Ways to turn your phone into a movie-making machine
Mobile Accessories
Hello.
Welcome to Top Five.
I'm your host Iyaz Akhtar.
You might not know this but, I'm a huge video nerd.
I used to make videos, all the time, with my dad's camcorder.
I've shot and edited footage at trade shows as a one man video team.
True story.
Now days, you can make one of these your camera of choice if you wanted Today we're gonna count down the top five accessories you need to make your phone into a movie making machine.
Let's get to it.
At number five, more lenses, camera lenses are very important to create different moods in a movie.
If you've got a phone, you've got one lens, well two if you count the front facing camera.
These days you can find universal lens kits that clamp onto your phone to take macro shots, wide angle shots and fish eye shots.
Shot iPhone users are at an advantage because there are a lot of lens adapters out there including this Kickstarter, let's you pop in your iPhone 6 as if it was a cartridge.
Number 4 a Tripod adapter.
A Tripod adapter is incredibly useful if you plan on making video with your phone.
For the most part phones are rectangular slabs and don't attach well to other things.
A tripod adapter lets you attach your phone to, you guessed it, a tripod or video stabilizer, anything that would normally hold a camera.
On top of that, many tripod adapters are adjustable, so when you change phones your not stuck with a useless adapter.
Nothing ruins a good flick like unintentionally shaky video.
So invest in a tripod adapter.
Number three, a battery pack.
Depending on what you're shooting, you're probably gonna need a lot of battery life.
It doesn't matter what else your rig has, if you don't have power You're not recording anything.
Apple is famous for its phones being sealed up and Samsung's S6 have followed suit.
Both have excellent cameras, so if you're looking to use them for shooting video, time to invest in a battery pack.
I'm a fan of USB battery backs that can power a number of devices, since they're more versatile than proprietary solutions.
At number two, camera apps.
You can get a lot out of the camera on your phone with with right app.
On IOS, check out FiLMiC Pro.
It gives the shooter full control of things like focus, shutter speed, ISO and exposure.
On the Android side, there's Cinema FV-5 with similar controls.
Both are paid apps, by the way, 8 bucks for the IOS version, 5 bucks for the Android version.
But having control over what's recorded, that's priceless.
Before we get to number 1, you know what, how about an honorable mention for duct tape?
Cuz you can do pretty much anything you want.
You need to make a custom mount?
You don't have a shoe?
Doesn't matter, duct tape.
But your phone might be a bit gunky if you don't have the right case on it.
[SOUND] And the number one accessory you should have if you wanna shoot video on a phone is an audio adapter.
Particularly an mini jack to XLR adapter.
Why?
A beautifully shot video, And it's steady, it's well lit and well acted.
It's unwatchable with bad audio.
If you're serious about making video you need to have good audio.
And echlar adapter lets you use great microphone with your phone so you're not stuck with that built in little dinky microphone.
There you go.
You've turned your phone into a movie making machine.
If you've got suggestions, let us know on YouTube or on Twitter.
I'm @iyaz.
If you want more top fives like this check out top5.cnet.com.
Thanks for watching.
[MUSIC]
