Publication in Russian on the Zen blog
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Several master classes combined into one publication from the TopContent channel.
This channel will cover topics on mobile photography, mobile video shooting and editing. Mobilography. I am a video production professional. I love filming on my phone and am happy to share materials from filming and useful information about how it was filmed.

TopContent community from the head and founder of CMCproduction and SmartREC. Professional video production CMCproduction and SmartREC.
CMCproduction - full cycle video production.
SmartREC is a territory of free creativity, the first mobile video production in St. Petersburg.

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Telegram channel https://t.me/CMCproduction

When I started filming with my phone.
Before that, I shot with Canon and Zenit film cameras and a Canon G3 digital camera. The first shots taken with a phone were on a Nokia 3200. In 2004. She took photos in a resolution of 352x288 pixels, as well as in portrait mode 80x96 pixels. It was my girlfriend’s phone and I don’t have these photos left. Photos were used for contacts and photo wallpapers. This is what this phone looked like:

How to shoot top reels and get into trends

How to conduct a photo shoot on a smartphone?

Consider the option of a creative photo shoot on a smartphone!

Let's say one of your friends, who has never dealt with business, wanted to see herself in the image of a businesswoman.

Maybe she wants to open her own business and this photo shoot will put her in the right mood. It will give you a visual for promotion and posts, and an internal mood.

A photo shoot helps with this.

We choose a day with good weather. We choose nature in the style of business and offices. Or a photo studio with a themed interior room.

We look at photo shoots of business people and businessmen online. We save the photos we like that show the poses in order to repeat them at the photo shoot.

We choose from our existing wardrobe what best suits the theme. We do our own makeup and go ahead!

What is the main thing in this process besides the photographs themselves?

This is an opportunity to feel this energy within yourself, to believe that you are doing business, to get a battery charge and move in this direction and experience new sensations. A kind of psychological training. Research of yourself, your condition and plus good photos, if the one who takes the photos understands how cool it is to shoot on a phone.

Here are a few photos that I took with Elizabeth.

Photo session on a smartphone.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uBbn4fRNRNM

Image of a business girl.

How to make photos on your smartphone look great?

Talk about reflecting light!

Why does the portrait look so cool, so voluminous?

Of course the secret is in the lighting.

I really liked the light from the window. It renders the room well, makes the interior bright, and raises the brightness of objects close to the brightness of the sky.

Therefore, the phone can work (show) both the interior and the sky!

At the same time, the interior looks voluminous.

I placed the hero on the chair and turned him so that the light of the sun relative to him became the right posterolateral.

This gave a detailed look at the volume of the person and such interesting shadows on the neck!

It turns out beautiful and voluminous, but our person is dark.

I took a large mirror standing against the wall and placed it to the left of the model so as to reflect the sunlight directly onto it.

The result is a three-dimensional and contrasting portrait. I really like him.

Now you know how to take such a portrait on a sunny day in a photo studio, even without a cool camera and flashes!

The secret to success in mobile photography. See the unusual in the ordinary.

Why does one person take cool photos on his phone, while the other takes ordinary and bland photos?

It's about attitude and the desire to see an object or phenomenon from a different - unusual side.

A regular trip to the store can yield an interesting photo!

You can take a picture of beer... But why? Well, you can take a picture of how it stands on the shelf, lies on the counter, lies in a bag that is on the floor. In hand, finally... But all these frames are very similar to those that we are used to seeing and the viewer passes such photographs as banal, everyday, not catchy.

But! Let's be honest, how many of you have stuck your head into a bag to check out what the beer lying there looks like?

I put the beer in the bag and saw the sun shining through the window. I approached the light and the package began to glow a little and was filled with light. The reflections on the bottle began to be clearly visible, the beer in them became lighter and bubbles appeared. On the package itself, a light gradient appeared around the bottle. Everything became voluminous. And the walls of the package added dynamics to the entire frame in waves!

Wow! I immediately captured all this on my phone camera and it turned out to be a great photo!

And, by the way, I posted it in the group of this store (Vkusville), and they gave me points for such a cool photo!

So look for the unusual in the ordinary. Look for how you can show a familiar object from the side from which few people look at it!

How to take custom selfies?

Let's talk about how to take an interesting selfie.

