iPhone movie making
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Parts 1 and 2 can be found directly after this article, further down this page.
Save, upload & share
Welcome to the third and final part of Hassan Kiyany's introduction to making films with an iPhone. This week Hassan covers the third and important part of movie-making: Sharing.
With most video apps, saving to the camera roll is easy and gives you the flexibility to transfer your work to your Mac or PC later for further work.
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However, most of us like to share our work directly from our iPhones. Apps such as iMovie will allow you to directly upload to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and even to CNN iReport - in full resolution. |
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SocialCam is like an Instagram specifically designed for the video community. It gives you access to a built-in library of presets that can be used to turn your video into an amazing piece of art, and then easily share across your network of videov sites. |
Due to the increasing volume of iPhone or Mobile video users, there are plenty of groups on Vimeo that provide you with a place to share your video with larger audiences and viewers online – both semi-professional and amateur.
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Another platform for sharing your iPhone video work is the increasing number of online film festivals like iPhone FF and Smart Movie – links to which are found at the end of this article. www.iphoneff.com/ |
I hope you are learning how to produce fine videography with your smart phone and will soon begin producing videos to share with the world. Don't imagine that you need professional equipment to produce professional work - you can definitely shoot great work using your cell phone, and even receive awards.
Below is a link to a short film I made entirely on my iPhone, which received third prize at the 2011 Abu Dhabi Film Festival:
More about Hassan: Hassan Kiyany is a cinematographer, certified FCP editor and iPhoneographer who was born in and currently lives in Dubai, UAE. His latest short film, which was totally shot and produced on an iPhone 4, won third prize at the 2011 Abu Dhabi Film Festival. He is active online on most of the weekly iPhoneography websites. You may follow him on twitter and instagram @hkiyany, or visit his personal website www.hassankiyany.com
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If you missed Part 1 Please scroll down to half way down the page.
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Hassan |
I hope the previous article, Part 1, helped you to shoot or experiment with new apps for your iPhone videography. I can honestly say that after viewing the results of my last film which was totally shot on an iPhone, it has made me rethink my “perfect camera” choices for each project and as you have seen, the iPhone is definitely one of my shortlisted cameras so far. In this next chapter, I will take you through editing and polishing your footage on the iPhone so lets get started on Part 2: editing and color grading.
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An introduction to making films with your iPhone: Part 2 – editing & color grading by Hassan Kiyany |
2a) Editing – iMovie and other apps
There are a few good editing apps available and iMovie is the best of them. It’s based on a cool interface which will look familiar to you if you use iLife on a Mac.

The excellent iMovie app allows you to import video, photos and music from your iPhone. Along with a host of other basic tools including trimming and cropping, there are some great themed presets and a newly added trailer feature which works by simply dropping your clips into a storyboard and adding some character names while iMovie does it’s magic trimming your clips to fit and adding transitions, titles and special effects.
Color grading or colour painting, is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still image either electronically, photo-chemically or digitally.
Well, you might think, color grading on an iPhone? Don’t you need a huge processor to run that? Well–actually, yes, the iPhone is well equipped to do just this thanks to the hardware specification.
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One of the first apps I tried was the Red Giants Movie look HD which comes as an in-app preset, very much like their Magic Bullet looks on Final Cut Pro. It works ok but is a bit slow. The other app, recently released and much faster with more manual control is Color grade. I love this app which gives my videos a very polished, cinema look before editing them. |
Final editing touches – on the big screen
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Finally I will send my iMovie project to the Mac to give it some finishing touches. The bigger screen allows me to really see what’s going on and whether I need to make any last minute adjustments. Another editing option (and my favourite) is to mirror my iPhone to a bigger screen via Apple TV which gives you a great large area to play with and see the details. (*although, of course you will need the Apple TV software and compatible TV monitor to do this). I do use this feature most of the time working on videos and images or at least to check them out before sharing. |
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I hope the this Part 2 helped you to find a way to edit and grade your footage. Prepare them for Part 3, next week where I will cover sharing and uploading your videos on social networks. |
And finally 2 must-see films: including a behind the scenes look at a film made entirely on an iPhone 4S.
