Over the past 5 years, we have seen the inclusion of video recording capability in mobile phones. But have you thought of shooting your student film with it? Yeah, I’m serious. You just have to look up the film festival guides to see that people are doing it and that video on the mobile is no longer a device for just shooting dodgy Youtube vlogs or the latest Xavier College scandal.

At The Season of Excellence, Top Screen 2009, one of the assessors said to a group of VCE students that ‘they are waiting for a good video by a year 12 student that uses mobile phone video.’

Now that you are convinced that you want to shoot your next short film with your mobile phone, here are some handy hints.

- Do tests
Every phone is going to be different; they are all going to have varying quality in both video and sound. By doing tests you are not only preparing yourself for what to expect, but you are also building up a heap of work that you can put into your folio/production plan.

- Plan/story
When dealing with such a unique format like mobile video, you really want to have done the tests before you write your story. You are going to want to spend a lot of time on your story, to ensure you are not just creating another ‘dodgy Youtube Vlog’.

Some decisions that may be influenced by the use of mobile phone video are dialogue and postproduction. Are you going to be able to record dialogue affectively ( remember you can use a second device to record audio like a portable disc recorder ). Also, is your video compatible with your computer and non-linear editing software? How about memory on your phone? If you are shooting a lot in one day, will you have the space on your phone?

- Shoot close up.
The closer you are, the easier its going to be to see what your filming. Remember that you are shooting at a lower resolution, so be aware of this if you plan to shoot wide shots.

- Audio
As mentioned under planning, audio capturing on your phone maybe poor. A lot of the time you will find the in built microphone is sensitive to background noise and wind. You really have 3 options.

1. Use the in built microphone and be selective with where you shoot and what audio you need to capture.
2. Use an external recorder ( you could even use another mobile phone with better quality that could be placed close to the subject )
3. Use only post sound. This would be most commonly used if you were creating a music video. TIP: Be very careful if you plan to do ADR ( record the dialogue in post production ). It’s a very tedious process and normally looks stupid.

One of the most powerful scenes in the documentary ‘Bowling for columbine’ is a montage of security camera footage ( poor quality ), phone conversation audio and music. Remember it’s all about the story.