The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Smartphone Filmmaking

This guide is intended for people who haven’t done any, or little, smartphone filmmaking. Often, the feeling is – where do I start? Because you feel there’s so much to know, and it’s overwhelming. The mountain just looks too big to climb, so you put it off for another day.

I’ve tried to put enough information here to get you started, without burdening you with too much information and technical jargon (which can sometimes be off-putting for new filmmakers).

Everyday Smartphone Filmmaking Exercises

earn by Doing

Firstly, when you’re shooting on a smartphone, the basic principles of filmmaking apply. Pretty much every film or video camera is essentially doing the same job. So if you want to learn how to make films, I say go ahead – take the camera you have access to and learn by doing.

You will learn a lot from shooting and editing. Those 2 activities are at the centre of what you produce as a filmmaker. And there are tons of books, websites and tutorials on the web which will cover more knowledge than you will ever be able to fit inside your head.

Secondly, there really are no rules. Filmmaking is an art and you will discover your own voice, and your own method, by making films. There’s no short cut to becoming a filmmaker other than to spend as much time as you can filmmaking.

Best Smartphone Cameras

Best iPhone Lens Attachments

However, when it comes to smartphone filmmaking, there are a number of things to think about, specific to the device. So here’s a breakdown:

You will need to think about stabilization

Stabilization isn’t always required, but if you’re doing handheld work you will get shaky shots.

Well, you might want shaky shots, because it feels more human. If you’re filming a running shot, it’ll be wobbling all over. And you might want that. It won’t be relaxing to watch, but it will be urgent. Shaky camera can put the audience more into the mind of the character/s, this way.

Imagine you’re filming a character running away from an angry grizzly bear. If the shot is perfectly smooth, it’ll be fine – but the audience will feel like onlookers, witnesses to a poor guy running in terror. However, if the shot is jerking around chaotically, in pace with the character running for his life, the audience will almost feel like they are in the scene, running for their lives too…

If you’re thinking about stabilizing your camera, there’s different types available. The most obvious one is mounting your smartphone on a tripod, or similar device. Simply holding the camera in your hands will result in the most shakiness. Because the camera is so small and light, any slight movement is exaggerated.

Tripods

Here’s our list of the Best Smartphone Tripods.

Mounted on a tripod, your camera will be stationary and your shot options will be limited to completely still, pan left and right or tilt up and down. But if you want to keep your camera mobile, here are some other options:

Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)

Optical Image Stabilization works by moving lens elements to counteract wobbly hand-induced camera shake. It’s now a mainstay feature of flagship smartphones.

https://newatlas.com/what-is-ois-optical-image-stabilization/42212/

OIS is great for stills photography, but it can cause issues with video. You might notice a strange wobbly effect as you’re watching your footage back, especially if your camera is making sharp movements. If you are panning or walking slowly whilst filming, OIS can usually handle it.

example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIQJitom54&t=38s

The filmmaker isn’t even moving. I’m certainly no expert in this field, but I believe the buffeting of the wind is creating lots of sharp camera movements, which the OIS then tries to rectify, creating a weird jelly-like effect in parts of the image. With slower movements, this effect is less noticeable.

For that reason, you might be advised to switch off the OIS completely, as natural hand shake is probably less of an issue. I’ve been a victim of this in my films and am still working out how best to avoid the wobblyness.

Read more: Smartphone Camera Stabiliser – EIS or OIS?

Non-Mechanical Grip

If your device doesn’t have OIS, or if you just want to add a little extra stabilization, or if you simply don’t like the way OIS works, to remove some of that exaggerated movement caused by the smallness of the smartphone, you can attach a simple grip. Before motorized gimbals became the thing to use, many smartphone filmmakers turned to these simple grips to add some weight and size and… well… grip to your device.

beastgrip smartphone filmmaking grip

Simple Mechanical Grip: the Gimbal

A gimbal is a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis. A simple hand grip and counter-weight like this adds some smoothness to your handheld shots.

no electric smartphone stabilizer

The pivot and weight counteracts the movement of your hand, to some extent. There’s a load of these available and they’re not too expensive. However, the pivot-weight mechanism can become your enemy if it starts to swing around like a pendulum.

Sean Baker Tangerine iPhone Gimbal

You can see in this picture above Sean Baker (filming Tangerine) using his left hand to stop that counter-weight swinging around.

Motorized Gimbal

Handheld 3-axis gimbals are used in stabilization systems designed to give the camera operator the independence of handheld shooting without camera vibration or shake. Powered by three brushless motors, the gimbals have the ability to keep the camera level on all axes as the camera operator moves the camera.

In short: the 3-axis gimbal works to give your footage a smooth, gliding look. The kind of shot that used to require an expensive SteadiCam set-up, can now be achieved with your phone using a device which can cost less than $100.

Here’s our list of the Best Smartphone Gimbal Stablizers.

Personally, I use a Zhiyun Smooth-Q. I actually have 2, as they are pretty affordable and it’s good to have backup (I’ve never needed the spare one so far). This is pretty much as far as you can go for optimal stabilization. However there are other improvisations which have been used in indie filmmaking for decades…

Soderbergh Unsane iPhone wheelchair dolly — Steven Soderbergh using a wheelchair-gimbal combo to get a smooth tracking shot

You will need to think about manual control

It’s perfectly ok to shoot using your smartphone camera’s automatic controls. In fact, smartphone cameras are really designed to be used that way. They are designed primarily for ease of use.

Low-budget digital filmmakers often have a bit of an obsession with something that has become known as the “cinematic look”. However, how you shoot your film is an entirely creative choice. You might find you like what the automatic controls do, or that they are simply more convenient when getting a certain shot.

For example, what if a shot really requires speed on your part? Hesitation might cause you to miss the moment. In which case, keeping controls set to automatic will help you focus on nothing but getting that shot.

That said, you should seriously think about using manual controls. On automatic, as you move the camera the image will change: the exposure settings will change as the light changes, the focus point adapts to whatever object is in the focus finder, and the colour balance can change too.

If you pan left or right, unless the area you are filming has uniform lighting, the automatic exposure on your camera will start shifting the settings as the camera moves.