Smartphone photography. From experience.

Today I want to start the story of a cool case. So, let's go!

A photographer friend gave my contact to his client. The client needed to shoot a promotional video about the bathhouse. What to do if you receive such a request, you need to find out the following:

✅1- which video needs to be shot and for what purposes. The client said they needed a video tour of the bathhouse.

2- find out who their target audience is (which people they need to attract and what they like) People 30 of average income and above.

✅3- Find out what competitive advantages this bathhouse has. What to focus on from the pictures, what to interest. They have a swimming pool, a bath attendant, a massage room, rooms for different numbers of people, their own kitchen, beer and crayfish :-)

✅4- where the video will be used. The format and timing (duration) of the videos depends on this. Because each site has its own requirements and features. Somewhere one format is better, somewhere another.

As a result, one long overview video was needed-an excursion. To music with text. And separately short videos about rooms and additional services.

I counted three variants of the estimate.

✅1- Professional. Good with professional equipment, a large set of lighting devices, 3d graphics, a speaker, shooting in 4k in LOG for professional color correction, etc.

✅2- Normal. The usual video. We save money on additional equipment, we shoot on a good Sony alpha in 10bit. With a set of high-power optics, a minimum set of light. Standard editing, color correction, standard titles. As if for a moderate price tag, a good video.

✅3- Entry level. This is the level of a regular video graph. When the minimum set of equipment. Stabilizer, camera, universal lens, on-camera light. I shot it, glued the frames to the music on the montage and gave it away.

The customer thought and said that all three options are very expensive... That was the end of it.

🧠Only a week later, I thought of offering them a phone shoot. I told them the price of 10000 for shooting and 3000 for editing one video.

🤑Their price pleased. And then the question comes from them: "Will the quality be good?"

🤔And here I wanted to say that the quality will be poor. Naturally, I look at the picture from the phone, comparing it with professional cameras. That is, for me, the Red, arri movie camera gives excellent quality. Simpler movie cameras, such as Black Magic or Sony Fx3, give good results.

Normal cameras give 8bit Sony alpha. Well, the phones give terrible things. So I had to answer that the quality would be terrible 😊

That is, if you look at the phone, it's fine, but if you open it on a 17-inch full-Hd monitor, then all the disadvantages of the picture from the phone are immediately visible. Let's talk further. The videos are needed for the site. That is, when placing a video on the site, it is still greatly reduced so that it loads quickly and weighs little. And in social networks, everyone is watching from phones, and therefore if I take it off on the phone, then everything will look great from the phone and from the site.

I decide to clarify this and ask: "Are you planning to use videos only on the site and in social networks?" Right?

What I hear in response: "More on the TVs that hang on our walls" And send me a picture of huge TVs on the floor of the wall😊Then I realize that this is a failure. And you need to give up shooting.

But I have been convinced for 25 years that "good quality" is different for all customers. And I decide to do the following.

💡I offer the client a free test shooting so that he can evaluate the quality and decide for himself whether it is good or bad. That is, I arrive, take 3-5 frames on the phone, mount them on the laptop immediately and turn them on on the TV and make a decision yes or no. The client liked the idea and I arrived the next morning. I took off the darkest areas so that the picture was as bad as possible on the test. And in the finished videos, it will be better.

😍In the process of shooting, the customer was already delighted with what kind of picture it turns out and how cool and cinematic everything looks. Without even waiting for the end of the installation and checking on the TV, he approved the shooting and said that everything suits them.

That's how I arranged to shoot a promotional video on a smartphone. And the client had a complete idea of the quality that he receives for the announced amount.

I passed the first stage of negotiations successfully. I took the project.

❓What is the second step, I will tell you in the next article.

Thank you for reading to the end!

Russian-language publication https://dzen.ru/a/ZKxQWE9nfXfy2IRl on the Zen blog https://dzen.ru/topcontent2023

Welcome to the friendly community of fans of shooting on the phone! https://vk.com/topcontent2022
Here are the best for shooting content on a smartphone.
TopContent community from CMCproduction and SmartREC

Author's video content.
In collaboration with CMCproduction & SmartREC video studios
https://www.youtube.com/c/ViolettaWennman
https://ok.ru/shipshard1
https://vk.com/shipshardvk
https://www.pinterest.ca/omegagirs/
https://dzen.ru/shipshard