Cinematic Filming on the iPhone

1. Introduction: Do you love watching beautifully filmed videos and wonder how you can improve your own shooting? Maybe you're an aspiring filmmaker, but you don't have much experience or gear. If you have an iPhone, enthusiasm to learn and a creative eye, you're in luck. That's all you need to take this class. I'll show you how to plan your shots with an end goal in mind. I'll teach you to slow down and see the world from a different perspective. Or video clips will go from amateur to professional with just a bit of know how and practice. And even better, I have a follow up class which teaches you how to edit those cinematic clips in eye Movie. Hi. My name is Beth. I'm a creative professional. I worked for 20 years as a videographer and a graphic designer, and now I'm exploring the world and sharing my knowledge to bring some beauty and global understanding to our collective lives. I invite you to come along with me and discover techniques which will immediately elevate the quality of your video footage. Join me. 2. Your Project: What you'll learn in this class. You'll learn to plan your video using an outline and shot list. You'll learn some filmmaking terms. You'll learn camera movement terminology, and most importantly the techniques to execute them. You'll learn the best camera settings to use and the best ways to film a clip. Your project will be planning a short video and filming five to ten clips for it. I offer a follow up class on how to edit these clips into a polished video. The deliverables will be five of your best clips and a completed outline or shot list. 3. Timing is everything: Of course, time of year is a tricky one. If you have a project to produce, it's not always convenient to wait an entire season before shooting. But if you have a choice, choose late spring, summer, or early fall. If possible, shoot during magic hour, also called golden hour, which is 1 hour after sunrise or 1 hour before sunset. During this period, the sun produces a beautiful golden light and the shadows are low. When the sun is directly overhead, the sun produces harsh shadows on faces and objects. If you have no choice, try to move into the shade where the light is evenly distributed and less contrasty. If you must shoot in full sun with harsh shadows, block the sun with a white sheet to diffuse the light. There are a few apps which can tell you when magic hour occurs near you. I use helios, which is super easy to use, and even has an augmented reality lens which displays the sun's path across the sky. You may have heard that a bright, cloudy day is good for photography. This is because the clouds act as a giant diffuser and reduce harsh shadows. If you shoot on a day like this, try to crop out the sky as it will appear washed out. I recommend scouting your location ahead of time at the preferred time of day, so you can check out where the shadows are falling. You could also walk around the location and plan your scenes out. That way you can hit the ground running on shoot day. 4. Camera Settings: What you'll do is you'll go into your cameras settings, scroll down to the camera app. Then these top three items here are the ones we'll be discussing right now. If you click, record video, I recommend four K at 24 frames per second. Four K is the highest resolution. You can record. 24 frames per second is cinematic look. Frames per second gives it that overly realistic soap opera look, which you want to avoid. Now, clicking on record slow mo, I recommend 120 frames per second. You can go up to 240, which is good, but it takes up a lot of space. Now let's check out cinematic mode. Cinematic uses AI to blur objects and backgrounds. Four k is hires and 24 frames per second again is what I recommend. Now if we take a look at the native camera app, that's what we'll be using. Here's the interface. In the upper left, you'll see where you can tap through to change the frame rate, and just below that is somewhere you can tap through to change the resolution. In the lower left is something called action mode, which helps when you are following a lot of action. On the right hand side here, you'll see the different lenses. This is the wide angle fish eye lens. This is the normal lens, this is two times Zoom, and that's five times Zoom. Let's back out again here. If you tap on different objects on the screen, you'll see that the focus changes, which is really handy. Now if you tap and slide up and down, you can change the exposure. Tap off to reset. Now on the right hand side, there's where you can change to cinematic mode. You'll see how much blurry it is. Again, you can tap different objects to change the focus. Here's where you can click slow mow. The settings are in the upper left hand corner like we discussed before, and Tm lapse is a way of accelerating motion such as clouds moving through the sky. You should always use a tripod for the setting. 