Master the Art of Solo B-Roll: Smartphone Filmmaking for Beginners

now as a beginner filmmaker or content creator you'll often find yourself in situations where you need to capture shots of yourself maybe you're making a travel film but don't have anyone to help you maybe you need to capture some b-roll of yourself For an upcoming video project whatever your reason how do you capture these shots so that they look professional how can you make them feel cinematic how can you capture these shots so that they look like they've been shot by an entire production crew when an actual fact they've just been shot by you using a smartphone well in this video I'm going to share some tips and tricks as well as show you some accessories that will take your mobile videography from looking cheap and amateur to something that looks like it's straight out of a Hollywood Blockbuster hey everyone Steve here from learn online video and today I am at the valley of rocks in Southwest England the perfect place to capture some solo b-roll the aim of today is to capture enough footage to create a short cinematic sequence that I'll show you at the end end of this video a big thanks to epidemic sound for sponsoring this video this is where I'll be getting all of my music and sound effects for the final sequence okay let's jump straight in starting nice and simple now the quickest and easiest way to capture a shot of yourself is to Simply lean your phone against something within your environment I'm going to frame my shot and hit record now it's just a simple case of walking through the frame to capture your shot but there is a problem with this technique because having to rely on leaning your phone against things will limit what camera angles you can shoot and as you can see with this shot here the phone wasn't even secure it slipped down and ruined the shot so if you want to massively improve the look of your shots and make life a whole lot easier then be sure to grab yourself a mini tripod and phone holder like this one here make sure it's one with a ball head like this so that you can easily adjust your shot and level Your Horizon okay so now that we have our phone on a mini tripod this shot becomes a whole lot easier not only is the phone higher off the ground creating a much better looking perspective but we can now easily adjust star shot and lock everything in so that it's nice and steady okay so let's try the shot again only this time with some cinematic music and color [Music] grading now another quick tip here is that you obviously have to walk back and get your phone after each of these shots so why not make the most of it why not grab a shot of yourself walking back this way you've got two shots for the price of one and double the options in the edit also whilst we're on the subject of walking through the frame in film making having a person walk in the same direction across each shot is really important for maintaining visual continuity for example if I got a shot from me walking from left to right to right to left this can feel jarring and confusing to the audience also walking from left to right feels like the person is going somewhere whereas having them walk from right to left feels like they're coming back similar to a shot of someone walking away from the camera compared to them walking towards the camera so think about your shot and plan each movement with this in mind before you hit cord now as with any good b-roll sequence capturing a good variety of shots is crucial so think about different camera angles shoot at different focal lengths now the beauty of these mini tripods is that you can pretty much attach them anywhere try shots where the camera is higher off the ground and the focuses more on the landscape rather than you this is a great way to show off your location try shots that are high up looking down or why not get really creative and put your phone on the ground pointing up and walk over it having a good mix of camera angles is what's going to make your footage stand out and keep your audience engaged you could for example cut from a nice wide shot as you walk across the beach to a tight closeup shot of your foot as it crunches down onto the Pebbles or try a shot where the foreground is in Focus as you walk through the frame in the background in soft focus you can achieve this look by putting your hand in front of the camera and locking focus on it by tapping and holding on the screen now when you take your hand away the focus will remain locked on the foreground the more diverse your selection of Sho shots the more intriguing your footage and final edit will be now with all of these shots being static shots your Framing and composition is going to be more important than ever this is what's going to make them Stand Out think about the rule of thirds symmetry leading lines this is how to improve your shots with zero budget no fancy camera accessories required just knowledge you can be at the best location in the world but if your framing is off it's going to look terrible Okay so we've covered some simple and basic ways to capture solo be roll now let's step things up now up until now all of these shots have been static shots and if we want this sequence to feel like someone else has filmed it then we're going to need to add some camera movement a quick easy way to add movement to a static shot is to Simply zoom in in the edit but technically this isn't camera movement we're just zooming in so how can we add more camera movement to this sequence on a budget how can we make this sequence look much more interesting well one way is to use cutaway shots a cutaway shot refers to an additional shot or series of shots that are inserted into the sequence to provide context enhanced storytelling and in this case help add more movement to our footage rather than every shot having you in it which would just get predictable and tedious try cutting away to shots of your location to help tell a story an orbit shot of this sign for example splicing these shots into the final edit will help add more interest variety and perspective to your sequence now another budget friendly way to add more movement to these shots is to use a mini extension ion pole like this one here an extension pole will allow you to hold your camera out in front of you you could get low down and track your feet as you walk you could hold it out to the side and then orbit the camera around as you walk you could track from the side or from behind all of these shots are going to add camera movement and increase