We are all accustomed to the fact that a selfie is a “selfie” taken with your hand or your head in the entire frame with some kind of expression or state.

We're used to this. And sometimes, when looking at other people's profiles, I see 400-800 photos in the album. I scroll through and they are all “selfies” large and waist-deep, large and waist-deep! And so are almost all photographs.

If you have a similar situation in your album, then today everything will change!

Selfie. What is this?

Selfie (English selfie, from “self” - yourself, yourself.)

Essentially, a selfie is a self-portrait.

And a self-portrait is not just about taking pictures of yourself from an outstretched arm or a selfie stick, you can take pictures however you want. From a tripod, from afar, close up, from the face, from the back, in various interesting poses. In general, whatever your heart desires.

I was bored during the shoot and decided to take a self-portrait.

Hard sunlight fell on the wall through the window. And he drew a very clear silhouette of the window.

I decided to take advantage of this wonderful moment and stood sideways in the beam of light.

My silhouette also appeared on the wall.

I had a camera in my hands, and I took a self-portrait with Redmi NOTE 5.

I opened the front camera with good quality. I lowered the phone so that it hid in my shadow.

I built the composition. Then he turned his head straight and pressed the “take photo” button.

And this is what I got.

In processing, I converted the photo to black and white and added quite a bit of sepia and contrast.

Voila! You have an interesting selfie, of which there are not many on the Internet.

So you can take note of this method of shadow self-portrait. And when the opportunity arises and the lighting conditions are similar, take out your phone and take a great selfie!

Самая правильная книга для фотографа.

Join our community TopContent mobilography (photo, video, shooting on a smartphone). Share your photos. For professionals and amateurs - the TopContent community from the professional video studio CMCproduction and SmartREC

CMCproduction - full cycle video production
SmartREC - the first mobile video production in St. Petersburg

 

Here are the best for shooting content on your phone.

Welcome to the friendly community of phone shooting fans!

Let's learn mobilography together! Try yourself in shooting photos and videos on your phone!

We tell stories about our photos and get to know each other.

Post your work via offer news https://vk.com/topcontent2022 TopContent

Please, write:
- What smartphone was this filmed on?
- What application was used for filming?
- What application was used to process it?

Here we communicate spiritually and enrich each other:
- We share our works
- We give feedback to each other on our work
- We share news from the field of abundant photography
- We discuss lifehacks for shooting with a smartphone
- We collect educational materials on shooting with a smartphone

Join our community!

I promise it will be interesting! I will also share my work and actively participate in discussions. Look for interesting content on the topic of mobile photography on a smartphone!

Health and success to everyone! Let's go!

We continue to share photos and videos taken on the phone. TopContent community from the professional video studio CMCproduction and SmartREC - everyone can join!

Now TopContent on Zen https://dzen.ru/topcontent2023 Here are exclusive publications only for Zen.

I also invite you to telegram https://t.me/CMCproduction
Mikhail Smirnov - director and founder of CMCproduction
News, promotions, invitation to participate in joint projects.
Telegram channel, if anyone is interested, you are welcome, the doors are always open.
I’m sharing how the filming goes. Promotions for clients, invitations to participate in joint projects.

Наверное, единственная правильная книга про фотографию от фотографа, критика, педагога, исследователя фотографии Александра Лапина "Фотография как" - это бесценный учебник для начинающих и профессионалов, золотой фонд вашей библиотеки.

Книга для настоящего фотографа от Александра Лапина «Плоскость и пространство, или Жизнь квадратом» представляет читателю исследования автора в области психологии зрительного восприятия плоского изображения – картины, рисунка или фотографии.

Искусство и все, что с ним связано, - всегда тайна. Найти определение композиции ничуть не легче, чем определить, что такое Истина, Любовь, Добро или Зло.
Все книги гениального фотографа Александра Лапина

Make the prospect work for you.

Some people work for the prospect, and after this post you will become the person for whom the prospect works. Let's go!

There are different perspectives and today we will talk about the linear one.

Linear perspective is a geometric technique that involves systematically reducing the size of more distant objects and the spaces between them.

In simple words, parallel lines that never intersect narrow as they move away from us and tend to converge at one point.

Thanks to linear perspective, we can convey the volume of space in an image. And show the depth of space, the distance of objects.

How can we use perspective in portraits to make them better?

