When moviegoers watched Sean Baker’s Tangerine unfold on their screens as it made its way through film festivals worldwide, they had no idea that the movie was shot entirely on iPhones. It wasn’t until the credits rolled that they were made aware of the smartphone cinematography.
If you’re an aspiring filmmaker and you have an idea for a short film or a video project, with nothing but a phone in-hand — good news! That’s more than enough. And if you want to give your film that extra bit of polish, we’ve compiled a smartphone filmmaking kit with affordable gear to level-up your shoot.
Table of Contents
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Can I Shoot a Film on a Phone?
Baker isn’t the first person — and he certainly won’t be the last — to make a feature film entirely on smartphones. Steven Soderbergh directed High Flying Bird on an iPhone 8. Midnight Traveler was filmed on three smartphones by director Hassan Fazili, his wife, Fatima Hussaini, and their two daughters.
And if all the creative videos on TikTok — or the hundreds of videos on YouTube about smartphone filmmaking are any indication, then yes, you can certainly shoot a film on a phone.
In fact, it is encouraged you do so!
Mobile filmmaking is a great way to explore your passion for filmmaking without dropping thousands of dollars on expensive film equipment. And smartphone manufacturers know this too.
Providers like Apple and Google have ‘Cinematic Mode’ as a native capability on their flagship phones. With Apple introducing the feature with the iPhone 13 and Google with the Pixel 7. It’s a fancy way of saying these phones have the ability to switch focus in video mode to mimic the focus pull of a cinematic camera.
Samsung has a ‘Pro Video’ mode too with focus pulling and a ton of video customization features like ISO and shutter speed.
There’s also no shortage of inexpensive equipment out there that is specifically designed to level up phone filming like gimbals and speciality lenses. All of which I explore below. 👇
Mobile Film Kit — Must-Have Filmmaking Accessories
Photo by @theregisti on Unsplash
1. Smartphone
What’s mobile film making without a working smartphone? Just about all smartphone cameras nowadays can film high-resolution 4K footage. While the main impetus for shooting a film on a phone is likely capturing high-quality footage on a budget, shooting with a smartphone can yield unexpected benefits. Just ask Sean Baker who shot Tangerine with cinematographer Radium Cheung on three iPhone 5s cameras (and the FiLMIC Pro app).
“Shooting on the iPhone has become more of a directors’ tool to lower inhibition of first-time actors and nonprofessionals,” he said in an interview with Fast Company. “While it’s helped me become more mobile, no pun intended—running around, finding tight areas, and different ways of moving the camera—to me it’s more about using this device to catch candid moments.”
2. Filmmaking App (FiLMIC Pro)
Lady Gaga. Zack Snyder. John Legend. These are just a few of the big names that have used the FiLMIC Pro app to create music videos and films. And it’s not hard to understand why. The app allows you to gain more control over your smartphone’s camera by transforming it into a powerful DSLR camera.
Here are just some of the robust features the app has to offer:
- Manual control over every capture parameter, such as focus, exposure, color temperature and more.
- High-speed frame rates of 60/120/240fps.
- Image stabilization (standard/cinematic).
- Eight aspect ratios including Widescreen (16:9); Ultra Panavision (2.76:1); Square (1:1).
- Timelapse.
- Full white balance control.
- Slow and fast motion FX.
- In-camera noise reduction (on/off).
- Vertical and landscape support.
- and more.
Easy Post-Production Workflow
With no limits on file package sizes and lightning-fast speeds, MASV helps you get work done quicker.
3. Gimbal
One of the most important smartphone accessories in your kit is a gimbal. This handy mechanical device allows filmmakers to shoot stabilized footage with a camera while moving. Even with the steadiest hands in the world, manual filming on a phone is guaranteed to create shaky footage.
If you’re trying to capture a scene like an on-foot chase through a sprawling metropolitan city, a gimbal makes all the difference in ensuring your footage comes out clear and smooth.
Which gimbal is right for you? You should consider the following:
- Budget
- Build quality
- Device capability
- Size and weight
- Stabilization technology: 3-axis or a 2-axis stabilizer
- 2-axis stabilizers smooth out tilt and roll, in other words, movements going up and down or side to side
- The third axis steadies panning movements
Photo by @indiimedia on Unsplash
Some gimbals, like the DJI OM 5 also come with a mobile app with built-in camera tricks to use with the gimbal (e.g. hyperlapse, phone rotation, etc.)
4. Portable microphone
Smartphone cameras are getting better, however, their built-in microphones still aren’t good enough (yet) to record high-quality audio. That’s where a portable microphone will come in handy. Using an external microphone allows for better sound quality, reduces background noise, captures clear dialogue, and allows you to move around for more dynamic shots.
There are two types of portable external microphones that you can use:
- Lavs (lavalier mics) are small clip-on mics that are great for ensuring the mic is hidden from the shot and capturing clear audio from the person the mic is attached to.
