Nowadays, video quality is an essential element for companies and brands seeking to stand out in the digital world. Indeed, a quality video can capture an audience's attention, effectively convey a message and reinforce a brand's image. It's against this backdrop that content production specialist Moovizz steps in to help companies produce professional videos.
The aim of this article is to share practical tips to help you create professional videos with a tool you probably already have at your fingertips: your smartphone. Thanks to these tips, you'll be able to optimize the use of your phone and produce quality videos for your company or brand.
1. Preparation and planning
There's one crucial step in the success of a professional video: preparation and planning. It's essential to define a strategy and develop concepts adapted to the industry and communication needs. This ensures that the message conveyed will be coherent, relevant and impactful for the target audience.
To structure the video's content and message, we recommend building a video script. The script determines the key elements of the video, such as shots, dialogue and transitions, and organizes these elements in a logical and fluid way. A well-designed script greatly facilitates the shooting and editing process, avoiding errors and oversights, and guaranteeing a quality end result.
Preparation and planning are therefore essential steps in creating professional videos with your smartphone. By investing the necessary time and effort upstream, you'll optimize the chances of success for your video project, and get a result that lives up to your expectations.
2. Stabilization and support
When shooting a professional video with a smartphone, it's essential to stabilize your camera to ensure a shake-free, blur-free image. Using a selfie pole or tripod is a simple solution to ensure a stable, quality image. These accessories are available at affordable prices and can be easily transported.
In situations where you don't have a selfie pole or tripod to hand, it's possible to improvise a stand to stabilize your smartphone. For example, you can use an empty coffee cup by cutting it to the appropriate height and placing your smartphone inside. This trick will hold your camera in place and give you an interesting angle of view. Don't hesitate to experiment with everyday objects to find the support that suits you best.
In short, stabilization and support are key to creating professional videos with your smartphone. Invest in the right accessories or use improvisational tricks to ensure a captivating, high-quality image.
3. Be careful with light
Lighting plays a crucial role in the production of a quality video. Good lighting not only enhances the subjects being filmed, but also ensures clarity and sharpness of the image. So it's essential to pay particular attention to lighting when filming with your smartphone.
Here are a few tips on how to make the most of natural light and avoid the problems associated with backlighting:
- Choose well-lit locations, ideally near a window or outdoors, to benefit from soft, natural light.
- Avoid shooting against the light, i.e. with the light source behind the subject. This can create unwanted shadows and make the subject dark and difficult to see.
- Harness the golden light of sunrise and sunset to add a warm, artistic ambience to your videos.
- Don't hesitate to use accessories such as reflectors to direct the light and evenly illuminate the subject.
By following these tips, you can optimize the lighting of your videos and create a professional look with your smartphone.
4. Sound, a crucial element
Quality audio recording is essential for a professional video. Even if the images are perfect, mediocre sound can spoil the whole production. So it's important to pay particular attention to this aspect when making videos with your smartphone.
To improve sound quality, we recommend using an external microphone or specific accessories. As smartphones generally feature microphones of average quality, an external microphone can help you achieve clearer, more precise sound. There are several types of microphone on the market, so you need to choose the one that best suits your needs and budget.
Accessories such as windscreens and shock mounts can also help reduce unwanted noise and vibration. In short, to achieve professional sound, it's important not to neglect this aspect, and to invest in equipment adapted to your needs.
5. Framing and composition
Framing plays an essential role in the success of a video. It's important to position the elements on the screen correctly to capture the viewer's attention and make it easier to understand the message. Likewise, careful composition helps give your smartphone videos a professional look.
There are several rules of composition that can help you achieve a harmonious, visually pleasing result. Among these rules, the rule of thirds is particularly useful for structuring the image. This involves dividing the screen into nine equal parts, using two vertical and two horizontal lines. The points of intersection of these lines represent areas of interest, where it is advisable to place important elements of the image, such as faces, objects or guidelines.
By applying the rule of thirds and paying particular attention to framing, you can create captivating, aesthetically successful videos, even with a smartphone. Don't hesitate to experiment with different compositions and angles of view to find the style that best suits your message and your brand.
6. Avoid digital zoom
When making professional videos with your smartphone, it's important to preserve image quality. To achieve this, it's best to use physical movement rather than digital zoom. In fact, digital zoom tends to degrade image quality by artificially enlarging it, which can be detrimental to the aesthetics of your video.
If you want to get closer to a subject without losing image quality, consider using accessories such as binoculars to obtain an optical zoom. Unlike digital zoom, optical zoom preserves image quality by using the optical properties of the lenses. In this way, you can produce top-quality professional videos without the need for digital zoom.
7. Shooting in manual mode with a dedicated application
Using dedicated applications to shoot in manual mode offers significant advantages. These applications enable you to control shooting parameters more precisely, offering greater creative flexibility and the possibility of achieving more professional results.
Here are some recommended applications for different operating systems:
- Android: Cinema FV-5, Filmic Pro, Moment Pro Camera
- iOS: ProCam, Filmic Pro, Moment Pro Camera
By experimenting with these applications and mastering the manual settings, you'll be able to take full advantage of your smartphone's capabilities and create videos of exceptional quality.
8. Editing and post-production
Once you've finished filming, editing and post-production are crucial steps in giving your video a professional look. Use editing software to assemble footage, add effects and transitions, and fine-tune sound and image.
Incorporate branding and visual identity elements into your video to reinforce brand recognition and create consistency between your different content. This can include logos, specific colors, typography and animations.
Finally, adapt your video content for different formats and platforms. For example, you can create short versions of your video for social networks, longer versions for your website or presentations, and even formats suitable for TV screens. Also remember to optimize your videos for mobile devices, as many users consume video content on their smartphones or tablets.
Experiment and succeed
To create professional videos with your smartphone, we recommend following these 8 tips. By preparing and planning your content, stabilizing your smartphone, paying attention to light and sound, mastering framing and composition, avoiding digital zoom, using apps in manual mode and careful editing, you'll improve the quality of your videos. Don't hesitate to experiment and apply these tips to maximize the impact of your content.
If you need support to help you get the most out of your smartphone for your business, contact us by filling in the form below:
