Top 10 tips for filming yourself on a smartphone

Film maker Crispin Holland of CrispTV gives his Top 10 tips for filming yourself on a smartphone, including lighting your face and planning before you shoot…

1. Hold the phone horizontal:

First, hold your phone horizontally, not vertically, horizontally, like on a movie.

2. Good sound is crucial:

It might seem strange, but good sound is more important than good pictures. If your sound’s no good, your movie is going to be no good. So try and choose somewhere quiet – perhaps somewhere with carpet.

3. Lighting your face:

Generally speaking, the more light you have, the better your image is going to be. The important thing is to light your face properly. You could use a window, but don’t put your back to the window because you’ll end up in silhouette like this.

4. Choose a nice background:

Try and choose a nice background. Have a look around and try some.

5. Framing your shot:

Your eyes should be 2/3 of the way up the screen. Head and shoulders is just fine.

6. Hold phone level with face:

Hold your phone at the same level as your face so, not too high because you’ll be looking up, and not too low because you’ll be looking down.

7. Look into lens, not screen!

Look into the lens, not at the screen, so on my phone the lens is bottom left

8. Hold the phone steady:

Try not to move it about – perhaps someone else can film you or you can rest your phone on something, a shelf, or maybe you can tape it onto a music stand or a step ladder.

9. Shoot some bonus shots or cutaways:

If someone else is going to be editing your footage together, when you finish speaking, if you’ve mentioned certain things like a person or a place or an object, or your cat, when you’ve finished, go back and take a little video of each, so that when the footage is edited together, you can cut to those pictures to illustrate the things you’re talking about.

10. Plan before you shoot

Plan what you’re going to say before you say it. Why not write a short script or at least bullet points of what you plan to say. Keep it short, keep it sweet. Don’t bore us, get to the chorus. Good luck.

See Crispin’s YouTube video below: