Want to make a film? Use your smartphone

An article by Bilal    No Comments

The effect smartphones have had on the digital camera industry is well known. With the launch of the iPhone 4S and its 8 megapixel camera, having an improved specification to point, shoot and film using a smartphone became the norm. Successions of smartphones throughout 2011, beginning with the Samsung Galaxy S2 in spring last year set the benchmark and increasingly it became easier for shoppers to get their hands on a very decent HD camera, whether taking stills or filming, without stepping into a camera shop.

The response from the camera industry could be seen at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month. Internet connections, more powerful zooms, the basic offer on a digital camera has had to improve. But has it been enough? If anyone needed a stat to show how people are more likely to use their smartphone rather than invest in a digital camera you just need to know that in summer 2011, the iPhone 4 became the most popular device used to upload images to Flickr.

It isn’t just still photographers who are making the move to smartphones. Filmmakers as well are taking advantage of the ever-improving video facilities on-board many devices. The iPhone 4 and 4S as well as the Nokia 8 are increasingly being used to make short movies and even feature films.
There is even an iPhone Film Festival.

A smartphone is flexible, it makes it easier for filmmakers to just point and click and it reduces costs. The iPhone 4S for example can film at 720p and 30fps. The 1080p video also films at f/2.4 aperture with a gyro for video stabilisation. There are also apps that can add different styles and features to the film, like 8MM app in the App Store. Other apps can calculate sunrise and sunset, allow storyboarding or explore camera angles. There are attachments, like different lenses, that can be added to change the picture and create a more personalised look and feel to the film being made.

Not only can films be shot on the iPhone 4S, they can also be edited. The first film to be made on an iPhone 4 is said to be Apple of My Eye by Majek Pictures. Launched in 2010 the film was shot and edited on entirely with an iPhone. Using its HD camera they shot using models and then edited using iMovie on the smartphone.

For filmmakers just starting out it is also easy to distribute their iPhone movie, uploading to YouTube or Vimeo and sharing on social networking sites, so distributing straight from their Apple device.

The iPhone isn’t the only smartphone being used by filmmakers. The Nokia N8 with its lauded 12 Megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics – which also feature on the Nokia Lumia 900 – offer a much more impressive digital camera. Its resolution is 16:9 HD which is 640 x 360 pixels. The Nokia N8 was also used to film the largest stop-animation film ever recorded.

Cameras are one of those features on smartphones that naturally progress from one generation to the next and in 2012 we can probably expect 12 megapixel cameras to become the norm. With phone manufacturers increasingly using camera functionality as a main area of competition it won’t be too long before stand-alone cameras (and maybe even Hollywood studios) become completely redundant.