How to Film like a PRO with Android Smartphones [Updated Guide!]

This is the complete and up-to-date

guide

to recording videos with your Android smartphone. We will cover everything step by step for you to learn how to

film

with Android with the latest Android video setup tools and tips to help you get amazing results. I'm justin brown from primal video, where we help you grow your audience and increase your income with online videos. If you see value in this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up; It really makes a big difference and all the links. Everything I mentioned in this video can be found linked in the description box below, let's jump into it now.

We've created video

guide

s like this before and the feedback is always amazing, but it's been a few years and there have been some major updates. on Android and with phone cameras, so in this

updated

version we'll cover the latest tips, the best smartphone gear we recommend right now, and all the key settings and steps you need right now to get the most out of it. Get out your Android device now, to be clear, you don't need any additional equipment to get great results with the process I'm going to show you, but I will mention some of the low-cost tools I'm using. the path in case you're looking to take things further and just like last time, there's no need to take notes as we go.

We've put together a quick start reference guide for you to download and use next time. We're

film

ing so you don't miss any of these steps, so we'll have a link where you can get your copy at the end of this video. Okay, step number one is preparing your content for filming and I know that. It sounds obvious when you hear it, but it's much easier to create an amazing looking video, much faster and easier if you've prepared your content ahead of time instead of trying to figure it all out once you're sitting in front of your camera.

What I'm talking about here is planning a little in advance and determining what you want to cover in your videos now for some people, which might mean writing an entire script word for word for others, it would mean just listing a few points or guidelines for what you are going to cover in your video, but doing this from the beginning will make your filming much faster and easier and will allow you to create a better video at the end of the day, step number two is selecting a suitable location to film , so here you want to try to find a location where there is minimal background noise or distractions for viewers, so if your filming location has a lot of noise kids playing outside or someone with a leaf blower or lawnmower going or planes flying overhead, then it can be very distracting for you to create the content, which can also be very distracting for viewers watching your content afterwards, so you want to try to find a place. where there's as little background noise as possible, you'll also want to make sure that the background you've selected matches the theme, the style, the overall feel of the video you're going to create, so it doesn't make sense. go and film a cooking video in a gym, the background, the location just doesn't match, so you have to make sure that the content that you're creating matches the location that you're going to film in and i.

I will also say that the most ideal location will be somewhere where you can set everything up and not have to pack everything up afterwards, so if you are filming in your living room and have to set up and pack everything up every time your family or friends come home They come and that can be a big distraction, a big point of procrastination, so ideally your ideal location will be a place where you can set everything up, walk in turn, turn everything on and that's it, the next step is Decide if you are going to use the camera front camera, the selfie camera or the main camera, the main one on the back of your device.

Now there are pros and cons to each, if you want to get the highest quality video footage from your Android device then that's it. You will use the camera on the back, but it will also be much harder for you to shoot, especially if you go to film alone because you won't be able to quickly look at the screen because it's facing backwards. Otherwise, now I'll put a link on the cards to a video we made showing you some different methods where you can record your videos just using that main rear camera and still be able to monitor everything, so I'll put a link on the cards and below in that description, the other option you have is to use your device's front selfie camera.

This is usually a lower quality camera, but in most cases it is very much the front one. The front cameras on today's devices definitely have more than enough quality to create amazing videos, so the one I'm using now is the front camera from a Google Pixel 5 and it looks pretty good. I like the convenience. of being able to quickly look back at the screen to make sure that yes, I'm recording now. If you are going to use the front camera, you should make sure to make eye contact with the camera lens, not the screen. In itself, this is one of the most important things we see all the time.

There is a disconnection. You're looking at yourself, but you need to look into the camera lens to make eye contact with the viewers looking at you, so make sure you're looking. to the camera lens and not yourself, the next step is to clean your camera lens, I know it sounds very obvious when you hear it, but most people don't do it now, these are our phones, they are in front to our faces, uh, they could. be it our fingerprints, dirt, makeup, even on your camera lens, and this will reduce the quality of your videos, it will create a blurry and blurry looking image, it looks pretty bad, so all you need to do is clean the camera lens before creating any video or even any photo, in fact, get into the habit of simply wiping it on your shirt, if that's all you have, ideally you're going to use some type of microfiber cloth or cleaning cloth glasses.