5. Terminology: Before we go any further, let's become familiar with a few filmmaking terms that will be used in this class. Frame. The container within which the visible elements appear. For example, here, the dog is in the frame. Framing, the deliberate position of the camera and the elements within the frame. For example, here, the dog is in the center of the frame, clip or shot, a single piece of video footage. B roll, a clip which illustrates something that the voiceover or interview is explaining. For example, if the voiceover is discussing the duties of a dog sitter, the B roll clips could include feeding the dog and walking the dog. Scene, a single clip or series of clips telling part of a story in a specific time and location, angle, the position of the camera in relation to people and objects. For example, here, I'm shooting at a low angle following the dog. Establishing shot, a wide shot which establishes the location of the scene. In filmmaking, it's often used when changing scenes to help the audience understand that we've moved location. Medium shot. The camera is positioned to show a subject from around the waist. This is a human scaled shot and one that's used most often by amateurs. Be mindful, you don't overuse it. There are lots of different shot sizes you can use to tell your story. Close up shot. The camera is positioned at close range to the subject. These shots show detail you want the viewer to pay attention to. It's often used in film to convey emotion in a subject's face. Depth of field. How much of the frame is in focus? A shallow depth of field means that a solitary object or person will be in focus while the rest of the frame is blurry. 6. Composition and Framing: Let's learn about placing objects within the frame for maximum visual impact. The concepts I'll be discussing are essentially the same as in photography. If you have knowledge in this area, you can put it to use in your video work. Shooting orientation. First of all, I recommend filming with the phone in landscape mode. That is the default for YouTube and display screens like TVs and computers. If you're filming for TikTok or YouTube shorts, then by all means shoot vertically. Just be aware you cannot easily adapt the same footage for both platforms after you've shot it. Layering. Think about the image as being composed of layers on different planes. There are foreground elements, such as leaves on a tree, mid range elements, such as a person, and background elements such as the landscape. If you introduce all three layers, then include movement, your image really pops in three dimensions. You can tap on the screen to focus on whichever layer you choose before hitting record. You may have heard of the rule of thirds. Imagine your frame is dissected into a grid with nine rectangles. You want to place objects along the four intersection points. This is the most pleasing to the human eye. To help you with this, you can turn on the grid in your camera settings. Centering. Once you get comfortable with the rule of thirds, then you can break that rule and center your shot. This framing is most effective when you're shooting geometric architecture or repetitive objects, such as a pathway with a row of trees on either side. Shoot through leaves and around objects while facing into the sun for dramatic effect. I use this technique often and it sure adds that extra wow factor. You may need to manually change the exposure to get the full effect. Don't be afraid to crouch low or climb high for that unique angle. Look at every scene with fresh eyes and see if you can do something different. Wide angle lens. If you have an iPhone with a fish eye, also known as a wide angle lens, and it's indicated with the 0.5 button. Experiment with it. If you don't have one, you can use a clip on lens to achieve the same effect. It really makes a difference when filming in tight spaces and city scapes. Get cozy. Don't be afraid to get close to an object or use your telephoto lens to capture something small like a B on a flower. Make sure you hold extra still when using a telephoto though as any movement is exaggerated. 7. Camera Movement: A video clip without movement is just a photo. Try to keep this in mind when you're shooting. Now, this doesn't mean that every clip needs to look like an action movie. In fact, that's probably not a great idea. So just try to think about what kind of subtle movement you can introduce to each clip. But bring some variety as well. Some can have more action. Some can have more subtle movement. Max it up. I'll be demonstrating how to do these shots without a tripod using just your body. If you do have a tripod, that will make life easier, but it's not a deal breaker. So a static shot is actually not a movement at all because the camera doesn't move. It's on a tripod. The action happens within the frame. So for example, a dog walker will walk through the frame from left to right or right to left. If you have a tripod, simply set it up and hit record. If you do not have a tripod, plant your feet like this, lock your elbows to your side. Take a deep breath, exhale, and just try to hold still. Sometimes I even hold my breath. You could also, like, if there's a tree here, you could lean against the tree, or you can sit on a chair or a bench. Think of the pano setting in your phone. It's actually short for panorama. Meaning it's a sweeping wide shot from one side to the other, but it's from a fixed position. If you have a tripod, you can just unlock the horizontal axis and very, very smoothly and