How To Shoot A Film With Just An iPhone

In this article, we will tell you how not to become a slave to a professional camera, but to delve into filmmaking using an Apple iPhone.

The best possible harmony – that’s why it makes sense to shoot movies on an iPhone. Many film critics believe that Apple’s film is a “live movie”.

For the director, this means that you can shoot as you want and where you want: actors and ordinary people don’t react to a smartphone, it is perceived as something natural.

Thanks to this, even the most touching and intimate scenes look organic.

In this blog post, we will tell you how not to become a slave to a professional camera, but to focus on history and delve into filmmaking using an Apple iPhone.

Why Is The iPhone Good For Shooting Movies?

There are many practical reasons why iPhones are good for shooting movies:

• The smartphone’s size prevents it from interfering with other people. Passers-by often feel embarrassed when they see huge shooting gear and a professional camera. In this regard, the iPhone offers more versatility. You can take the iPhone out of your pocket and start shooting at any time, and you can sometimes do this even in places where it is prohibited.

• A smartphone ready to shoot is always at hand. You don’t need to prepare for a long time, adjust the equipment to capture a unique moment.

• You are the director, cameraman, and screenwriter. You don’t need to assemble and pay for a large team. You also don’t need to hold hours of meetings to get your message across. Have a cool idea popped up in your mind? You can go and create right away.

• Remote start is another super feature useful in cinematography. iPhone works well with Apple Watch even at the highest point – on a high tripod or a lighting windup. The watch works well on 5-7 meters, and a mini-playback appears on the hands, as the watch shows everything that the iPhone shoots. The smartphone acts like a magic wand when you build the stage around a corner or in a cramped room where installing a playback is not possible.

• But the main advantage is that it is easy to take shots from a smartphone from unexpected angles and hard-to-reach points. If you’re shooting near a cliff, for example, it won’t be very convenient to hold a large camera. It’s easier to shoot on an iPhone even with one hand.

What Do You Need To shoot?

You can shoot with one smartphone only, but if you want a more professional result, then you definitely cannot do without auxiliary devices.

1. External chargers – Agree, it will be a shame if the iPhone runs out of power at the most inopportune moment when you catch a good shot or light.
2. Lens – From a wide-angle lens to a macro lens, CPL, and even a kaleidoscope lens, everything comes in handy. Let’s face it, the iPhone has a great camera. However, you should be well-prepared when it comes to professional shooting.
3. Microphones – In addition to a high-quality picture, there should be clear sound. Unfortunately, the smartphone microphone is still far from ideal, so an additional microphone will come in handy. Otherwise, you will have to overlay voice-over in post-processing. So anyway, audio recording tips will work in your favor.
4. Stabilizers. The latest iPhones have optical stabilization, but sometimes it doesn’t help either. Then various Steadicams and tripods come into play.

Get Down To iPhone Filmmaking Or How To Shoot A Film With iPhone?

Mobile cinema is a new language in art, but even it has its own rules. Not every scenario is suitable for a mobile phone.

It can be a first-person movie or mockumentary. If you decide to use an “objective camera”, you should approach it very strongly, literally dig into the soul of a person.

You need an iPhone to make a very personal movie.

Don’t shoot everything on your iPhone just because it’s cheaper. The iPhone camera’s high depth of field puts all objects in focus in the middle shots, causing a loss of artistry.

Think about the depth of the frame and set up mise-en-scenes with different shots, use bold angles, and play with natural light. The main snag is when your camera suddenly rings.

So the first rule in shooting mobile movies is to turn on airplane mode. Don’t forget about distance. Always capture the frame so that unnecessary elements don’t fall into it.

Cutting objects from a video is much more difficult than from a photo, so move closer or farther, depending on the subject. One of the most important tips for filmmakers: ALWAYS hold the iPhone horizontally when recording video.

And The Most Fun Part: Video Processing And Movie Assembly

Once you finish shooting, you should bring everything together with post-processing. A few video editing software that you can use to edit your iPhone film are:

• OpenShot – This is a free open-source video editor that is a great combination of functionality and simplicity. With its help, even an inexperienced user will be able to edit the iPhone video sequence, insert effects and transitions, and overlay subtitles. Despite the non-commercial nature of the software, the program’s capabilities are impressive.
• Adobe Premiere – Premiere is considered the industry standard. Here you can create projects of any complexity. And thanks to its popularity, the web is full of courses and other tutorials about the tool. This is very helpful for novice users.
• Lightworks – Lightworks is inferior in functionality to Adobe Premiere, but it has long earned a good reputation among professionals, as evidenced by the huge list of films that have been edited using Lightworks. Among the projects that were created in this video editor, we can name Shutter Island, The Departed, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Pulp Fiction, and many others.

And don’t forget the native iMovie editor – it’s a simple yet powerful cinematic video editing app designed specifically for iPhone addicts. You don’t need any directing courses or special skills to master it.

Just learn some video editing secrets and go create some great movies!

The Bottom Line

Now, videos shot with a smartphone are used for mobile reports, music videos, and short films. Mobile cinema is available to everyone. After all, everyone has a smartphone.

All you have to do is launch the camera app and start recording video. So far, the big industry is pretty skeptical about mobile filmmaking. Cameramen and directors are not yet mentally ready to abandon the classical technique.

Gradually, the movement of mobile movies will gain momentum and in a couple of years will become the new norm.