I was chuffed to bits when Talia from the mega awesome BBC Click team asked me to help them with making a short film using a smartphone at Alexandra Palace. The film is featured on the BBC News channel throughout today and tommorrow. So here it is a sort of behind the scenes of behind the scenes all captured with my iPhone 4S. The BBC Click team wanted to use a range of devices and apps including the Mobislyder by Glidetrack, Steadicam Smoothee, Filmic Pro, Action Movie FX App and many more. Yes I showed them the 'grip' and it was used in a Kung fu Style to capture a few scenes :)
If you are considering making the leap from still photography to moving film or just want to experiment then iPC has a treat for you. Film-maker, Cinematographer and Photographer Hassan Kiyany (prize winner at the Abu Dhabi film 2011 for his film, Telefoni shot entirely on an iPhone) shares his tips, experience, references and tools you need to get started in videography on the iPhone. Hassan takes us through Part 1:
Recently, lots of hobby or amateur videographers have started using their smartphone cameras to record events around them like their travels and parties and now, even professionals are using their iPhone to experiment with more serious projects such as short films or music videos. In this three part introduction to the basics of shooting video with an iPhone we will cover these three basic steps: 1.Capture 2.Edit 3.Share
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Part 1. Capturing video with your iPhone
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1a) The Technical detail
First, let’s understand the iPhone video camera’s technical details.
The iPhone 4S native camera records 1080p full HD resolution in 30 fps. The earlier model; the iPhone 4 records 720p HD. (I will skip older iPhones due to poor performance in producing video).
With the iPhone 4S, Apple introduced advanced lenses and much improved light processing. Together with a hugely improved built-in stabliser this device soared in popularity worldwide.
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With the native Apple video camera, one tap will automatically adjust your focus, white balance and exposure. It is worthwhile mentioning that there are other apps such as Pro-Camera which allow you to manually and independently adjust your focus, white balance and exposure – giving you much more control over the look of your video and great for some really creative filming! |
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The app FiLMiC Pro is the most advanced video recording app with a bunch of cool features on top of those mentioned above. As well as being able to lock the focus, white balance and exposure control, it is also possible to change the frame rate, starting from 1fps to 30fps so recording in 24fps is now possible with this app which is a more cinematic approach. I shall cover more about apps later. |
1b) Videography
I believe what makes shooting with our iPhones such a pleasure is the ease of use, it’s size and the weight of the device.
For capturing video, we still need to follow the basic rules of video shooting like using long, medium or close shot. However what makes shooting with an iPhone so different is taking advantage of its size and weight and shooting from more dynamic angles and perspectives, not so often seen with regular film cameras. You can easily stick it over the roof or cupboard, hold it down low on the ground or get film from an extremely tight space whilst still recording wonderful, high-resolution footage. I should add a tip here for shooting with the iPhone which is: Do not record your video, holding the iPhone like a cell-phone, ie always film landscape, not portrait! If you film with the iPhone held in portrait or vertical mode, you won’t be able to use this footage on a TV screen and editing apps don’t like this format. Finally, don’t forget to utilize the natural light at all times to get the best results.
1c) Apps
As most iPhoneographers will know, the world of apps on the iPhone makes the device feel new everytime a new app is installed. The same applies with videography on the iPhone.
Other than the native camera, there are a bunch of free and paid-for apps which give you more control over your filming. As I mentioned above, apps like FiLMiC Pro give you more than the average video app, such as electronic slate, colour bars, super 35 matte as well as an audio meter and rule of third framing guide.
Applying a look and feel to your video
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While Pro-Camera is a fantastic video and camera combination app to record your still and moving images with some great professional tools like focus and exposure control, there are other great apps for adding special effects to your footage. Flare app does a great job of turning your
video into HDR as you are recording.
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Silent Film Maker transforms your video to cool 1920s black and white and has a host of other great retro looks which I cover in more depth in Part 2. |
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8mm is another fantastic app and is great fun to use applying 8mm effects, such as dust and scratches, flickering, retro colours, light leaks and frame jitters all easily and instantly changing filters with a single tap or swipe. |
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Lomora is another app whch provides a live effect whilst actually recording. Lomora3 brings you not just normal video recording but cross-processed video-recording! |
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Last, but not least is Lens+ which offers huge effect presets while live shooting and a cool square crop more inline with the still photography experience. At this point, I should also mention. |
Finally...
As I close part 1 of this introduction to Videography I would like to share some information about some of the great accessories available to help you improve your videography with an iPhone:
1.Joby Gorillapod 2.The Glif 3.Steadycam Smoothie 4. Mobislyder Glidetrack
Tell us about your iPhone & video experiences or shout about a product!
In this article, all the apps and accessories I have described are products I have had the good fortune to use and based on my own experience of them. I am sure there are other great video products and apps you may have experimented with and iPhoneographyCentral would love to hear from you so please contact us.
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Part 2: Next Sunday 6 May Hassan introduces us to the essential skills of editing, color grading and adding the finishing touches to your movie.
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In the meantime, please have a look at this fantastically inspiring video by The Film Artist “captured soley with an iPhone4S, a stop motion, timelapse, miniaturisation musical extravaganza set in Dubai and Thailand.”