carefully turn it from left to right. If you do not have a tripod, this is what you do. Plant your feet shoulder width the part. This is the important thing. If this is the end of your shot, position your body to the end of the shot, okay? And then what you're going to want to do is start from the beginning. Exhale. Hit record. Slowly move your body, keep in the camera still like this. And you'll see when you end up here, you're much more stable than if your feet were positioned here. You can see how my body is all wonky this way. Start here and then go like this. A slide or a truck is the movement going from one side to the other in a straight line on a flat plane. It's slightly different from the pano, which is from a fixed position and rotates this way. So it's more of a circular motion. This is a straight line, okay? And you can't use a tripod for this. So what you want to do is put your feet slightly wider than shoulder with the part. You got to use your quads for this. So what you want to do is do this. And rock from one side to the other. So exhale, hit record, and then you're just going to slide, keeping the camera on a flat plane. Another way to achieve this shot is to actually move your feet and walk beside either a person or a dog or a moving target. What you'll do is I recommend putting this in action mode, even though please be aware the resolution is lowered a little bit. If you're shooting a four K, it's going to be lowered to 2.8. What you'll do is you'll bend your legs a little bit, and you'll put it in action mode, and then you're going to just walk like this sideways. Okay? A tilt is a simple movement from either down, straight up, or up and straight down. It's best to use a tripod. What you'll do is loosen the up down axis, the vertical axis, and then very, very carefully tilt the camera up or down. If you do not have a tripod with you, what you'll do is you'll plant your feet about shoulder with the part, lock your elbows to your side, exhale. And then what you're going to be doing is rotating from your hips, okay? No, don't use your arms. That's too wobbly. So you're going to use your body to stabilize the shot. Okay. So you exhale, hit record, and then very slowly tilt up, and you can bend your legs while you're doing it. A push in is a movement, bringing the camera closer to the action. This is not a Zoom. You're actually moving the camera physically. It's more effective if you have some remember we talked about layering before. So if you can push through layers, it really adds a lot of dimension to your shot. Can't use a tripod for this one. So what you'll do is you'll place 1 ft about a meter ahead of the other. You're going to bend your legs, go to get some quad work out here. So what you're going to want to do it record, exhale, and then rock from your back foot to your front foot at the same time as you slowly extend your arms. A pull out is the opposite of a push in. So you're just going to reverse what we just did. I often actually will, if I'm shooting some B roll, I'll do a push in and a pull out at the same time, and then in the editing process, decide which one I like better. So what we're doing here. So we're going to do the push in and then the pull out. Tracking shot. The camera will move following an object or a person. You'll either walk behind them, or you can walk in front of them, turn around, and then walk backwards while you're filming them. It's a little tricky, and it's really important not to trip over anything, so your model needs to warn you if you're about to bite it. I've done it before. It's not fun. So, what you'll do is you're going to bend your legs quite a bit and just think about groucho marks. Walk walk like groucho marks. So you're going to bend your legs quite a bit, okay? You're going to lock your elbows to your side, hold to phone about chin height. And then the way you move, you have to try to move your hips, try to stay as stable as possible. And here's backwards. I know it's really embarrassing, but you just got to get over it. And orbit is kind of a fun shot to do. Try this once you're a little bit more comfortable bending your legs and keeping your phone stable because it's quite a hard movement to do. So basically, what you're going to want to do is you pick an object, and you're going to just rotate around it. So you're going to bend your legs, and what you're going to do. Let's just use this plant for an example. So I'm going to bend my legs quite a bit. And I'm going to hit record. And I'm going to just maybe cross my legs like this. You might want to turn on action mode for this, and it might take a few tries before you get used to it. It's hard, but it's fine. A time lapse shot is a way of compressing movement over many minutes or many hours into just a few seconds. You've seen try lapses probably of clouds going overhead or of people walking through a city skate. You'll definitely need a tripod for this one. And there is a time lapse setting on your phone. Just give it a try. Have some fun. Once you become more comfortable with all of these individual movements, you could try combining them. For example, if you combine a tracking shot with a tilt, you can have a beautiful reveal. So let's say you're walking through a Hill town in Tuscany. You're following a person, and then there's this open piazza. And so what you're going to want to do is just go up. Wide angle lens might be good for this. So you're going to track track track, and then go up to reveal a wide vista. Rock focus is a professional technique where one object is in focus, and then it switches to the other object. Usually a shallow depth of field. Hollywood uses this quite a bit during dialogue. So when one person speaking, they'll be in focus, and then the next person. Keep an eye out for that. How to achieve this, it's best to put your camera on a tripod or make sure it's on a stable surface. Try sintomatic mode for this, and then you can just on each object to change the focus. 