production value now as great as these shots are I think an experienced filmmaker would know that these shots are being shot using some kind of an extension pole or selfie stick so how can you capture true camera movement shots of yourself without having to operate or hold the camera well by far one of the best ways is to use a smartphone gimbal with AI tracking like this one here this tiny little device that fits easily in your pocket unfolds to become your own personal camera operator now utilizing its Advanced AI tracking software I can have the gimbal lock on and track me pretty much wherever I go and this is true camera movement this camera is actually panning and tilting as I walk through the frame simply reposition the gimbal to link one shot to another and just like that you've now got an unmanned camera that is following your every move keeping you in the center of frame as you go okay now whil we're on the subject of tools to help shoot solo b-roll this next one is a complete Game Cher this is an electric zip line for your smartphone and the results you can get with this thing are incredible let me quickly show you how this thing works so we've got this yellow line or string and I'm going to tie one end to something secure this branch on this tree should do nicely and I'm going to tie the other end to this tree here now quick disclaimer here okay don't go doing this using a tree hanging off the side of a cliff like I'm doing here I had very limited options at this location and I did it as safely as I could I'm going to unravel all of this line and attach the other end to this tree here I'm going to pull the line nice and tight I'm going to attach the zip line as well as my smartphone now using this tiny remote I can now move the camera up and down this line allowing me to capture shots with my smartphone that just aren't possible any other way okay so let's start with the camera at this end towards the edge of the cliff and I'm going to Traverse up this hill and try to time it so that just as I get to the top the camera flies past me let's take a [Music] look and what I really love about this setup is that you can capture multiple shots without having to move the line for example I could point the camera downwards and capture the ultimate top down shot or I could turn the camera to face the other way for a completely new perspective there are many creative ways that you can use this zip line these are just a few examples also Pro tip here if you're going to do this don't do this walking through a bunch of brambles like I just did because it doesn't end well okay so now that you've seen what this thing is capable of and how it works let's Capture One More Shot for the final sequence I'm going to tie one end of the line around this Rock yes I'm terrible at tying knots but as long as it's safe I don't really care I'm going to unravel the line all the way down the cliff like this and tie the other end to this rock here we now have a line going from here all the way up to here and for this shot I'm simply going to make my way back up this Cliff whilst the camera follows now some of you might be asking why not just use a drone for this and the quick answer is that this is much more precise it's much quieter requires less skill and it's much safer I don't need to worry about propeller blades whizzing past my face so perfect for shooting solo b-roll okay so with the sun setting I would say I've probably got about an hour of daylight left so I'm going to grab a few more shots using all of the techniques that I've shown you so far I'm going to grab a few more shots using the AI gimbal the extension pole and some simple static shots using the mini tripod I've also been incredibly lucky this evening because we have a beautiful sunset helping create much softer more cinematic light so we've definitely captured enough shots to create a short sequence but before we do that it's really important that we find the right music so for this I'm going to head over to epidemic sound epidemic sound make finding the right track for your films and videos incredibly easy I can search by mood genre or theme they've got playlists and albums to make the whole music finding process so much quicker now for this sequence I'd like a track that matches this location this location is epic beautiful and inspiring so let's search for tracks that suit this mood and feel if I find a track that I like or even a specific part of that track that I like I can simply select that segment and I'm then given a list of tracks that closely match what I'm looking for this feature saves me a huge amount of time that would otherwise be spent aimlessly searching for the right track they've also got a huge sound effects Library so whilst we're there let's grab a few sound effects that we can sprinkle into this sequence I'm going to grab some atmospheric sounds some wor sound effects maybe some sounds of nature or some cinematic Rises to help out a bit more drama to this sequence you can download as much music and sound effects as you like with epidemic sound and the best part is they offer a free 30-day trial to anyone that uses the link in my description so if you're looking for some of the best music and sound effects there is out there be sure to check out epidemic sound okay so now that we have all of our shots on our timeline edited into a short sequence we've added music and sound effects now let's see what this solo b-roll sequence looks like [Music] so what did you think of that final sequence do you think most would assume that I had help with that or could you tell that it was shot completely solo be honest and do let me know in the comments section below if you'd like to learn more about smartphone videography or how to make your mobile footage look much more cinematic then be sure to check out these two videos here but that's it from me thanks for watching and I will see you in the next video [Music] n

Channel: Learn Online Video

Views: 714,661

Keywords: Beginner Filmmaker, Broll, Broll Techniques, Camera Angles, CameraSkills, Cinematic Storytelling, Cinematic Style, CinematicShots, Creative Video, CreativeContent, DIY Cinematography, FilmTips, Filmmaker Skills, Filmmaking Tutorial, FilmmakingBeginners, Mobile Filmmaker, MobileFilmmaking, Smartphone Camera, Smartphone Tips, SmartphoneFilmmaking, Solo Shooting, SoloBroll, Video Editing, VideoProduction, Videography Tips, filmmaking, filmmaking tips, learn online video

Id: 97qL1-IQAmI

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 03 2023