I serve on the board of a small charitable foundation that helps low-income families. As board chair, I am encouraging the executive director to produce several brief videos (90 to 120 seconds) that outline our history, mission, and community impact. The foundation does not have the budget for a professional video team, so I am wondering if we could produce good enough quality videos using an iPhone. From prior efforts elsewhere, I know audio tends to be trickier than video. I realize professional videographers use large, expensive cameras, so while I understand that a small iPhone obviously won’t have the same crisp images, we do not want our videos to look amateur. We have no editing capabilities, so will have to find a freelancer for that. Your thoughts?
A professional can certainly produce high quality product on a sufficiently recent iPhone. The final product will benefit from being shot by someone who knows what they’re doing but there are plenty of Youtube tutorials that will help.
Is the plan that you’re going to shoot a bunch of video and then give it an editor to put the final product together? Is there a script? Are you shooting video with a final product in mind?
Indeed, I was thinking that even if you choose to use the camera on an Iphone, you still need a professional who knows how to shoot video in general and knows how to work the “cinematic mode” and other options on the device itself. Also you will probably need 2 or 3 microphones if you need to record audio (e.g. lavalier mics, a stereo digital recorder, depends).
I think maybe even more important than the modes on the iPhone (still important but not that many options) would be the lighting. Really look at the scene and watch for bright windows, weird fluorescent overheads, bad shadows, and flat lighting that doesn’t separate your subject from the background. Move floor or bright desk lamps around to augment and maybe even consider one of those rechargeable led panels that let you adjust color temperature.
I think we would shoot brief, 90-second videos of a handful of people giving testimonials. These folks would be filmed in different locations. We aren’t looking for Speilberg quality videos. After the videos are shot, we would have an editor edit them. Instead of using a script, the interviewees would ad lib their comments.
Good ideas. Thanks!
You will tell me I’m wrong, I think, but I don’t think shooting the video will be that challenging, especially for quick, 60 and 90-second videos. Far more challenging is really good audio, as you suggest.
The more I hear, the more I think we should just hire a pro to handle this.
The key for that will be settings, and lighting. You may have to spend some time figuring out how best to get those dialed in for excellent results.
It might be best to at least consult with an experienced pro before you take this on. I think the best bet might be to find someone knowledgeable to do the work free of charge as it’s for charity. For example, if I (20 years professional video experience) was in your area and I would consider doing the shooting and the editing for you strictly on a volunteer basis.
Phone cameras are capable of producing pretty good video these days but the key is having someone who knows what they’re doing manning (womaning) the camera. There’s so much to consider that your average person wouldn’t think of.
Probably true so long as the pro knows what they are doing. You don’t need a super-expensive, super-advanced set-up with 5 or 6 lights for each interview but you will benefit from having an operator who has done professional quality work even if it was done with cheap equipment. At the level you’re talking about it’s more about the person more than the gear.
Steven Soderbergh shot Unsane and High Flying Bird on iPhones back in 2018 and 2019. They both look pretty good. I think the latter is still on Netflix.
There is virtually zero chance of OP producing anything resembling professional without the help of professionals. Perhaps that’s ok for a small business or charitable organization but then the question becomes one of which compromises are acceptable.
I was involved with a project using some video work done by a pair of film students from a local university. They were able to check out equipment (cams, lights, mics, stands) from the school for shooting, then used fancy software and stuff from the media lab. As I understand it, they were a few hundred dollars per finished video and everyone was very pleased with the end results.
Get yourself a gimbal stabilizer to help with the shots.
I was just part of a 2-minute promo video for our parks department, and they had the local cable channel come out and shoot it. Not only did it involve professional TV cameras (which you could probably get away with not using) but they had lights, light meters and wireless microphones.
iPhone cameras are pretty damn good but I still think you need someone with lighting and sound knowledge.
Yes, thank you. I saw these recently and thought it would be helpful.
Yes, thank you. It IS about the message. The foundation will need to make sure the video quality does not detract.