How to shoot a short film on your phone

NCA opened with a short film, and the first camera was the one in a pocket. That is not a limitation to apologise for. A modern phone has a sensor and lenses that filmmakers could only dream of a few years ago. What separates a phone film that looks like cinema from one that looks like a video of your weekend is not the device. It is a handful of decisions about light, sound, movement and restraint.

Here is the whole process in eight steps. The same approach is the backbone of our academy programme, Shot on a phone, cut like cinema.

Step 1: Start with the idea, and keep it small

The best phone films are small. One location, two or three characters, one simple situation with something at stake. Write it in a single sentence: "A girl tries to leave a house without waking her father." If you cannot say it in one sentence, it is too big for a first film.

Then write a one-page script and a shot list: every shot, in order, with the framing you want. A shot list is the cheapest piece of production insurance there is, because it means you arrive knowing what you need.

Step 2: Set up the phone properly

• Clean the lens. A fingerprint smear is the most common reason phone footage looks soft and hazy. Wipe it with a clean cloth before every setup.
• Film in the highest quality setting, at a frame rate you will keep for the whole film. Mixing frame rates makes editing painful.
• Choose 25 frames per second in South Africa. Our mains electricity runs at 50Hz, and shooting at 25 or 50 frames per second under artificial light avoids the flicker you can get at other rates.
• Turn on the grid so you can keep the horizon level and compose with the rule of thirds.
• Lock exposure and focus by pressing and holding on the screen. If the phone keeps adjusting mid-shot, the picture will pump and shift.
• Shoot horizontally for a film, and keep the phone as steady as you can.
• Put the phone in aeroplane mode so a call does not interrupt a take.
• Free up storage. High-quality video fills a phone fast.

Step 3: Use free light

Light is where phone footage is most obviously cheap or most obviously beautiful, and good light costs nothing. Cape Town is generous with it.

• Windows. A subject facing a window, or lit from the side by one, looks instantly more cinematic than one lit from a ceiling fixture.
• Golden hour. The hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset give soft, warm light with long shadows.
• Shade. Open shade on a bright day is flattering and even.
• Practical lights. Lamps and street lights visible in the frame add atmosphere and depth.
• One inexpensive work lamp can be bounced off a white wall or sheet to make a soft fill.

Avoid mixing light colours in one shot, such as warm tungsten lamps with cold daylight, unless you are doing it on purpose. And keep the brightest part of the frame, usually a window, from blowing out to white.

Step 4: Block your scenes

Blocking is deciding where people stand and move, and where the camera sits in relation to them. You do not need a crew to do it. Think of every shot as a question: where do I want the viewer to look?

• Start each scene with a wide shot that shows where we are and who is there.
• Then move in to mid shots and close-ups for emotion and detail.
• Use foreground objects such as a door frame or a doorway to add depth.
• Keep your eyeline consistent across shots so the characters appear to be looking at each other.
• Film each shot a few seconds longer than you think you need, at the start and the end, to give the editor room.

Step 5: Move the camera with purpose

Handheld footage can be gripping or nauseating. The difference is intention. Lock the camera off, on a tripod or propped on a stable surface, for calm and serious moments. Move it, floating or following, for energy, tension or intimacy. Do not shake it by accident.

• Hold the phone with two hands, elbows tucked in, and walk heel to toe with bent knees for smoother moves.
• Move slowly. Phone sensors make fast moves look jittery.
• A cheap gimbal or tripod helps, but is not necessary. A bag of rice or a stack of books works as a support.
• Every move should mean something: following a character, revealing a detail, closing in on a decision.

Step 6: Record sound as if it matters more than the picture

Audiences forgive a soft image. They do not forgive bad sound. A phone’s built-in microphone is fine for rough reference but poor for dialogue.

• Use a lavalier microphone, the small clip-on kind. A basic one costs less than a meal and makes a huge difference.
• Get the microphone close to the person speaking.
• Record room tone: thirty seconds of silence in each location, which the editor uses to smooth cuts.
• Choose quiet places. Fridges, air conditioners and traffic will wreck dialogue.
• Wear headphones to monitor, if you can.

Step 7: Edit for rhythm

The edit is where a collection of clips becomes a film. You can do it on free software, including the free version of DaVinci Resolve or a mobile editor such as CapCut.

• Cut on action. Change shots in the middle of a movement so the cut feels invisible.
• Use J-cuts and L-cuts, where the sound from the next shot starts before the picture, or the previous sound carries on over the new picture. It makes dialogue scenes flow.
• Hold on the shots that matter a beat longer than is comfortable.
• Be ruthless. If a shot does not move the story, cut it.
• Sound design is half the picture. Add ambient sound, footsteps and a restrained score.

Step 8: Grade and ship

Colour grading gives the film a look. A good first step is to correct the basics, so exposure, white balance and contrast are consistent, and then apply a restrained look. A monochrome-first approach, as in much of NCA’s own work, hides the fact that it was shot on a phone and states a point of view.

Export at the quality and shape each platform needs, write a title and a short description, and plan the premiere: where it will play, how it is framed and who will see it. A film that nobody watches did not really happen.

Want the full course, with eight episodes, live crits and a finished film at the end? See Shot on a phone, cut like cinema. Need professional production for a brand? Our video production service handles it from concept to final grade.