Transcript
BABS Video Competition Tips and Smart Phone Video Basics Here are some quick tips for shooting video with your iPhone. Smart phones can put an HD camcorder in arm's reach at all times, and have become the go-to recording device for many of us. Of course, the quality of phone videos can vary wildly. This is partly because of the quality of the phones - some have better lenses and higher resolutions than others. But it's mostly a sign of the quality (or lack thereof) of the person making the video
1. Get the Wide Shot! Remember this: All phone videos should be horizontal. It's tempting to turn the phone and frame a video shot, but that will be sideways when you watch it on your computer or TV! The shots can be rotated during editing, but then you end up with some serious pillar-boxing.
2. Ensure You Take Lighting into Consideration when Filming Indoors Bright light makes everything look better, including and especially phone videos. Shooting indoors can present some challenges in terms of lighting, with white balance and other issues to contend with. The best quality lighting for phone videos is outdoors but out of direct sunlight. Watch Video: Outdoor Recording Tips
3. Keep the Lens Clear Seems obvious, but be careful to keep your fingers away from the lens on your phone.
4. Keep the Mic Clear In the spirit of the previous tip, figure out where the microphone on your phone is, and keep it uncovered and clear when you're recording video.
5. Keep Your Phone Steady Phones are so light, that it's easy to jiggle them when recording video. For steadier phone videos, you can invest in a little tripod with a phone clip - or make one yourself, either with your elbows resting on something or braced at your sides.
6. Keep the Mic Close Speaking of audio, it's often the worst part of recording video with a phone. Most phones don't have microphone inputs, but you can keep the audio quality up by recording in quiet spaces, and
keeping the phone as close to the subject you're taping as possible. Read more: Audio Recording Tips
7. Upgrade to a Good Phone for Video Most phones can record video - even the phones from the early part of the century. But these older and cheaper phones record videos with a small frame size and low bit rate. If you plan to record a lot of video with your phone, upgrade to one that shoots in HD.
8. Edit Videos on Your Phone If you have a smartphone, you can download apps that let you edit video right on your phone. As an iPhone user, I really like the editing feature included in the free Vimeo app
9. Upload Videos from Your Phone YouTube makes it easy to upload videos directly from your phone with the YouTube app. If you don't have the app or a smart phone to support it, you can still upload videos by emailing them from your phone to a unique address available in the mobile setup section of your YouTube Account Settings. You can select in the privacy settings to make the video ‘unlisted’ (unlisted videos are only accessible to people who know the video link) or ‘private’ (unlisted videos that can only be viewed by viewers that you designate).