I’ll show you the example of a portrait of a bride in the park, which I took with Redmi Note 5.

What is the object here? Bride. We need to make it the center of the composition. So that the viewer's gaze is involuntarily drawn to the main object.

1. We place the bride in the center of the frame.

2. Consider the rule of thirds and place the eyes close to the top line.

3. We place the bride against the background of the lawn, and the lines of the edges of the lawn and paths converge at the top of the frame. By placing the eyes close to the vanishing point of these lines, we bring the viewer's gaze directly to the face. This is exactly what using linear perspective is.

Thanks to these lines, we convey the volume of space and focus attention on the main subject of photography.

If we had placed the bride off-center on the lawn, the portrait would have looked much worse.

So remember this example and use it when shooting portraits!

There are a few other things in this photo that highlight the main subject, but more on that in another post. Good luck to everyone.

How to use contrast?

Let's talk about contrast in photography.

This is another way to highlight the main subject in a photo. Last time we talked about linear perspective.

But what does contrast give? Now I'll tell you everything! Let's go!

There are 7 types of contrast. Today we will talk about one thing - contrast in tone.

Contrast in tone. This type of contrast contrasts monochrome colors. They can be either achromatic (black and white or shades of gray) or chromatic. That is, different shades of the same color are compared with each other.

I will show with an example how I built a photograph based on contrast in tone.

It was evening and already getting dark. I was lying on the beach with my family. And soon the sun is about to disappear. The lighting is not very good for phone photos. We were about to leave, but I looked at the brightness of the water and asked my wife and daughter to approach the water.

I moved away so that I could get a long shot and the silhouettes of the main characters were against the background of water.

This is where the tonal contrast comes into play.

The silhouettes are dark, against a light background of water. The contrast between dark and light in an image.

The silhouettes were clearly visible on the light water and it turned out to be a very nice photo.

Use my example and place light objects on a dark background, and dark objects on a light one, and then your main object will always stand out in tone and be perfectly readable in the frame.

Who is a real photographer?

A pinch of knowledge today.

Who is a real photographer? What he can do that others cannot do.

Alexander Lapin proposes a new triad in his book “Photography as”:

- ability to work intelligently with the camera

- ability to see

- ability to think visually.

I absolutely agree with this triad. And you?

Foreground! Let's take photos, make them more interesting!

Let's talk about how you can make a photo more interesting by introducing a foreground.

I will show, as always, with my real example.

I was waiting for my wife and daughters from the concert. I liked the combination of warm and cool shades and decided to take a photo.

I got out of the car and took a picture, but there was no movement inside. This was an ordinary protocol photo, without any special mood.

Then I thought about how to give the mood to the frame and noticed the falling snow on the car window. It melted and created droplets.

I decided to shoot the same shot, but through glass with drops. This is a common technique. It is simple and adds some drama.

The shot through glass turned out to be more interesting. There was some blurring of the rays from the light sources. Since the frame is now partially blocked by drops, this boring, everyday clarity and nudity is gone. There was an understatement and some mystery.

And of course visually it looks more artistic.

There is no deep meaning in this photo, but it began to look more visually attractive and pleasant to look at.

Now that you've seen how it works, you can use this technique in your smartphone photos!

What is an unusual way to photograph objects?

Portraits in the studio on the phone.

I'll tell you about shooting in the studio.

When shooting on a camera with a good matrix and cool expensive optics, a fixed lens of some kind 35 f1.4, you can press a button and a photo will be taken, wow! And it doesn’t matter what light, what composition. This is a technical wow! When you like the quality of the picture and optics.

Why? Because people rarely see the kind of drawing that this lens gives and the kind of detail that a professional camera gives.

“Wow technical” will not happen on the phone. Therefore, here you already need to try and work with the model, put interesting lighting.

I did just that during a photo shoot on a smartphone. In this shot I have two light sources.

1. Stands higher on the left and shines from the wall onto your hair and shoulder.
2. Stands on the right and is covered with curtains to create a narrow strip of light.

This way I highlighted the face with an emphasis on the eyes (soul :-))

And he highlighted the chest and shoulder on one side a little less brightly, setting the volume.

The rest goes into partial shade and the wide angle distorts the perspective, making the legs look thinner and reducing their area in the frame.

As a result, we have an angle portrait, with an interesting lighting effect.

Why do photos look cool?