- Mount a shotgun mic (directional mic) to your smartphone if you want to capture audio in a specific direction while reducing background noise.
The wireless lavalier microphone from VMKLY is a highly-rated lav microphone with a Type-C connection for modern smartphones.
💡 Related: How to Send Audio Files
The Fastest Audio File Transfer
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5. Portable Lights
What would your favorite films be without the right lighting? We’re talking about more than just ensuring your footage is clear. The mood, the atmosphere. The way it can be used to draw your attention to a particular character, object, or event that’s in the frame. Creating the right lighting is critical in filmmaking.
When you need more than just natural lighting or practical lighting to create the shots that you need, using portable lights will give you more control over your footage.
Photo by @tylercaseyprod on Unsplash
There is no shortage of cool, inexpensive lighting to create the desired cinematic look and feel: portable LED lights, ring lights, RGB tube lights, LED strips, key lights, flood lights, and more.
For portable LED lights that you can attach to your phone, try the Godox LED64 or the VIJIM VL100C.
6. Portable Power Bank or Charger
Spending all day shooting footage is a surefire way to drain your smartphone’s internal battery. To avoid issues when shooting, make sure you have an external power source to keep your phone going for as long as you need. The last thing you want to happen is your phone shutting down in the middle of shooting a scene. Consider the following when choosing a portable power bank or charger:
- Price
- Capacity
- Number of ports
- Size and weight
- Speed of charge
- Durability
If you’re looking for super fast charging, check out INIU’s 10,000 mAh portable USB-C charger.
7. File Transfer Tool
The great thing about smartphone cameras filming in 4K is the quality. The not-so-great thing? Your files will get heavy very quickly. Plus, if you’re using an iPhone 13 or higher, your ProRes files will be massive. Thankfully, there’s an easy solution to this problem.
When working with heavy video files, you should transfer them to your team members, storage, or another computer to ensure you have enough space on your phone to continue shooting. While technically this isn’t physical smartphone filmmaking equipment, having a fast and reliable file transfer tool at your disposal will make your workflow a breeze.
MASV has an unlimited file size limit, unmatched speed, and enterprise-grade security making it the top choice for professional video production teams. It also works on any browser, even on your phone.
And it’s not just for ensuring you have enough storage on your phone. When you’ve shot all your footage and you’re ready to send it to your team for post-production work, MASV will get your files where they need to be and fast.
Focus on the Creative Process, Not File Transfers
MASV makes transferring your large files a breeze so you can focus on the fun stuff.
8. Storage
Don’t forget to include storage as part of your smartphone filmmaking kit. Once you’re finished shooting video footage, where will you keep the files? You can store your footage on a phone USB or cloud storage platform, both provide convenience and are relatively cheap to purchase.
For a practical easy-to-use phone USB thumb drive, the Sunany 256 GB USB Flash Drive should do the trick.
Why Shoot iPhone Video?
One of the most popular mobile phones is, of course, the Apple iPhone. iPhone video obviously isn’t new — iPhones are one of the most popular and frequently used cameras worldwide, with the device’s video capabilities becoming more refined each year:
- With its convenient compact size, the iPhone has become a powerful tool for reporters — especially those shooting in tight spaces, remote locations, or those who need to be incognito.
- Lugging around a full mirrorless camera kit can feel pointless (in certain scenarios) when an iPhone shoots 4K, has three focal lengths, records in ProRes, fits in your pocket, and can even record to external drives.
- Available mobile apps such as Filmic Pro and other accessories offer professional-grade video-making features.
The impact of USB-C
When Apple introduced USB-C in the iPhone 15 Pro, however, it opened up a whole new world of smartphone video possibilities over previous models such as iPhone SE, iPhone 13 Pro, or iPhone 14 Pro.
iPhone filmmakers can now use fast 10Gbps drives to record professional quality videos from an iPhone beyond the restrictions of their internal storage. All I have to do is pull out the drive and pop into a laptop or iPad and I can start editing.
But with great data comes great responsibility: What if I need that footage in multiple places for editors and producers to start collaborating?
Leveling Up Your iPhone Video Workflow With MASV
We tested a workflow that simultaneously sends iPhone video from the field to Dropbox, Frame.io, and our Synology NAS at the office through a single point of ingest.
By doing this we’re able to streamline and accelerate the transfer process by getting that data to multiple locations with a single, accelerated upload.
Decreasing the latency between capturing iPhone video content and putting it into the hands of producers and editors enables us to start telling stories as they happen.
Tools we used
- MASV Teams & Teamspaces. A MASV Team lets you manage users, security, and access. As a Team Owner or Admin, you can use Teamspaces to organize team users into groups.
- MASV Portals. A secure, fast, and versatile large file uploader that can be easily connected to cloud or networked shared storage.