8. Outline and Shot List: I'm sure you're eager to pick up that phone and hit the record button, but we just have one more thing to do. We need to do some planning first. Planning your video structure will give your project direction and save you time. You will be more efficient and capture every shot you need because you considered all the elements ahead of time. Sometimes incorrectly referred to as a storyboard, and outline is a planning document for your video. It describes the opening, middle, and closing scenes, what the actors or models are doing, and any dialogue or voiceover. These are commonly inserted into a table for organization purposes. The outline can include audience, goals, and key messages, if you feel this is necessary. Some things to consider. Who is the audience? What do you want them to think after watching your video? Do you want them to take an action? Do you need models? What time of year is it? What's the weather like? What locations will you fill in? What length should the video be? A shot list accompanies the outline. While the outline serves to give a chronological overview of the structure and scenes for the video, the shot list is simply a list of the clips you need to record. Referring back and forth between the outline and the shot list, you can populate the shot list by considering what clips would best illustrate the story, voiceover, or dialogue. For example, if you're creating a video to show off your city, imagine all the locations you'd like to feature. Then think about what would bring them to life. Clips should be a minimum of 10 seconds long, and I would suggest a maximum of 30 seconds, unless something amazing is going on that you simply must capture. Video footage takes up a lot of storage space, so you don't want the clips overly long. Here I'm including a sample shotlist and template so you can see how to make your own. Yours won't look exactly the same, but it's a good place to start. Print it out and bring it with you on the shoot day. Bring a pen, so you can cross off each clip after it's filmed or used to make notes. Keep in mind that you do not need to shoot the clips in chronological order as they will be edited later in whatever sequence you want. 9. Shoot Day: I'll show you my shoot day so you can follow along and get some ideas. I'll walk you through all my shots and then we can watch the finished edit. I've split the filming and editing into two separate classes. Once you've filmed your clips, join me in learning how to edit using Movie on your laptop. My project features a morning in the life of a pet sitter. I'm currently in Europe looking after a sweet old dog named Sina, and I wanted to share what our morning walk looks like. Okay, Today's the day, it's Shot. Let's make sure we have everything lined up first. We want everything to run smoothly so you can let your creativity flow. Let's review. You've checked the weather forecast. You know where the sun is going to be. Hopefully, you've scouted the location on a previous day. You've got ample room on your phone. You've either backed up to the cloud or bought more cloud space, and the battery is charged. Here's some things to bring. Your phone, of course. Your outline shot list, a pen, so you can make notes and cross things off. This is the tripod I use. It's the L ansi brand. It has a ball head, and the legs double as a selfie stick grip. Don't skimp on stuff like this. It's totally worth spending some money. Here's some snacks and some water. This is a rechargeable battery pack. Are you ready to follow along with me? I'll be putting the shot details in the upper left here. This is a truck shot. I'll be editing the color later because it's clearly not morning. This shot is clearly staged. I propped the phone against the bedside lamp. Just keep in mind, a lot of video is staged. Don't be afraid to set shots up. That's the only way you're actually going to capture them properly and with intent. Anyway, this is me pretending to wake up and hitting the alarm. Here I wanted to illustrate the beautiful morning and the sunlight. I stage this again, so I propped this up against the dresser and went over and open the curtains. This is a close up of me grabbing the leash and sunglasses in my bag. I took me a while to set this up. I put it on cinematic mode just so you can see the process here. Here's what it looks like from the camera with the shallow depth of field because of the cinematic mode. This was a not really staged shot