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So here's the new iPhone SE that just came out product red edition and this is considered to be a budget phone, but with a pretty solid camera.
So I scoured the internet for all the low budget DIY cinematic camera tricks and figured I should try and pull them off from home with the iPhone SE.
I gathered my favorites, tweaked a few and a big shout out to Karen x, who inspired a lot of these.
And while I'm going to be using this phone, they should work with just about any phone or camera you might have as long as you have slow motion video.
And the same goes to be said with the supplies you need to make the tricks work.
Here's what I use, but I'm sure you could scrounge up whatever kind of similar items you might have lying around your house.
To pull them off yourself.
Gaffer tape aka the best invention ever.
Sticky tack a mirror set with wheels.
Here's what I use a tape measure a laundry basket and a Swiffer Karen says you should be able to pull off this first trick with a regular broom or a mop as well, but I happened to have a script for lying around.
So I'm gonna start with that one first.
So this is that cool drunk man falling 180 degrees shot and I'm using the sweeper because it's got this nice hinge and it's also got these buttons snaps so you can make it shorter.
I'm also going to use one of these cheap phone mounts you might have from your car or something just so I don't have to put as much tape on the phone but you probably don't have to use one.
Put one piece of gaff tape around the stripper itself so it doesn't scratch the phone.
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We got the phone on there and it's a little janky you probably wouldn't want to dangle this over the edge of the Grand Canyon or the roof of my building.
But I still don't think it's going there.
It's pretty solid.
That's the beauty of gaff tape.
And like any good camera trick, we got to spend a lot of time on the floor So once your subject is ready to go, then it's all about just mastering the smoothness of your baton work, kind of like you're pulling a giant lever in Dexter's Laboratory.
And then it's all about just editing, editing right on the drop of the 180.
[UNKNOWN] degree point to transition to the next shot?
Honestly, the hardest part of this trick is just vacuuming.
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All right, we're on the roof and I got this big scary knife and we're gonna try the Edgar Wright whip pan.
I learned this one from film rights YouTube channel.
Make sure and check them out.
Also don't ever throw a knife at someone that should go without saying.
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Let's see, obviously I didn't throw it anyone because I can't catch it myself and I'll prove it.
I'm not standing over there.
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Just throwing it at no one and really all the shots doing is just, Putting two shots together with two pans in the same direction.
And I think this is a good point to say, if you're going to do any editing, adding a little motion blur a little sound design really helps sell your camera tricks.
You can also use the same effect to change locations.
All right now it's time for a really fun one that I found on Reddit.
And basically, they just attached a tape measure two wheels and then put the iPhone on the wheels and then got this really cool, fast slow dolly zoom shot.
And there's a lot of debate on Reddit whether their final product was not real and that might be the case but Overall, the concept itself works.
Now I didn't have a cute little shopping cart, so I slapped some skateboard trucks on to my unread copy of Infinite Jest.
So yes, everything you've heard about that book is true.
And then I put a bunch of gaffe tape on it, and then some other stuff to secure and elevate the iPhone.
Actually this little apocalypse car of death works pretty well.
A couple pro tips, put the iPhone where you think the tape measure is going to land and then lock the exposure and focus so that whatever your final shot is looks better.
And then also be careful because I actually cut myself on this measuring tape.
And then once you get it set up, you can try the same lighter trick that they did in the Reddit video.
You can try to read the almost as difficult but appropriately titled 100 Years of Solitude, or you could just head bang.
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I bet you're wondering where did that sort of demented Jonny Quest montage shot come from?
And it's really pretty simple.
I used a record player.
And then I just put slow motion on and put the camera facing towards the ceiling, turned it on and then used my only prop and really my only friend and hung them over there to just give sort of a spooky stare down.
You could also do this with a lazy Susan or if you're really feeling crazy, you can fill a bowl up with water, put a plastic plate floating on top of there and spin it that way.
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I also tried to put the camera on its side and get a sort of 360 room wrap around, but it was moving too fast and didn't really work for me.
But that's what's been fun about this whole experiment is looking around my house, trying to find movement in places, trying to find things to set my phone on to get some sort of.
Cool camera shots so I can give you guys a peek into one of my nightmares, but he's wearing a Hawaiian shirt so it's clearly just one of my dreams.
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And now for that dramatic falling iPhone shot, it's actually pretty simple.
You just got to rig up a full length mirror dropping into a laundry basket or some sort of cushion.
I should probably be using a case but I'm not So I'm sorry.
And then you're just using the phone to record slow motion so it captures itself in the mirror.
I'm making it a little harder on myself because I don't wanna be in the shot so I'm trying to drop it from afar and also I'm dropping it in landscape orientation.
I think it'd be a little bit easier in portrait orientation to get it to drop straight so you end up trying this about 113 to 100 and 47 times but luckily, a lot of us don't have a lot going on right now.
So see what we can get.
I also aligned the laundry basket in a black coat because I think when the phone disappears into black, it'll be a nice cut point for something else.
Elsewhere in my quest for camera tricks I came across a lot of quirky little ways to make your shots more fun.
There's the age old flashlight and the lens technique, which some people hate on but I think looks pretty cool and makes everything look like Star Trek.
Then there's that guitar shot from the beginning.
That's not much of a camera trick at all.
That's just finding some bright sunlight.
And pointing your strings perpendicular to the lens.
And then you might get this rolling shutter effect that sometimes is a bad thing.
But in the case of this, it looks pretty cool.
And then that epic pterodactyl swoop shot [SOUND] from the very beginning was inspired by Park, a while back video.
We didn't shoot it on the phone, obviously.
But that was actually just my bathroom with all the lights turned off, and I dragged this light in there to be the only light I actually thought my bathroom having no windows and looking like a torture chamber was a bit of a bad thing until I realized I could dress up like a burglar and get this epic shot.
Anyway, thanks so much for watching.
Let's all thank everyone who's out there in the world right now.
Doing actual important work, be excellent to each other.
Now this final trick was lost on the cutting room floor but I wanted to include the outtake of it because I want you guys to see my cat Shane.
Thanks for watching.
But you don't really need one.
You can just do this during the day.
Hopefully Shane cooperates.
It looks like she's going to Let's see what we can get whoa [LAUGH]
She's attacked me, she's never attacked me.
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