 When you need to film a video of yourself and don't have anyone available to help, it can be a daunting task since you will need to think about a ton of things at once. Whether it's setting up your camera, framing the shot or nailing your focus, this can take some time. Luckily, there's some key tips and tricks that you can use to make filming yourself much easier and more efficient. iPhones are great for filming yourself because they are portable, easy to use, produce high quality video, and the setup time is much quicker compared to using a larger camera. Now, if you're someone who loves to create videos on their iPhone or share stories about your life or generally wants to learn how to produce engaging mobile video content, then this tutorial is for you. Now, make sure to also stick till the end as I will show you the editing process behind the video that I shot of myself. For those who don't know me, Bennett Grazier here with smartphonefilmmaking.com, the ultimate online course helping you take your mobile videos to that next level. As I mentioned earlier in this video, I will show you how to film and edit a cinematic video of yourself using the iPhone 14 Pro. Before I show you the behind the scenes of how I film myself, I first wanna share with you a couple of important tips and tricks when it comes to filming yourself. The first one would be knowing what you're filming. Before you even start filming, it's important that you have a clear idea of what you want to film, whether it's a vlog, short film, or travel video to share with your friends. Having this established beforehand will help you choose the right camera settings as well as the gear you need to set up your shot. Now, for this video, I want to keep it very simple. I want to show myself, show how I arrived at the spot, hike up the forest, and then take up the beautiful view. Now, with a simple story like this in mind, you will already know what you need in terms of camera settings and gear. So next is the camera settings. Now that I know what I will be filming, I will be shooting my videos mostly in 4K 25 frames per second. 4K is the highest resolution the iPhone 14 Pro currently offers and allows me to crop the video in the edit. This is important because this will give me the flexibility to reframe my shot in case my composition is slightly off. Because I don't plan on slowing down the footage, I choose 25 frames per second. In case I do want to create slow motion effect, I can always change the frame rate to 60 frames per second. I choose mostly 60 frames per second when I film my surroundings to use as B-roll. Next is to understand your limitations. It's important to note that filming yourself comes with limitations. You are the only person who is responsible for getting the shot right. There is nobody who can take a few seconds to focus the shot and ensure your frame up properly. Also, you will need to carry and set up all your gear by yourself, but luckily mobile gear isn't as cumbersome and heavy as with a larger camera. Filming by yourself takes a lot of time and patience because you will be doing everything yourself, which means you will have to focus on multiple things simultaneously. This means running back and forth to ensure the shot is framed properly, that your focus is on point, that the lighting is right and many more. So just make sure to be aware of that and accept it. You don't want to rush the process and end up with the video you're unhappy about. Instead, just have fun with it and enjoy the process. Don't let these limitations discourage you and with the help of this video, you will be able to film yourself like a pro. Next is to bring the right gear. Besides choosing the right camera settings, it's important that you also bring the right gear with you. Depending on what you want to film, this may include different gear. The most important gear would be a tripod, which allows you to position your camera to capture the shots you need. In addition, an Apple Watch can be incredible, helpful for framing your shots as you can use it as a live monitor. Other gear can help you be more creative with your shots. For instance, a suction cup can be used to position your camera on the car or a window. This allows you to capture unique shots that would otherwise be difficult. By the way, I will mention all the gear in the video description below. Now the iPhone 14 Pro has three lenses on the back, which covers all of the focal lengths I need. But if your iPhone only has one camera, you might consider bringing third-party lenses with you. Now the great part about using your iPhone to film yourself is that you can pack light as mobile gear is usually small and lightweight, making it easier to carry around the entire day without getting tired. As I mentioned, every shot is different, so you will need to figure out for yourself what you need to bring for your shoot. Next is to have a variety of shots in your video. This will allow for greater variation and make the video more dynamic. One of the best ways to achieve this is to capture a nice balance of wide shots, medium shots, and close-ups. You not only want to get shots of the main subject or myself, but also your surroundings to give your video some context. Then really important is to set and lock your focus and exposure. To ensure your focus and exposure don't change while filming, because it could happen that the camera might focus on something that you don't want. I sometimes also like to focus on something interesting in the foreground while I myself and moving through the background. Now in general, what I do is I pick a spot where I think it is most important to have myself in focus, either at the point I'm walking through or at the point where I want to be standing at the end. Now if there's nothing at the distance from the camera to focus on, I use my backpack and place it where I will be standing. In some cases, I like to use the autofocus as it does a great job of keeping me focused while moving around, but because the exposure will be affected as well, in most cases, I lock it. Unfortunately, you can't separate focus and exposure in the default camera app. For that, you will need a third-party app like Filmic Pro. Then importantly is to review your shots. When you're filming yourself, it's important that you review your shots every single