How to: Make a video on your mobile

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Most of use don’t leave the house without our mobile phones these days, and most mobiles have a video recording function. With the ease of self-publishing via video sharing websites such as youtube and vimeo, creating and showing video has never been easier.

mobilevideo

Here are a few pointers to consider while shooting your very own mobile masterpiece!…

  • Even within a short 60 second mobile video, it might help to think along the lines of a Three-act Structure.  All this means is give your video a beginning, middle, and end.
  • You don’t have to tell a story.  A well constructed sequence of images can make for a fascinating film.
  • If you’re making a video with other people, try to create a story board to help you keep a track of where you are in the process, it doesn’t matter how rough – it’ll keep everyone involved aware of what’s going on.
  • Don’t try and cram too many ideas in! KEEP IT SIMPLE! One great idea is worth 10 times as many mediocre ones

Directing your video

  • Seems obvious, but for any still shots, consider using a tripod.
  • Don’t zoom in and out too much. use close up and away shots.
  • Make sure the light is good. If you can’t use stage lighting, daylight is your best friend.
  • Storyboard your film (again). It will be much easier to direct and edit your film if you storyboard it in advance.
  • Change your perspective. Experiment with shooting the same scene from different angles and distances.
  • Shoot first edit later – unless you’re attempting a ‘One shot’ sequence, or editing ‘on-the-fly’, keep the camera rolling!

Editing

  • You may already have basic video editing software on your computer:
    Software such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie on a mac are better than you might think at getting some basic ideas cut.
    If you prefer something a little more meaty  you could try a trial version of more heavy duty software such as Adobe Premier.
  • There are even a few online editing services available  jaycut.co.uk is one such service, there’ll be more appearing soon.
  • Be organised. Keep a record of your shots and treatment to hand while editing or work from a storyboard. It will help you put your film together more easily.
  • Experiment when editing to see what type of cuts work best with your video – e.g straight cut between scenes, dissolves, fade-outs, fade-ins
  • Remember continuity when editing if this is important to your film. Things like light can change between scenes and when you put two scenes together, they’ll look different.
  • Add in close-ups (cutaways) to greatly enhance a scene or mood and move the story along. This is also great for showing the viewer what to look at, i.e.  a medium shot of a kitchen and then a cutaway of a kitchen knife.
  • When you edit, try and get a variety of shots in there (ie close up, wide, medium, long etc.). This is especially good in a short film and makes it more exciting and if the shot selection is good enough, it will leave the viewer feeling involved, even in a short period of time
  • Remember, a lot of emotion can come from the editing of a video, if you get it right there will be a big wow factor, but if you get it wrong your film may look weak. Editing is one of the most important parts of the whole film making process.

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