Why does one person's photos look great, while another takes a photo of the same thing in the same place and ends up with something incomprehensible?

The answer is simple. Highlight the main thing!

I'll tell you with an example.

I was driving along the Neva embankment and on the other side I saw a cloud of a very unusual shape hanging right over the houses.

I park, go out onto the embankment, take out my phone and try to take a photo.

I end up with a river, houses further away and quite a lot of sky, and everything is lost.

Then I placed my cloud in the center of the frame and photographed it as close as I could to my phone. So that the cloud and the house are as close as possible.

It's a pity there are no examples left. Because I took the photo a long time ago.

I look further and still see that the river and houses on the right and left are in my way.

I open Photoshop on my phone and simply crop it so as to remove everything that prevents me from focusing my eyes on the cloud and the house.

Feel free to cut off everything that gets in the way. Let's highlight the main semantic object!

According to the rules of frame composition, I placed the house at the very bottom of the frame, thereby they ended up in the lower third of the frame, and the rest of the space is occupied by the sky, open space and cloud.

You can also crop the sky and make a slightly different aspect ratio. But this is a matter of taste.

Filming with a phone with children.

You can shoot videos on your phone with your children. It's like a separate entertainment or an interesting game of film studio.

That's what my daughters and I did.

It was a boring evening and we decided to make a short video.

The daughters did not immediately agree to be actresses. When we found out that the props we would buy were their fee and we could then eat them, we were very inspired.

We filmed for about 30 minutes. Everything went fine, but in the end they were tired and we moved on to shots with treats.

They really liked it, and it was a good and funny video that remained as a memory.

So you can use the camera on your phone as part of the gameplay.

Sisters (funny video).

Problems when shooting a high-quality blog on a smartphone.

I decided to do the unboxing in a nice way.

Typically, I would put my phone on the table, turn on the selfie camera, press record, and talk. ALL!

And here, I think, we need to do it beautifully. And now I will describe what difficulties arose and how much time it took to solve and prepare them. Does not include filming.

1. problem - cleaning. (40min).
I decided to make a background for the kitchen rather than a background for the refrigerator. I had to do general cleaning for 40 minutes to get everything perfectly clean.

2. Problem with camera location. (10 min).
It is necessary that the background is beautiful and nothing unnecessary interferes. For about 10 minutes I walked back and forth and looked at how I could construct the frame. Finally found a place.

3. Problem installing the phone. (15 minutes).
There is nothing to attach the smartphone to. I had to get dressed and go get a tripod. Brought it, set it up.

4. furniture problem. (5 minutes).
To shoot with these backdrops, I need to take out all the chairs and move the table in the kitchen!

5. The problem is that I can be clearly seen and have beautiful light. (30 min).
I went to get the light. I placed a 90x90 centimeter soft at the table to highlight myself. I placed an RGB panel behind me and turned on the cold blue light, directing it to the kitchen, which is behind me in the frame. Well, I placed the third device with a Fresnel lens and curtains behind me in the backlight to give me volume.

6. The problem is the sound. I need to be heard clearly. (10 min).
I took out the radio loops. And I tried to make sure that they did not fall from the tripod where the phone is. The receiver was slipping. I had to press it down with tape.

7. The problem is that I’m already disheveled and tired and I need to look normal. (20 minutes).
I went and washed my hair, styled my hair, and found a T-shirt that was a complementary color to the background. He took out the ironing board, brought the iron and ironed it.

8. Product detail photography. (20)
I went and got a 3D rotating table for product photography. I selected the color of the backing to match the product. I took out the batteries, thank God they were charged. I set everything up on the table. And to photograph the subject, it was necessary to rearrange both the tripod and the light.

Total 2 hours 30 minutes to prepare for shooting.

And it took 2.5 hours to shoot three products.

As a result, I was busy from 23:00 to 4:00.

I took off three of the five items and went to bed. Leaving the kitchen and room, where everything was taken out from, in complete disarray.

It will take an hour to clean and pack all the instruments, wiring and remove the tripod and stands.

As a result, 6 hours of work for three short unboxing.

Well, it still takes time to install them. Installation of the first one took 40 minutes. This means it will take approximately 2 hours to edit the video.

Total 8-hour working day for three products.

Conclusion. I consider the test to be successful in terms of results. The picture turned out good.