time. This will allow you to ensure that you've got the shot right and make any necessary adjustments if needed. Additionally, this will make the editing process much easier as fixing something in the edit can become time-consuming or even too late to fix. So make sure you review your shots and also have the edit in mind to make sure that the shots you're getting fit into the story you want to tell. Last is to get creative with your shots. When you're filming yourself, it's important that you stay creative with your shots. It can be very tempting to just capture basic shots of yourself moving around, but doing so can make your video feel dull and uninteresting. Because there's so much to think about when filming yourself, it can be tempting to just rush through and shoot and move on to the next one. But by getting creative with your shots, you will help your video stand out and make the process far more enjoyable for yourself. Now, just because you're filming by yourself doesn't mean you can be lazy. In the end, the audience doesn't really care if you shot it by yourself or had someone help you. All that matters is whether the video was engaging or not. So make sure to take your time, do things creatively and go the extra mile to get those shots that will make your videos stand out. Now, one way to get creative when filming yourself is to experiment with different perspectives. This can involve using different types of gear like a suction cup. What I often ask myself is how could I make that shot look more interesting for the viewer and then I experiment around and see what works. You'll be surprised on what great results you can get by just experimenting around. So let's now get into the behind the scenes of how I film myself. For this part, I'm just gonna record a couple of shots of me driving the car across this road. And I placed my camera low to the ground. I'll be recording in 4K 25 frames per second. I actually want to use the ultra wide angle lens to have more in the frame. You'll see that I also have the mountains in the background and I wanna set and lock focus on the plant. This will look really nice as the car will be passing by the camera. So after that, I'm gonna start recording and let's see how it will look like. So what I'm about to do is gonna be a little bit more risky because I'm gonna be placing the iPhone on the road and then pass through it with my car. We're gonna test it out. I don't recommend you do this but I really wanna get this shot so I think it's gonna look really awesome. So we're gonna do that. And again, I'm gonna use the ultra wide angle lens and I'm gonna focus on the road like so. And let's record and do this. I'm just gonna pray nothing happens. All right, I think the shot came out pretty good. Now if you're wondering what I used for both of these car scenes is this clamp over here that I got from Ulanzi. This is just the tripod plate that doesn't belong to it but this is really nice if you want to angle your camera or get really low to the ground. There's like a one quarter screw at the bottom. So the next thing I'm gonna do is capture some interior shots of me driving and I'm gonna use this suction cup which is from Joby that allows me to mount this on a window and angle it however I like to. And really by having different perspectives you can make your shots look more interesting. Now before mounting this on the window I'm gonna make sure the surface is clean and then I can just press it against the window and just turn this part. Now the great part about this mount is that it's max safe but because I'm using a case it won't hold it as well so I can actually just turn this part and use it with the clamp. And I'm gonna use the rear camera because it has the best quality and also because I'm shooting interior there won't be as much light inside and then I'm gonna just turn it. All right, I'm actually gonna lock it on my hand. I think this will look really nice. As you can see we have a nice shallow depth of field. Now while driving it might be a little bit shaky but I can always add post stabilization if I need to. So now that we have that let's capture that shot. For the next shot I'm gonna use the suction cup to film the exterior of the car. Now I'm gonna set the focus on the wheel. This way it will be locked and no changes will happen and the suction cup is really strong. Just make sure to clean the surface as you can see over here so that it doesn't fall off and I usually wait two, three minutes and if the suction cup still holds you're good to go. So let's try that out and I really hope that everything goes well. So the next thing I'm gonna record is how I arrive at the spot. So I'm gonna drive my car and park right over there. And as you can see for this I'm gonna use a tripod as I can keep it steady and angle it in a way how I like it to. And I already have my shot framed over here. As you can see I added a little bit of foreground using this tree over here just to add some depth and I'm actually gonna set and lock focus on the car and then I need to make sure that I park exactly at the same spot. Otherwise the car could be out of focus. So let's do that. I'm gonna start recording. So the next thing I'm gonna do is record myself how I get out of the car and I want to have a close up of my feet while doing that. So I already framed the shot using my Apple watch and I'm now gonna also set and lock focus right about here. This is where I will be standing and then once I'm ready gonna hit the record button. Let's do this. So I'm now gonna create a POV shot using the GorillaPod by Joby and the way I'm gonna do this is I'm gonna strap this around my neck like so. And the way how I'm gonna record this is I'm just gonna have the trunk open and just grab out my backpack and then close the trunk at the end. Now another perspective I want to capture is from the inside of the trunk. So I placed my camera using the GorillaPod and I used my Apple watch to also frame the shot and I think this should look really nice. So I'm gonna press the record button. I'm gonna close the trunk and let's go. So now that I arrived at the spot and took out my backpack, it's now time to hike up the hill. And I've already placed the camera so that you can see the sign that leads to the viewpoint and I'm using the ultra wide angle lens and I actually want myself to be out