How to Make A Cool Movie With Your iPhone

Lights, Camera, Action

With the advancement of the cameras on your iPhone, shooting a Hollywood caliber movie is possible if you use a few simple techniques.

Shoot Your Movie Horizontal

All of the social media like YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo display videos in widescreen format, so make sure you are shooting your movie widescreen as well.  All you have to do is rotate your phone to the horizontal position to ensure your video plays correctly and will not look like you are an amateur.   Taking this one small step will put your videos in a higher class from other home videos.

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Prevent Shaking

In order to prevent shaking from appearing in your video and making everyone nauseas while watching your video, you should spend a little money and purchase a  tripod or, even better, a camera-stabilizing gimbal.

If your video shakes it will not look very good and you will not be able to edit that type of stuff out.   If you are going for the Blair Witch Project look then you may want the camera shakes, but most times people are not going for that type of look in their film.

Be Aware of Natural and Artificial Light

Always arrange your shot so that you are recording your video with the sun at your back.  This allows you to keep your subject fully lit.  Most video-capture apps let you toggle the exposure levels and as you gain more experience you will understand better how to work these different features.   When you are filming indoors, you can simply arrange standing lamps to create a three-point light setup—move the lamps around until you eliminate harsh shadows.  This will take some experience and practice, but once you master this lighting technique your videos will look so much better.

Editing Your Movie

Everyone has their own way of doing things.  You may be the type of person that prefers to record your video and then upload the footage to your computer for editing.  You can use Filmic Pro to do this, or any other app of your choice.   Maybe this is not your style and you prefer to edit directly on your phone.  You can use iMovie for this type of on-phone editing.

 

Aerial Shots

If you are looking for an aerial shot you can get some really great shots by taking advantage of using a drone.   Having a drone as your eye in the sky can make for some great dramatic video that will make any movie pop.  Drone shots are great for shooting both the beginning and ending of any movie.   Mix In the right soundtrack and your movie will pop like no other just simply by having the effects of the aerial views captured by the drone.

 

If you are lucky, you will already have a drone of your own, and be experienced in flying it as well as shooting some great footage.   If you are not this lucky, then you can simply find a local drone operator that you can hire to capture your shots.

 

I hope all of these tips have been helpful to you.  Feel free to contact me and I would love to post and showcase any of your homemade videos.   As long as they bring joy and happiness to the world we would love to showcase your work.

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