the person
that is talking on camera.
So if you do have a shotgun microphone on the phone
mounted into the phone,
then make sure you're not getting wide shots,
make sure you're always talking close to the camera.
That's how you're going to get the best possible audio.
And then of course,
if you're moving around or if you're outside
and you just need a little bit more freedom
than a wireless, lovely a microphone
is always the best route to go.
So a wireless lovely microphone is a wearable microphone
that you can either clip onto your shirts
or mounts underneath your shirts
and these are really great
because they're giving your talent,
the flexibility to move around.
They don't have to be close to the microphone
because they're wearing the microphone.
Now, of course, like all equipment,
you can spend loads getting an amazing, lovely microphone,
but you could actually get away with maybe 50 pounds
towards a basic plugin option.
Now, when you're filming your videos,
it's always really important as well
that you have a variation of shots.
There's no point just having the same shot
over and over and over again
because you're not adding anything new.
So if you're filming some action,
then you want to try and get
at least three variations of the shot.
So this is the same for if you're shooting a music video
or an action scene or a dance video,
it doesn't matter what it is, you need variations.
So typically I like to get an establishing or a wide shots,
which is a shot where I'm all the way back
and I can see everything within the frame
so I can see the location, I can see the people in the scene
and I can see everything happening around them.
Then I would also like to get the same take
on a medium shot.
So this is knees to waist up to around the head,
so we're a lot closer now
and we're starting to see more of the action.
And then I would also love to get a close-up
and a closer piece somewhere,
somewhere around here chest up
and closeups of really awesome as well,
because you're allowing your viewer
to connect with the person on screen.
Because the audience is going to see everything
they can really connect,
they can look into the person's eyes
and they can make a connection
with the person on screen.
Of course, the beauty
as well with having all of these options
is we've got a variety of shots
and therefore we have variations,
so we're giving the audience something new all the time.
It's not just a mid shot after a mid shot, after a mid shot,
we're playing with different focal lengths,
we've got a wide shot, a mid shots, a closeup,
and you can also experiment with a few other shots as well.
It's also really important as well,
to look at your project
and look at what you're specifically making
and figure out what is going to help to tell the story.
Maybe you need a really creative points of view shots,
where the camera
looks like it's mounted to the person's head,
or maybe you need an over the shoulder shot
where you're looking
through somebody's shoulder at somebody.
Maybe you need something a little bit more creative.
Maybe you need a one shot where the camera never cuts
and the camera's just always moving around the scene.
Look at your story,
look at your shots and figure out
what type of camera movements
and what type of camera framing
is going to help to tell your story.
And then of course, if you want to get really flashy,
then we can talk about
some creative in camera, video transitions.
Now there's loads of different transitions available to you,
but I'm going to give you my top three video transitions.
Now, the first transition is a wet pan
and essentially a wet pan
is just a whipping movement in one direction.
So at the end of your first shot,
you just want to pick a direction,
so right or left up or down,
and then you're filming and then whip and then we cut
and then we go to a different location, a different scene,
we start framed away
and then we do the action into the scene.
Now it's really important
that if you whip to the right at the end of the first shot,
you're continuing that movement into the second shot.
So essentially all you have to do to cut these together
is just cut the end of the first clip,
cut the start of the second clip,
and then just bring these together Invideo.
And then my second transition is a rotation transition
and this works exactly like a wet pan,
but rather than whipping, we're going to rotate.
So at the end of the first shot,
we'll just rotate upside down
and then at the start of the second shot,
will start upside down
and then whip back up into the frame and go into the action.
Again, that's a similar process for editing,
you just take the end of that first shot off,
take the start of the second shot off,
find the point where there's the most motion blur
in the frame and then put these two together in Invideo
and you've got a great transition.
And then transition number three
is a slide past the foreground.
So, this one sounds a little bit more complicated,
but it actually really simple.
So, at the end of your first shot,
you just want to slide pass something in the foreground.
So if there's something happening in front of you,
you want to find an object close to your camera,
and then you just want to slide past it
and completely cover the lens at the end of that first shot.
Now, at the start of the second shot,
you want to start behind a different object
and then you'll pull out carrying that same direction across
into your second shot.
And then again, in Invideo,
you just have to trim the end of the first shots,
the start of the second shot, put these two together,
and you've got a really cool transition.
Now this one, this slide is really important
that you get very close to the object in the foreground,
and it's also worth doing this at quite a decent pace.
If you're too slow, this transition won't work.
Make sure you've got a decent pace when you're transitioning
out of your first shot and into your second shot.
And there you go,
those are my top tips
for how you can create cinematic videos on your phone.
If you follow all of these tips, I promise you,
your videos are going to look 10 times better.
So what are these tips helpful and if so,
which tip or which tips were your favorites,
let us know in the comment section below.
And of course, please do check out the next video
where I talk all about how you can create a cinematic video
by choosing the perfect music track
and by cutting to the beat.
So thank you for watching.
This is Chris with In video
and I will see you in the next video.
See you there.