Upgrading Your Cellphone Footage: Part 3

We covered quite a bit In Upgrading Your Phone Footage part 1 and part 2 now are gong to dive into using transitions, planning for transitions, and how to spot opportunities to use transitions on the go. Using some well thought out transitions can really elevate your video and make it visually interesting.

Using Transitions When Filming with a Cellphone

This is where all the pieces we talked about in the last couple blog posts start coming together. We’ll go over some basic transitions and how to use them. We’ve talked about shooting videos with the end goal in mind, now we are going to break that down and focus on getting the right transitions that will seamlessly pull all the video clips together in a way that sets your video apart from the average cellphone video.

  1. Whip pan. This is also a very common transition. This one can be used at the beginning or end of your shot. All you do is, right at the end or your shot, move the cellphone really fast in the same direction you were already going. So for example, if you were videoing a car driving to the left, you would be turning the phone to the left to keep the car in view…So at the very end of your shot, just turn you phone further to the left way faster and “pass the car”; This will give the whole screen motion blur.

  2. Dolly shot. This is when the camera moves in an arc around the subject. This can be harder to get with a cellphone, but when done well, it can add a very polished, high end look and feel to your video. This shot can be used with the reveal shot to make some really nice content.

  3. Dip to black. This is really easy and can be just like a reveal shot. To capture this on your cellphone, you just end the shot by having your cellphone so close to the object that it cuts out all or most of the light, leaving the end of your video dark. You can also start a video the same way.

  4. Movement. Any movement can be used to create a nice transition. All the above mentioned shots have movement, so get creative. You can clap your hands, snap your fingers, and move your head (look off). All of these ideas can be used to transition to the next clip.

  5. The reveal shot. This is used a ton in movies, documentaries, and social media shorts. The idea is you don’t show the subject right away…you use movement to “reveal” the subject.  This can be done by coming out from behind a tree, panning over to the subject, or panning up or down (depending on you situation).

Making a Plan to Capture Transitions on your Cellphone

There are so many great options for creating visually interesting transitions with your cellphone. By just taking a few minutes ahead of time to think through some ideas and make a plan, you can elevate your video to a far higher level, by adding in strategic transitions. To plan your transitions ahead of time, think through everything you’ll have available to use when you’re filming with your cellphone. Maybe you’ll be out on a hike at a local park and you know there will be lots of trees and a waterfall. Knowing this, you can use the tree to do a dolly shot around to showcase the texture of the bark. If you wanted to use it for the “Dip to Black” shot, you can move your camera into it as you’re walking towards the waterfall. As you’re filming the waterfall, you can move the camera around some trees in the foreground and end behind one of the trees and then come out from behind another tree for the next clip. One more simple idea is you could use the tree to come out from behind to create a big reveal shot of the waterfall. As you can see, there are endless ways to add in creative transitions to just trees and a waterfall. I’m sure your mind has so many more to add to this list already. By writing down some of these ideas ahead of time, you’ll be prepared to get the content you want filmed with your cellphone when on location.

Keep the End Product in Mind when Filming with your Cellphone.

When Amy and I are working together on a project, we are constantly shooting with transitions in mind. We have trained our eyes to look for objects and anything we can use to add more depth to our videos. A lot of times, we come up with transitions as we shoot, because options become available last minute when we are on locations. We just talk through our ideas as we are shooting, so we can improvise on the fly and create videos with a wow factor. You can do the same thing with your cellphone. If you’re on a trip and you want to capture footage at a new location, just keep this saying in the back of your mind, “Shoot with the end in mind” and then let your creative juices flow. You’ll be surprised with what you can come up with when you shoot with intentionality like this, even without a written out plan.

I hope these tips can help empower you to start using transitions when you are filming video clips with your cellphone. You now have a few basic transitions you can try, have a great structure to plan out some transitions ahead of time to use, and some tips on how to look for transitions on the fly when at a new locations. Next time we will talk about how to edit these transitions to piece together a video, so stay tuned. Take all of these tips on transitions and go try them out…they will give your videos a much more polished look and add a lot of visual interests to your viewers.

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Upgrading Your Cellphone Footage: Part 4

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Upgrading Your Cellphone Footage: Part 2