Framing, Exposure and Light

Set the phone up before you frame anything

Clean the lens with a soft cloth; a fingerprint smear is the most common reason beginner footage looks hazy. Switch to airplane mode so calls don't interrupt a take. Clear storage space: 4K at 30 frames per second can eat several gigabytes in ten minutes.

Pick a frame rate and stick with it for the whole film. 24 or 25 frames per second gives the familiar cinema motion; 30 looks more like television. Shoot horizontally unless your film is made for vertical platforms. Free apps such as Blackmagic Camera give you manual control over shutter, ISO, white balance and focus if your built-in camera app doesn't.

Lock exposure and focus

Automatic settings are designed for holiday clips, not scenes. When an actor walks past a window, auto exposure will brighten and darken the image mid-shot. On most phones you can tap and hold on your subject to lock focus and exposure, then slide brightness down slightly. Protect the highlights: a blown-out white sky can't be rescued, while a slightly dark image usually can.

Set white balance manually where possible, or at least keep it consistent across a scene, so skin tones don't drift from warm to cool between shots.

Know your shot types

Every shot is a decision about how close the audience feels to a character. Use this table when writing your shot list.

Composition that holds attention

Turn on your camera's grid. The rule of thirds suggests placing eyes along the upper third line, not dead centre. Leave "looking room" in front of a character's face. Watch the background: a plant growing out of someone's head will be the only thing your audience notices.

Respect the 180-degree rule. Imagine a line between two characters talking and keep the camera on one side of it. Cross the line and they'll suddenly appear to face the same direction, which confuses viewers in a way they feel but can't explain.

Keep it steady, or move with purpose

Handheld shake reads as nervous energy. Sometimes that's what you want; usually it isn't. A cheap tripod with a phone clamp is worth buying. Without one, brace your elbows against your body, lean on a wall, or rest the phone on books. If you move the camera, move it for a reason: to follow a character, reveal something or build tension.

Light with what's in the room

Classic three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light and a back light. You can build it for free. Put your actor side-on to a large window: that's your key. Hold a white sheet or foam board on the other side to bounce light back: that's your fill. Place a lamp behind them, out of frame, to rim their hair: that's your back light.

Turn off overhead ceiling lights, which create flat, unflattering shadows under the eyes and often clash in colour with daylight. Avoid mixing warm bulbs and cool daylight on the same face unless you mean to. Shoot exteriors in the hour after sunrise or before sunset, when light is soft and directional. Cinematographers like Roger Deakins often talk about lighting a space naturally rather than lighting faces; that's good news for you, because it means motivating light from windows and practical lamps.