- MASV integrations. MASV Portals are easily integrated with cloud storage platforms, media asset managers (MAMs), and networked shared storage such as a Synology NAS.
- MASV automations. No-code automations can be configured to send content to specific users, storage destinations, or MAMs.
- iPhone 15 Pro.
- 1TB USB-C Drive.
The MASV-iPhone Workflow Guide
MASV isn’t just a one-to-one file transfer tool: It’s also an efficient one-to-many ingest system that allows you to send professional quality videos automatically to a NAS, Frame.io, and Dropbox (or other locations) through a single remote upload.
So, here’s the plan: Using a MASV Portal we’ll dump footage from an iPhone via a web browser to Frame.io for review, DropBox for backup, and directly onto my Synology server for an editor to pick up and start editing.
While we selected these three locations, you can use any of the many integrations offered by MASV in this workflow.
We recorded about 4GB of 4K footage in H263 to an external USB-C with an iPhone 15 Pro. I prefer to record in Apple Log with the Blackmagic Camera App for this workflow, but you can use the app of your choice.
We then used this footage to perform two sets of demonstrations:
- Uploading 4GB of H264 via my mobile cell signal.
- Uploading 4GB of H264 at a local coffee shop (This place has 1Gbps up and down, but mileage at your local Starbucks may vary).
Here’s how we did it.
How to get 4K video from iPhone to multiple destinations quickly
- First, sign up for a MASV account. It’s free.
- Connect integrations to your account:
- Connect Frame.io to MASV.
- Connect Synology to MASV.
- Connect Dropbox to MASV.
- Set up your Portal: Give your Portal a meaningful name and description, set up notification settings, select the integrations that this portal needs to send the data to, and configure your Portal to automatically send any uploaded data to those destinations.
- Refer to the help guide for assistance in setting up your Portal or for automating downloads from a Portal.
- Bookmark or send yourself the links to your portal for quick access from your mobile device.
- Start filming on your iPhone! It doesn’t matter whether you save your data to an external drive or internal storage.
- Open up your browser and navigate to the Portal.
- When prompted, enter your information and upload your files to the Portal.
- Hit “Send Package.” When your files are finished uploading, you’ll receive an email.
- When your files have completed downloading to your selected integrations, you will receive an email notification.
The MASV-iPhone Video Workflow: In Real Life
So, we’ve got our plan. We’ve got our iPhone video. We’ve got our external storage. And we’ve got our Portal configured exactly how we want. So let’s get it!
Uploading via fast coffee shop WiFi
First things first: I ordered my standard Americano, because I can’t do this kind of work uncaffeinated. Once settled into my spot I pulled out my phone to connect to WiFi and do a quick speed test: To my absolute surprise, I was getting almost 800Mbps upload speeds!
With my 1TB external drive connected, I started the upload process. At some points, it surpassed 1,000Mbps and finished the upload in a blistering speed of 43 seconds.
Uploading via 5G mobile signal
I next wanted to test the same workflow but without WiFi. So I disconnected from WiFi, selected the same files from the external drive, and kicked off the transfer to my Portal.
The speeds weren’t great at first, so I wandered around a bit until eventually, I found the sweet spot where I consistently got over 50Mbps and even bursting to 100Mbps. In a very specific pose beside a street light with my iPhone in one hand and the other planted firmly, my upload started to fly.
Overall this upload took close to 13 minutes.
In both of the above workflows, my files all ended up exactly where they were supposed to go — Synology NAS, Dropbox, and Frame.io — with just a single upload to MASV.
The caveats
It would be unfair to not mention the limitations of this workflow:
- To put it bluntly, the iPhone’s file system is slow and an unrefined experience.
- I had trouble getting anything more than 10GB added to a MASV package via the external drive. I tried testing with packages that were 20GB, 50GB, and 100GB on an external drive, and the file system did not want to cooperate.
So, I can confidently say this workflow is great if you need to send less than 10GB of data from an iPhone — anything more, and the file system hangs.
The same can’t be said for internal storage, however: Adding and transferring 100GB from my internal storage was a breeze.
This is where the iPhone currently falls short with how its file system works with external storage. You can record to it flawlessly, but reading from it gives nowhere near the same experience as working with the internal storage.
Take Mobile Filmmaking into Your Own Hands
Now you’re ready to shoot your cinematic masterpiece. It’s easier now than ever to make a professional-looking film with your phone, as long as you have a solid smartphone filmmaking kit in your arsenal (and a great story of course). When compared to the price tag of a Hollywood film crew, purchasing the gear and tools for your smartphone-powered movie is quite affordable. Not only that, but it can be more convenient to shoot with a compact device that’s easily transported from one place to another.
Don’t forget to start for MASV for free; you get 15 GB free every month. After that, it’s Pay As You Go per transfer for flexibility, or opt for low-cost subscriptions for significant savings
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