Glasses cleaning cloth will also work, but you want to make sure your camera lens is clean before taking photos or videos. The next step is to stabilize and position your camera for filming, so unless you're looking for that Blair Witch-style shaky video look, you'll want to give this a try. Take your phone out of your hands whenever possible holding your phone upright is the most unstable position, the worst position for you to create your videos, even using a selfie stick will be better than holding your phone in your hand, it will help take some of that. shake if you're going to walk but also if you're going to walk that's where you could look into some kind of gimbal stabilizer like an osmo mobile to really help you take that shake but if you're not going to move and you're going to have a static shot, a locked shot like this, then all you need to do is place your smartphone with whatever you have so that it is just below eye level, I mean, always. slightly below eye level whether you're going to be sitting or standing now ideally here if you have a tripod that will make it a lot easier a fantastic little portable tripod that I like and am using right now in this setup .

It's the Archon tripod, it even comes with a little smartphone holder so you can hold your phone in both portrait and landscape mode and it's currently selling for around 20 price points, it's ridiculously cheap and you can also see in this photo that I I am literally using a box to place the tripod and specifically the camera at the correct height so that it is just below eye level. If you have a tripod, you should now set it to the correct height if not. Don't use whatever you have to take the phone out of your hands to stabilize it and place it at the correct height, it could be that you are simply placing your phone on a shelf, bookcase or TV. cabinet, whatever you have, to take it off your hands and get it at the right height, the next step is to set up the lighting.

Now the most important piece when lighting your shot is lighting the subject of your video. whoever is in it or whatever you want your viewers to focus on, that's the most important piece, so you want to light it first and then if you have additional lights, use them to light the scene or the background to achieve that look. Good too, but the priority is always whatever the focus of the video is now. If you don't have access to any light, then you can just sit in front of a window and get that nice natural light coming in through the window, but really, any light you have access to can help enhance your shot.

It could be a desk lamp. It could be a bedside lamp. Anything you have access to to zoom in and help illuminate the subject of your photo again. video now a great portable light that i use and recommend is the yong yo yn 300 air crazy name amazing light it's ridiculously cheap and casts a really nice soft light so in terms of this shot here i have a lot of light coming in front of a window big one that's right in front of me, but I also have a lot of light coming in from the side, so to even out some of that light I have one of those yon-yo lights behind the camera here that brightens and fills in some of those darker shadows on this side so it's not to eliminate them completely but just to brighten them a little bit so the shadows aren't as harsh and this is what it looks like with that light is off so it's not a huge difference but it definitely adds to the general jack by having it on, so now that you have the lighting sorted, the next step is to connect your microphone.

Audio, I would say, is probably more important than video. the image itself, if you have amazing audio, it will be much easier for your viewers to stay and watch your video for longer than if it had grating sound, if it was distorted and muffled or it was very difficult to hear you also if you have captured good audio . and something happened to the video piece and it became unusable, you can still create a piece of content using b-roll footage, photos, text, graphics, whatever it is, you can still create a piece of content because you have decent content. audio, if it's the other way around and you have an amazing shot and you're talking in it but there's no audio or the audio isn't great, then you're not going to be able to create effective content, so audio is really important.

What I would suggest wherever possible is that you use an additional microphone and don't just rely on the built in one within our Android devices, if that's all you have, just the built in one, you still use that. creating videos, but at some point when you can upgrade, it's a solid investment and will be my number one pick for anyone. If you're going to buy something to enhance your videos, it's going to be a microphone, now the microphone I currently have. The use for this video is just a twenty dollar wired lapel microphone called boya by m1 and in fact many of the first videos on our YouTube channel were filmed with exactly this microphone so for only 20 this microphone It sounds amazing and will work on both.

smartphones

and DSLRs now, if your phone does not have a headphone jack, you will need to use an adapter from USBC to that headphone jack to be able to plug and connect this microphone or as another option if you are going to move around a lot with the videos you are creating , then another great microphone is the rode video microphone, a small mini shotgun type microphone that again you will need an adapter to use with your smartphone, but it will give you amazing audio without needing to be tethered or tethered or physically connected to your phone like if I were here.

Next we are going to prepare our phone for filming, so we will make sure we have enough storage space available on our device to record. of our new videos that we're making, so if your phone is full of photos and videos and stuff, I would say backup them, delete them from your phone so you have room for the new videos that you're going to make, you also want to check for making sure you have enough battery life, you don't want your phone to die in the middle of filming, you'll also want to make sure your camera's recording quality settings are also correct and ideally set as high as they can be for your particular device so you want to open the camera app on your device then go to camera settings and there you will be able to see the video recording resolution so if you have the ability to do 4k it I would recommend if you have the ability to work in 1080 then 1080 will be fine and if you have an older device and the highest quality setting you have access to is 720p I wouldn't say that. that's a deal breaker, it's not ideal, but 720p will still be enough to get good results.

