Smartphone Equipment

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Visual Anthropology

Filming with a smartphone

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FILMIC Pro
for iPhone & Android

The following “smartphone equipment” is necessary to be able to film “professionally”. The pre-installed photo and video apps are not sufficient. You need a special video app that allows you to flexibly adjust different settings. This applies to both the image (format, quality, stabilisation, colours, sharpness, aperture) and the sound (quality, codec).

Find on App Store or Google Play:

→ FILMIC Pro (CHF 14)

Filmic Pro offers everything that is necessary for filming. The User Manual of FILMIC Pro (v.6) can be downloaded as a pdf document.

Alternatively, a summarised manual for FILMIC Pro (v.6) can be downloaded here with a description of the most important settings (incl. screenshots).

The latest version of FILMIC Pro (2023) has a new layout and other features. Try downloading FILMIC Legacy (v.6) instead so that the app and my explanations match.

Screenshot des «Einstellungsmenus»

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Smartphone Equipment

For the appropriate handling of the smartphone while filming and the best possible quality of the sound, a filming kit is needed. This consists of a mini tripod (which you can hold in your hand and use to guide the “camera”), a smartphone holder (to attach the smartphone to the tripod and to hold the microphone) and an external microphone (to improve the quality of the sound and to suppress hand noises on the smartphone).

Filming Kit for Smartphones (iPhone, Android)