But from a blogging point of view, this is not viable. And everything needs to be optimized.

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

How to use flashlights when shooting at night?

Tonight I went out to take pictures with my phone in the city.

At night there is little light and everything becomes darker, which means it reflects less light rays and loses its color.

If we photograph a tree branch during the day, it will be lush and green. Because the surface of the leaves reflects a lot of green spectrum light and absorbs the rest.

And at night, in principle, there is little light and the color of the lanterns differs from the color of the sun. The flashlights produce a very limited spectrum and the colors are not natural.

If we photograph at night the same branch that we photographed during the day, it will no longer be green, but will be dark, almost black, and will blend in with the grass.

How to take a photo so that the branch is clearly visible and is not black?

Naturally, I didn’t have any light devices with me on my walk, so I started looking for them around. A few minutes later, I saw a lantern hanging low over the canopy of the store and in front of it was a lawn and small bushes.

The lantern shines on the branches of the bushes.

This means there are two options.

Or take pictures from the side of the lantern? which illuminates the bush. But in this case, everything will be flat, the background will be black and the branches will merge with the grass.

The right decision would be to find such a shooting point? in which the lantern will be located directly behind the leaves of the branch that we want to photograph.

What does this give us?

1. Backlight appears and the leaves begin to shine through, transmitting light through themselves and, as it were, glowing. Their color appears. They turn green

2. In addition, light outlines of the entire branch and leaves appear, which separates it well from the darker background.

I crawled across the lawn and after a minute I found a point where the lantern hid behind the leaves and beautifully outlined the branch. I tried to make the background less black at the back, and took part of the wall illuminated by a lantern and the sky into the frame. I composed the frame so that it was balanced, and froze so as not to blur the frame while photographing. And I got a good shot of a twig in the night.

I asked the AI how to take photos with a phone.

I decided to ask the AI how to take pictures with a phone.

I did this through the Masterpiece app on my phone.

And this is what he replied: “You shouldn’t risk your health, it’s better to consult a specialist. I cannot give advice on photography, as it can be dangerous to health and life. Please consult a specialist or study information on the Internet.”

So guys, here I am. Contact TopContent!

How to take a portrait with the correct exposure.

I’ll tell you how to photograph a portrait and choose the right exposure using the example of my work.

So, I shot on Xiaomi Redmi Note 9s

The style of the photo shoot was chosen. Business lady. Based on the corresponding task, the shooting location was chosen. These are the buildings of the Bank of St. Petersburg. Everything around there is glass and in the offices.

It was decided to take a photo on the stairs in front of the main building.

The lines of the stairs, the broken lines of the fence, everything gravitates towards geometry and is quite rigid. Therefore, the pose also has a bend and sharp angular shapes, an elbow, knees, a raised toe of a shoe.

The fact that she is sitting on the steps gives some kind of insolence, and the hand on her hair gives a hint of flirtation and sexuality.

Now let's move on to the technical part. I took pictures with the main camera, without any zoom.

The camera set the exposure slightly incorrectly and, due to the dark steps and black jacket, overexposed the face a little.

How to make the frame darker so that the face is not overexposed?

There are TWO options.

The first one is automatic.
You need to touch the smartphone screen directly on the model’s face area. Then the camera will understand that you want to focus on this point (sharpness) and measure the exposure (brightness) at this point. And he will set the parameters so that the skin is normally exposed (not overexposed or dark).

If the face is too small in the frame and the camera simply cannot adjust, then there is a second method.

Correct exposure (brightness) manually. You need to tap on the screen and hold your finger until two of these icons appear:

The color and style may differ on different phones, but the meaning is the same.

The square is the focus area. The place that should be sharp.

And the sun icon is a place that should be normally exposed (not light or dark, but clearly visible).

After these icons appear, you can drag your finger across the screen from bottom to top and then the entire frame will become lighter, or drag from top to bottom and then the entire frame will become darker.

Once you have found the desired brightness, click “take photo”.

There are phones on which it is possible to move each icon separately to the desired location. This is more convenient and is often found in flagships.

This is convenient when you want to focus on one subject and set the exposure on another.

After adjusting the exposure, I took a photo and got this portrait. See above.

How to remove hyperlapse from a ship?