Now there is one more setting I want to mention that is mainly found on newer devices and that is that they have a setting for hevc recording for high efficiency. Recording with codecNow, if you have this turned on, it will allow you to create smaller video files, but there are still many applications and video editing programs that will not be able to read those files, so if you want to create a video file. that will work in pretty much any video editing app or app, so I would recommend you disable or turn off hevc recording for me.

I normally turn it off so that I can use any app or program without any next problem, I highly recommend that you enable airplane mode or do not disturb mode or lock mode on your device so that you are not interrupted while recording your videos, so it is possible you have a phone call through a video call, a lot of emails, I mean, these are our main communication devices, so using it as a video camera is You are likely to have distractions and things will come up, so turning on the Airplane mode or turning on Do Not Disturb mode can save your sanity and also your video files.

The next thing you should do is lock your camera settings so that nothing happens. to change while you're recording your videos, so by default our phones are set to auto, which means they will automatically make adjustments as things change in your shot, so it could be someone walking through your Here, your phone might light up. the shot just to expose that person walking or something happening in the background can change the overall brightness it can also change the overall focus of the shot so we want to lock those in so you have control of how you're setting things up. any way you want, instead of your phone having that auto-adjustment capability now for most devices, it can really be as simple as tapping and holding the screen and a yellow box will appear and then that yellow box will appear. and say auto exposure and auto focus are locked at that point so if you want to make minor adjustments to brighten or darken your shot you can do it there on the screen and when you release it when you take your hand away then lock it and hold it pressed at that point so that it does not change so that your focus is locked and your brightness or exposure is locked at that point now if you are going to film alone and you are going to be filming using the main rear camera of your device then you can bring something else to the shot to focus and set the brightness so it could be a light, it could be a pillow, whatever you have, something to set that focus point and set the brightness as well and then obviously bring it back out of the shot to be ready so you can produce that content.

There are some devices now that have a pro mode that will give you much more granular control over your shot so you can really lock everything down so you can adjust things like shutter speed, iso, white balance, and even microphone volume level. . If your phone doesn't have that capability built-in, there are awesome third-party camera apps like filmic pro which is our top pick that gives you access to all those DSLR-like setups or pro camera-like setups from your Android device and even They will allow you to record at higher qualities, so if you want to have the greatest amount of control and if you want to get the best video footage out of your Android device, I highly recommend using an app like Filmic Pro or another great alternative similar to Filmic Pro. , but open camera is free, so one of those two will give you a lot more options for your video recording.

It's okay when you're almost to the point where you're going to create your video, but there's one really important step that a lot of people go through. high and it creates a lot of headaches and stress for them when you skip this step and that is to record a test video, so now that you have everything set up, you want to be in position, you want to do a test like it's real, you want to hit record, you want to create a short short video 10 15 20 seconds test your audio make sure your shot looks how you want it to look that the lighting is how you want it that your focus is set correctly and obviously that there is sound and of good quality your microphone, in addition to Simple, this step seems like a lot of people miss and you'll end up recording an entire video without your microphone plugged in or it could be out of shot or the brightness could be totally wrong and you've just wasted a ton of time, so save yourself some time and some Be sane and make a quick test video before creating your actual content.

Now it's important that you're obviously playing this to check that everything is as you want. What this will mean is that depending on your device and the microphone you're using, you may have to unplug the microphone to get out of here and make sure everything is the way you want it, so the most important thing is after you. I've done that test where you plug everything back in; Otherwise that test would be pointless and you could end up creating a video without the microphone connected and I'm sharing this because it's happened to me more than once so that brings us to the last step. which is press that big record button and record your video now while you're recording again remember to keep eye contact on the camera lens, don't look at yourself in the camera if you're using the front camera for selfies, look at your spectators. camera lens and also make sure to monitor what is going on around you in case there is something distracting in the background or even monitor noise in the area you are filming so if a plane approaches a large truck stops outside , you can simply pause and wait for it to progress or potentially reposition yourself if necessary, so you can continue creating an amazing video.

Earlier in this video I said that I would share with you the downloadable checklist that you can download, print and use when you are creating your videos from now on so that you don't miss any of these steps. There is a link to download your free copy on the screen. Now there's also a link in the description, so grab your copy and we'll see you in the next video