because I was having my coffee this morning and the light was absolutely beautiful. I just grabbed my camera and just took the shot. Scena very excited for her walk. I wanted to illustrate loading scena into the car as part of my daily trip. It was a little challenging finding a way to use the tripod and face the camera in a particular way, but I managed to jam the tripod underneath the head rest and gotten okay shot. Here again, I had to jam the tripod underneath the seat rest to film myself driving and it worked great until I turned the corner and you'll see it flipped upside down. This thing happens. If you're using your equipment in unusual ways, you just have to figure stuff out and troubleshoot and then figure out a different way. And a tracking shot here, I'm walking backwards and I have action mode on. Here's my panorama, another establishing shot to say that we've switched scenes, and here's a slow motion of skina walking through the trail. Experiment with 60 frames per second, we'll slow that down later in editing. I took the shot with the selfie stick because my tripod extends into a short selfie stick. I don't like doing this in public because I don't want to look like a selfie stick user, but when I'm in private, I think it has its place. I may or may not use this in the final edit, but I wanted to capture it anyway. This was a happy coincidence. I was out walking actually yesterday. It had rained the night before and there was mist in the air and the sun shining through the mist was really beautiful. I intentionally set kina up in a sunray and made her stand still. It's always good to keep an eye out for really nice lighting and different kind of circumstances. You always have your phone in your pocket, which is really great. You can just capture the moment when it happens. Here I wanted to set up a static shot of M and Skina walking through the frame. I set up the tripod on the ground with a wide angle lens, and I walked past and then I turned around and came back again. Here's a similar shot, but I set it up on the trail, so we're going to be walking around and walking away from the camera rather than left to right, and we walked past and then we turned around and came back again and I'll decide which one I like better in the editing process. Here's just a handheld shot close up of me scooping some dog food. Here's another static shot. I set the tripod up on the ground and framed it from a low angle from skins point of view, and this is her favorite part of the day is getting her breakfast. That's it for my shoot day and just a little secret. I did not shoot all of this footage on the same day. That is totally fine. In fact, it's quite normal. It's normal to shoot things out of sequence. It's normal to shoot things on multiple days. When you ed it, It will look like all the same day as long as it's the same time of day and the same weather, no one will know. And that's the beauty of video is that you can craft your story, and it will be completely believable. So join me in the follow up class, editing an I movie and watch all the magic come together. 10. Morning in the Life Video: Me. Did you know that you can stay in a really nice house overseas for free in exchange for minding someone's pet. Follow me for a morning, while I care for the owner's dog Skina. To find a sit, you can use a site like trusted House sitters, which connects pet owners with sitters just for an annual subscription fee. The Dog's morning walk is at 8:00 A.M. Being not so much a morning person, I get out of bed at 75, get dressed, and off we go immediately. While having access to a car is not the norm pet sitting, I must drive their car since the best trails are too far by foot. The morning walk is around 45 minutes. Skina is pretty energetic for an old gal. She keeps up and listens well. After we get back, Skina gets her breakfast, which I think is her favorite part of the day. After a hard morning's walk, it's time for Skina to have a little nap so I can get on with my day. 11. Congrats: Congratulations. You did it. I hope you learned a lot, and I hope you had fun doing it. Three things I want you to take away from this course. Number one, go easy on yourself. Nobody is born knowing how to do this stuff, which brings me to the second point, which is practice a lot. Make mistakes, take risks, critique your own work, and go easy on yourself. 0.3 is to watch professional films with a critical eye. Now that you know the terminology, you'll see these shots everywhere. You'll see the establishing shot, you'll see the close up, you'll see the medium shot, and you'll have a better understanding why the filmmaker chose to use these shots to tell the story. Since Skillshare doesn't yet support video files, you'll need to upload to YouTube or Video and paste the links into your project. You can splice all of them into one clip if you know how. In the project description, there are instructions on how to set up a YouTube account. Please also complete and upload an outline and or shot list as part of the project. I'm looking forward to seeing your work. Thanks so much for coming along with me and happy shooting. Join me in the follow up class editing and I Movie and watch all the magic happen. No.