So, let's imagine that you went on an exciting excursion along the rivers and canals of the city "N"

And suddenly you realize that everything is boring and you are already falling asleep. The soul asks that this journey not ingloriously sink into obscurity.

And here comes a brilliant idea! Take a time lapse!

Yes Yes! You take a phone tripod out of your backpack. Place it securely and secure it on the edge of the side and point it in the right direction.

But the camera is on a tripod and it is motionless, but the ship is moving and we get not a timelapse, but a hyperlapse!

Wow! It's even cooler!

We go into time-lapse shooting mode. Select an interval of 5 seconds. We present the composition. Fix the exposure and press the record button!

All! Now our trip will definitely impress our relatives and loved ones!

All you have to do is add music and post it online!

Hyperlapse on a boat.

Author's video content.
In collaboration with video studios CMCproduction & SmartREC
https://www.youtube.com/c/ViolettaWennman
https://coub.com/violettawennman

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Violetta Vennman. Child model (photographer Stefan Wennman) - Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands.
Professionally stage and variety genres. Professional dancing, vocals. Voice imitation.
I take part in performances in Russia, Ukraine, etc.
Faculty of Film and Arts Industry, The Netherlands.

Telegram Violetta Wennman (All over again)
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I am also a professional in smartphone video production. I love filming on my phone and am happy to share materials from filming and useful information about how it was filmed.
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Shooting advertising videos is a creative and exciting process.

Essentially, this is working on a small film.

- Familiarity with the script and storyboards.

- Thinking through shooting techniques.

- Compiling a list of camera equipment and lighting equipment.

- Working with the team on site

- Solving creative and technical problems.

I really love shooting commercials. It's always a special challenge.

What does a video taken on a phone while walking in the park look like?

So, you're taking a walk in the park and you're in the mood to shoot something beautiful!

The first thing you need to do is decide on the topic and subject of photography.

In my case, I just wanted to shoot something lightly. The theme and the subject coincided - it was ducks on a pond.

As soon as we have chosen the topic and subject of shooting, we begin to think through the shots.

My entire video consists of 5 frames. Two of which are very similar. So it was possible to leave 4 frames. And instead of a similar second shot, take a long shot in which the entire pond would be visible.

We have frames laid out in our heads and begin to hunt for ducks.

We try to build a good composition, keep the horizon level and not shake the phone. If possible, then do smooth panning.

After all the material has been filmed. We edit a sequence of frames to music. We trim what is unnecessary and leave the most beautiful and high-quality takes or parts of longer frames.

Voila! You can proudly post the resulting masterpiece online. Share with your friends the mood that you felt and pass on to others! Leave this video as a memory and return to this walk for sensations, years later!

VIDEO

How I shot an advertisement for a bathhouse on a smartphone.

I'll share the story of a cool case.

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

1. What kind of video should be made and for what purposes. The client said that they needed a video of a tour of the bathhouse.

2. Find out who their target audience is (what kind of people they need to attract and what they like). People 30 years old, middle income and above.

3. Find out what competitive advantages this bathhouse has. What to focus on in 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 will the video 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 works better, somewhere else.

As a result, we needed one long video tour. To music with lyrics. And separately I saw short videos about rooms and additional services.

I calculated three cost estimates.

1. Professional. Nice video. With professional equipment, a large set of lighting devices, 3D graphics, an announcer, 4K filming in LOG for professional color correction, etc.

2. Normal. Regular video. We save on additional equipment, we shoot with a good Sony Alpha in 10bit. With a set of high-aperture 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 an ordinary videographer. When the minimum set of equipment. Stabilizer, camera, universal lens, on-camera light. I filmed it, put the footage together in the edit to the music and gave it away.

The customer thought about it and said that all three options were very expensive... And with that we said goodbye.

Only a week later I thought of offering them filming on the phone. I told them the price was 10,000 for filming and 3,000 for editing one video.

I was pleased with their price. And then the question comes from them: “Will the quality be good?”

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

8-bit Sony Alpha cameras provide normal results. Well, telephones are terrible. So I had to answer that the quality would be terrible...

That is, if you look at it on your phone, it’s fine, but if you open it on a 17-inch full-Hd monitor, you can immediately see all the disadvantages of the picture from the phone. Let's discuss further. Videos are needed for the site. That is, when posting on a website, the video is still greatly REDUCED so that it loads quickly and weighs little. And on social networks, everyone watches from their phones, and therefore if I shoot on my phone, then everything will look great from the phone and from the website.

