 I had no choice. I had to get rid of her. The truth is now buried with that body. What if I told you the video you saw at the beginning was entirely shot on the iPhone 14 Pro using this lens right over here and a couple of accessories. This, my friends, is the anamorphic lens by SmallRig which allows you to achieve that same level of cinematic quality right on your smartphone. Now to be honest, I actually wasn't planning on making a short film out of it as I was testing the lens. However, I more or less had enough footage and the final results was far better than I expected. So in this video, I'm going to show you how the anamorphic lens works and how it can help your videos stand out from the crowd. Furthermore, I will also be showing you the tools I used to achieve the results. Now I want to mention that SmallRig has provided me with all their products so big thanks to them for making this video possible. I'm sure you heard about them. They create all sorts of products for filmmakers and I've been using their products for quite some time and so far I've always had a good experience. So as I mentioned at the beginning, using an anamorphic lens is a great way to turn your ordinary smartphone footage into something more cinematic looking. Traditional anamorphic lenses are very pricey. However, you can now achieve a similar look with the 1.55x anamorphic lens for a fraction of the price. But what makes an anamorphic lens so special? Well, anamorphic lenses are designed to capture images in a wider aspect ratio than the common 16x9 you see in most videos. So this means with an anamorphic lens, you can fit more into the frame and capture a wider field of view, making it ideal for shooting short films or documentaries. Most people crop the top and bottom of the frame to get a widescreen look. However, with the anamorphic lens, you don't have to do that and can keep all the information within that aspect ratio. Furthermore, the lens also gives you that classic anamorphic look with the oval bokeh and horizontal flares as you've seen in some of the shots. Now this is achieved by filming against a bright light source and the flares it produces look very natural. What I find unique about this lens is that it's magnetic so you can either take it off if you want to use the regular lens or set it up to shoot vertically for social media content. And you also get a cover which protects the lens from scratches. Now you also get a clip that can be easily installed and is compatible with most smartphones. Now I prefer to use the mobile video cage by SmallRake as it not only keeps the phone secure but also comes with a hot shoe mount and various one-quarter screw holes to additionally add accessories to expand the capabilities of your phone. I also got these two handles here on the side which makes it also great to get that handheld look in your shot like in the opening scene. The best part is that one handle comes with a shutter button that connects via Bluetooth making it convenient to start and stop recording without having to use the screen on your phone. You can charge the handle via USB-C which is great and the cage really only weighs 90 grams without the handles making it great to bring along. Now you also have a lock up here which allows you to open this door and slide in your phone. Also inside you have these rubbers which makes this rig shockproof and also protects the corner of your phone. Now the cage also provides you with different lens mounting options. So right now it's set up to be used with lenses that have an end mount such as the 1.55x anamorphic lens by Small Rig but if you have lenses from a sand mark you can unscrew the mounting plate and swap it with the 17 millimeter mounting plate. This way you can save money by not having to buy a new cage if you use different lenses that have different lens mounts. Now in order to use the lens it's best to use a pro video app like Filmic Pro in order to de-squeeze the image. You could do it in the edit however it will be more difficult to film when everything looks distorted. So once you have the anamorphic lens attached and is aligned with the mark inside Filmic Pro head over to hardware and select the 1.55x anamorphic adapter. Make sure the de-squeeze in preview only is off. Then head over to stabilization and turn it off to avoid wobbling effects in your video and to get the best results I use the carbon fiber tripod by Small Rig. However with the dual handle grip I was also able to get stable handheld shots. The resolution I set to 4k 10-bit and the frame rate to 25 frames per second. After that I make sure to lock my white balance so no color shifts occur. Now you could use an ND filter and the anamorphic lens by Small Rig actually also comes with a magnetic 52 millimeter filter mount to control your shutter speed and achieve a more natural looking motion blur. Now unfortunately Small Rig does not provide filters however I will leave links to compatible ND filters in the video description below. Because I didn't have an ND filter I just made sure to lock the exposure and left the focus in auto. After that hit the record button and you're ready to shoot. Now because I filmed the short video at night I didn't have to use an ND filter. Now what's really helpful in creating that short film was the carbon fiber tripod since I had no one to help me film that night. It was really important for me to have a stable and lightweight tripod that I could carry around. I'm actually even using it now for this video. And the carbon fiber tripod weighs only around 1.2 kilograms making it great to bring along. It is adjustable giving you lots of control when shooting. You even have the option to use it as a monopod if you have shaky hands. And what's great is that I can easily mount the rig onto the tripod as it has an Arca Swiss quick release plate. With the included ball head I can also set it up vertically which is great for social media content. For someone who films himself a lot having a tripod is a must have. And the carbon fiber tripod is a really great option. Now when it comes to filming on the iPhone it does drain the battery quickly especially when using an app like Filmic Pro. So what I used is this mini V-mount battery. This is the VB50 and I was able to mount the battery on top and then connect it with a lightning cable to charge my iPhone while shooting. So this is really great. By the way I will leave links to all the products mentioned in the video description below. Now it also has a nice OLED display where you can check the battery life. And SmallRig even sent me the larger one which can also be used as a power bank. But what's even better is that you can use it to charge video lights. Now both of these are really small and lightweight making it great to bring along. Now speaking of video lights the light source I'm using right now which I also used for the short clip is the SmallRig RC 220B which is a point source video light. It's a powerful 220 watt ranging from 2700 Kelvin up to 6500 Kelvin. Currently I have the parabolic softbox mounted which helps create that soft look on my face. However for the short film I used this hyper reflector which acted as the moonlight. Now I probably wouldn't set up this light on a rainy night outside unless you can cover it somehow. The rain in the video was actually added as an overlay to create some atmosphere if you haven't noticed. But I'm quite amazed that with just one light source you can create a nice mood in your shots. So with that said it's safe to say that having the right tools can really be helpful when you want to take your filmmaking to the next level or even if you just want to get creative and start making films with your smartphone. And what I like about SmallRig is that they provide great quality gear that doesn't break the bank. Now there are many different smartphone lenses out there but I find the anamorphic lens to be really unique and combining it with the cage a tripod and the light definitely gave me an edge when making this short film. But hey hopefully this video gave you a good idea of what kind of gear I used and how you can use it for yourself to create something awesome. If you guys want to learn more I have a smartphone filmmaking course teaching you the best tips and tricks for creating cinematic content with your smartphone. Make sure to check it out the link will be in the video description below. Hope you enjoyed this video and if you have any questions let me know thank you so much for watching guys and I'll see you the next time.