Making a Film with a Smart Phone on a super tight budget

In 2015 something remarkable happened. An indie film called 'Tangerine' was released for the whole world to see, a remarkable accomplishment for many reasons. One of them being the budget:

As you can see, this film's budget came nowhere near the budgets of other films in 2015 (They were in the millions). Now the craziest part about this movie is that it was entirely shot on an iPhone. A film shot on an iPhone cost $100,000 to make and it ended up grossing $700,000.

That is a big deal for indie movie makers or people who even dream of one day making a full length film. However some questions need to be answered. What exactly are you spending $100,000 on?

the phone itself costs roughly $750-$850 (that is manageable). The audio featured in the trailer is superb, clearly it did not come from the iPhone itself. The audio was outsourced to professionals, that must have cost quite a bit, audio experts are invaluable, but if you were to do it yourself however you'd have to get a boom pole that's roughly $40-$50 and you need the cables and the professional audio recorder. The appropriate audio set-up that I'd use would cost about roughly $230 and finally you'll need the anamorphic lens that was used to shoot this film which is roughly $175.

That isn't so bad? A few hundred on a phone and a few hundred on gear, what about the the other $98,695? Well that's a bit tricky. The creators of the film clearly spent that money on advertisement, building sets, paying their actors/actresses, food, permits to shoot, props etc etc etc.

I'm not going to go into detail on what you're going to do about actors/actresses, props, shooting locations, sets etc. That is where you need to be creative and figure out how you're going to bring something you love or care about to life. I only plan to show you how it is entirely possible by showing you my rig and in another post I'll be sharing a podcast and some technical videos getting more in depth while sharing a teaser concept trailer that is written and will be shot, acted and edited entirely by me (I'll also be doing the audio myself).

1: The 'camera' is the phone

What phone should you use/buy to do this? I have the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, it has arguably one of the best cameras on the market at the time of writing this. However google, OnePlus, and Apple have not released their flagship phones at the time of writing this so you might want to wait for one of those phones. But as I alluded to earlier, the film 'Tangerine' was shot in 2015 and it is 2018, the phones, apps, etc have all gotten considerably better. I choose the Galaxy S9 Plus because of the ram, 6 gigs is a big deal. My previous daily driver was a Samsung Galaxy S7 Active which only had 2 gigs... what a world of difference

2: The Audio

Let's talk about the sounds you'll hear in your movie/video. A really mediocre piece of video can be saved by good/excellent audio. There are a lot of youtubers out there and content creators who make decent content. Although they don't have high end cameras or fancy cellphone cameras to rely on, their audio always saves the day. I keep thinking of Jordan Peterson's earliest videos on youtube. The production was low by all meaningful standards, however the content was really really good and the audio was decent, it didn't bother us, we got by just fine with good audio. So I'll go into detail as to what you need to capture excellent audio that shouldn't hurt the bank. My set up will be different from what I'll recommend to you and I'll explain why.

• Audio Recorder - Tascam DR-40
• SD memory card
• Shotgun Microphone - RODE VideoMic Go
• Boom Pole - Neewer portable microphone Boom Pole
• Audio Cables - Depends on your microphone/Audio recording setup

The audio recorder is essential to have excellent quality in your film/video, depending on your shotgun microphone's settings, you'll need to have the ability to adjust the phantom power (Unless your microphone is powered through other means), you'll also have control of the quality of your sound and can listen to your audio in real time to make sure you're recording what you need to.

High quality audio files are large, if you can afford a 64-400 gig SD card do yourself the favor and buy it. You can probably get away with 32 gigabytes to be honest.

The shotgun microphone is the rockstar of this show I'm using a RODE VideoMic go, this is an excellent mic, however it's a $100 dollars and in order to set up my rig the way it is, I spent another $30.00 on cables.

For $30 more I would have rather purchased the Audio-Technica AT875R. However, I had the RODE VideoMic Go laying around so I'll use it until it's no longer viable. Which finally leads me to the cables and the boom pole, depending on your set up, you should know which cables will be compatible with your recorder and microphone.

Earlier in my post I mentioned monitoring audio, but what about video? Yes, you absolutely want to be able to monitor what your camera sees, especially if you're recording and step in front of the camera, it's important to have a monitor and the options that exist won't break the bank. I use a Neewer field monitor and hook it up to a ScreenBeam Mini2. This is excellent set-up for mobile phone devices, specifically the android devices. On Samsung phones it's either called "smart view" or "quick view" etc. The feature mirrors your phone devices to another screen e.g. TV, field monitor, etc.

3: The Lens
The movie tangerine wasn't shot with just the iPhone camera, it relied heavily on the use of a special lens from Moondog Labs called the Anamorphic Lens. This lens is the real deal, your film will look like the movies on the big screen with that lens. I got the lens that is compatible with the Beast Grip Pro. The Beast Grip allows me to attach lights, mics, batteries and other accessories with cold shoe mounts. The Beast Grip can also easily be attached to tripods, dollys, gimbals, steadycams etc. I can't imagine filming anything without the Beast Grip and I certainly wouldn't do a film without the an anamorphic lens. The creators of Tangerine stated clearly that the film would not have been done without it.

4: Stabilize those shots!

The camera work in and of itself is a work of art. The way someone manipulates the camera to capture everything going on in a shot is absolutely fascinating, how do you think you'd achieve this? You'll need a camera stabilizer. There are many options out there... rigs, steadycams, gimbals, scorpions, tripods, dollys, etc.

I personally use the X Grip Scorpion, it's inexpensive and works really well for me. Being a guy who has a great grip, in shape and pretty flexible, the scorpion is an excellent option. However I'll be buying a Flycam Redking soon.... for even better stabilization.

There's no telling what someone can do with a little bit of creativity and a decent cam stabilizer. Think outside the box, break some rules, or just watch some of the best films in the last 10 years and imagine yourself trying to capture the action the way the pros do. Just ask yourself, How do they do it? what exactly did the do? and what do I have to do to land some really cool shots like the pros?

There's no telling what can be accomplished with some imagination and trial/error.

5. The rest...

There are a few key things I left out. You'll obviously need a script, which is the blueprint or foundation of any film. Lighting is also a huge part of the film process... but there are so many lighting solutions out there that I simply can't cover it in a post. Just know that depending on what time of day you're shooting or if it's indoor vs outdoor, just know that the right lighting conditions you desire will require planning and/or certain lights. And finally don't forget your audio and video that you captured will have to be put together in post production. I use Adobe Premiere Pro, but Sony Vegas, Final Cut and other programs work very well too.

That just about covers most of it... what you shoot, who your actors are, where you shoot and what it takes to do this is up to you to figure out. I can't get you there, but I can show you the tools you'll need.

I can't wait to show you all the concept teaser trailer I'm putting together. I will eventually accompany a full length script to it. Until then, the future will entail some videos, podcasts and some posts on here. I plan to shoot in a week from this post and over the next weekend I'll be editing the footage... hope it comes out good. I'm just a writer. I've never directed, edited or shot video in a way that can be described as cinematic, but I'm willing to try and I think anybody who's interested in film should too.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you join me and see what I create.

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