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5 Tips For Making A Movie On Your Smartphone

Making a great looking movie used to be the sole preserve of those in possession of multi-million dollar budget and plenty of high-tech equipment. These days, however, a smartphone, a few pieces of inexpensive equipment, some apps, and a good imagination should be all you need. Here’s how to do it.

Time Lapse

Making a movie using time-lapse is so easy to do, yet the results are amazing. All you need to do is set your phone up somewhere interesting (don’t leave it there unattended, obviously) and hit the record button when you’re in time-lapse mode. On the iPhone, this mode is found within the camera app, and on Android devices, it can be in a few different places depending on which phone you have – you simply need to look around and experiment until you find what you’re looking for. If your phone doesn’t have anything already installed, there are plenty of apps that will help you. When you stop recording (this can be after a few minutes or a few hours), you’ll discover an evocative and interesting looking movie.

Change The Colors

If you thought color filters were only for Instagram, think again; you can use them for movies too. You’ll need an app such as KineMaster, and once you’ve got it, you can apply many different filters and color casts to your movie. You can choose just to change a few scenes, or you can change the entire film – the choice is yours since you’re the director. Changing these filters can give your movie an entirely different look, making even the most innocent of footage look like a dark horror movie, and making daytime into night. You can even add a filter that gives your scenes a vintage look.

Extra Equipment

Using just your smartphone is fine when you’re just starting out, but when you have more experience, and you want to make a longer movie, or one that looks that bit more professional, it’s time to invest in some good equipment. A tripod is always useful for when you’re shooting and you need the camera to stay still, and picking the best gimbal for tracking shots can make a big difference. You can use spotlights, microphones, difference lenses, and a huge variety of professional add-ons to make your movie really stand out.

Special Effects

While it’s true that not all movies require special effects, you might just need a few explosions or fires to complete it. If so, the app VideoFX can help you out by offering advice on green screens and frames, and allowing you to add some pretty impressive effects. If you want the best, you’ll need to buy the add-on pack, but it could well be worth it to finish your movie in style.

Title Cards

No movie would be complete without title cards, and if you’ve shot a gorgeous, professional-looking film, you don’t want to ruin it with poorly made, badly designed, terribly shot amateur title cards. WeVideo is a useful app that allows you to add great looking title cards to your movies quickly and easily. In fact, this intuitive app will even add them for you where it thinks they’re needed (you’ll need to add the wording, of course; it’s a good app, but it’s not that clever – yet!).