I decide to clarify this and ask: “Do you plan to use videos only on the website and on social networks?” Right?

What I hear in response: “Also on the TVs that hang on our walls.” And they send me a photo of huge TVs on the floor of the wall. Then I understand that this is a failure. And you need to stop filming.

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

I offer the client a free test shoot 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, edit them on the laptop right away and turn them on on the TV and make a “yes or no” decision. The client liked the idea, and I came the next morning. I shot the darkest areas so that the picture was as bad as possible in the test. And it will be better in the finished videos.

During the shooting process, the customer was already delighted with the kind of picture it turned out and how cool and cinematic everything looked. Without even waiting for the end of editing and testing on TV, he approved the shooting and said that they were satisfied with everything.

That’s how I agreed to shoot an advertising video on a smartphone. And the client had a full idea of the quality he was receiving for the stated amount.

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

How did the second stage of work on the project of filming Baths on a smartphone go?

The second stage is pre-production. Or preparing for a shoot.

The task of this stage is to think through everything as much as possible and prepare it for filming. The importance of this stage cannot be overestimated.

What does it give you and the customer?

TO YOU:

- A clear understanding of what you are filming.

- How much time does it take and how to plan the shooting.

- Maximum efficiency of your work on site.

- Saving time on discussing what and how to shoot.

- Everything that is needed is available during the shooting; the customer has prepared what is written in the shooting plan.

- Calmness and understanding that you will succeed 100% and everything will be done as needed.

TO THE CUSTOMER:

- Understanding the time spent on the day of shooting.

- Understanding what will be required for filming and the ability to prepare it in advance.

- Calmness and confidence that they are working with a professional and they have everything thought out.

- Saving money on filming by optimizing processes and maximum availability.

So, let's look at an example of how I went through the second stage.

I arrived at the bathhouse. We discussed in detail what the client wants to shoot, what to show.

I walked through all the rooms and looked at how I would shoot. I clarified when and what will be free.

What we can shoot right away, what we need to prepare for shooting.

As a result of our meeting, a shooting plan emerged.

At 10:00 - 10:30 we rent the hall, reception, shelving.

During this time, fruit baskets are washed and prepared, crayfish are boiled, etc. for shooting a bar.

10:30 -11:30 Shooting the bar, making juices, brewing tea, pouring beer, etc.

At the same time, the sauna is warming up and the bathhouse attendant prepares the necessary props.

And so on until the end of the shooting.

In each paragraph we specify what props should be ready before the start of filming each scene.

Next, I asked you to write a text with competitive advantages. Theses, what we show and how we entice.

When you have theses, you can shoot the necessary footage for them. If there is a lot of text, then it is clear how many frames are needed and how to shoot them in order to beautifully reveal the text and move on to the next scene.

With the text ready, I can creatively storyboard the video and think through everything frame by frame. This way you get a very deeply researched and well-made video.

But the customer said that he refused to write the text in advance. He wants to take it off. Mount. And then come up with text for the finished video.

I tried to convince you that this is worse for two serious reasons:

1. The video will be ready and the text may not match the frames, which will lead to the need for additional work to make edits. And this is an additional waste of the customer’s money.

2. I have no control over this process, and it can drag on for a week, two, three and the project will freeze.

He offered to add the work of a screenwriter to the estimate so that he would write a script and we would approve it.

But the customer stood his ground, refused to spend money on a screenwriter and assured that everything would be great, he would write it himself and it would be much more convenient.

Well, if it’s more convenient, then great.

Summarize.

Fine:

- I clearly understood the volume of filming to be done and how I would film it.

- I optimized processes to save the customer time and money.

- I had a clear shooting plan, minute by minute.

Badly:

- There is no ready-made script or at least text for editing.

So, next we faced the third stage - production. Filming day.
I’ll tell you how it all went in the next article.

Sauna on a smartphone (Is it possible to make money by filming on a smartphone?).

Presentation video for a bathhouse.

TopContent community from the head and founder of CMCproduction and SmartREC. Professional video production CMCproduction and SmartREC.
CMCproduction - full cycle video production.
SmartREC is a territory of free creativity, the first mobile video production in St. Petersburg.

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