of focus so I will be focusing on the sign. And as you can see, we have a little bit of shallow depth of field in the background. So once I have that, I'm gonna press the record button. So the next shot will be me walking along this path. I'm gonna have a shot from behind. I have some foreground over here as you can see and I'm actually gonna set and lock it to this spot over here, keeping me out of focus. And I think this is also an interesting shot to create. So let's test that out. I'm gonna start recording and action. Now we're gonna do something similar, but this time I want to have a shot of me from the front. So I already placed my phone and I'm using the telephoto for this one and I also placed my camera bag over there so that I can set my focus and exposure on my bag. I'm gonna start recording. So the next thing I'm gonna do is capture some B roll. And the great part about this is that I don't have to be in front of the camera and can therefore add some camera movement into my shot. So I'm actually gonna create a slide shot for that. I'm gonna use the wide lens for this and this should look really nice. And I'm also gonna change the frame rate to 60 frames per second because I plan on slowing this down in the edit. So let's do that. I'm gonna set and lock focus and go. Now for the second last shot, I'm gonna use the telephoto lens to have a close-up of my face. And I'm gonna walk into the frame and then gaze at the beautiful view. And by having a close-up of my face, the viewers can connect more emotionally. And this way I also have a variety of shots because the last one will be an ultra wide angle shot. Again, I already framed my shot using the Apple Watch. I'm actually gonna leave the focus on auto. This way it can focus on my face when I get into the frame. Okay, and then I'm gonna stand around here. This should be good. So I'm gonna take one step back and action. So this is gonna be the ending shot and I'm gonna use the ultra wide angle lens for this. And I'm gonna place myself close to that rock over there. And I'm gonna set focus and exposure around here because I don't want the sky to be blown out but I don't want myself to be underexposed as well. We're gonna start recording. So we're now back at home and now I'm gonna show you how I edit those clips together and I'm gonna use Final Cut Pro for that since that is my main editing software but you can also use an editing app like LumaFusion or InShot if you prefer to edit on your phone but I prefer editing on a desktop or laptop since I'm much quicker. And also Final Cut Pro gives me more advanced editing options. Now I actually already edited the video and I'm gonna play it back for you with the timeline so that you can see how it would look like. So the first thing I do after importing the clips into my project is that I just pick the best parts of each clip. And then I drag all of the clips into the timeline and then I rearrange them so that it makes sense with the storyline. So let me show you what I mean by that. I picked this first shot as the intro shot since it sort of reveals the location with the mountains and I think it really works well with the title. And for the second shot I picked more of a closeup of me steering the wheel inside the car. And for the third shot I picked this wide shot of me driving over the camera. Then you can also see sort of a medium shot just of the wheel. So again, we have a lot of different perspective which makes it also interesting to watch. You don't always want to have the same perspective. You wanna make sure to get a variety of shots and then you have a shot of me arriving at the location and then we're switching to a closeup shot of me getting out of the car, me opening up the trunk more of a medium shot and then a POV shot of me grabbing the backpack. And then I picked the same shot again just me closing the trunk. And then we have some b-roll of the location just to show the environment and give some more context. And then we have a wide shot of the sign and then me walking up that hill. And then we have a sort of medium shot of me walking upwards. And then another medium shot from above. And last, when I arrive at the spot, a nice closeup of my face which allows the viewers to connect emotionally. And then finally we have a wide shot of me looking at the beautiful view revealing the entire location. So the next thing I did is I actually picked out the music as well as sound effects. And for that I use Artlist, which I think is one of the best places to find original high quality music. And if you sign up using the link in my description, you can get two months additionally for free. So I actually trimmed the music into two parts. I took the beginning of the music and then took sort of the ending of the music and overlaid it. So this is how it sounds like. Now, as you can listen, the transition between those two music clips isn't that smooth, but I fixed that using sound effects. And sound effects is really important to add into your video to make your videos come more alive. And by the way, I also captured sound using the internal mic. This will make the editing process for you much quicker. Otherwise you will need to find all of those sounds like footsteps, wind noise, car passing by and all of that. So let me play back the video with just the sound effects enabled. Now something else to consider once you have your music is to edit to the beat. So what I mean by that is when I play this clip back, there's a cut over there. And as the beat comes, I turn off the lights. So let me play that back. Boom. And again, as you can see, I step out of the car to the beat. So let's play that back again. Okay. And sometimes you can also edit off beat to also make it more interesting for the viewer. So for example, over here, see, people would expect that I would cut on that beat, but since I didn't do that, it sort of keeps the interest of the viewer. So the next thing I did is I added a title to my video. And the title I'm using is from Motion VFX called M Title Cinematic. Motion VFX creates some of the best plugins in the world. I will leave a link in the video description below if you're interested. And using a professional title plugin like this one just makes your video look more cinematic. And the great part is that it comes with all different kinds of title animations once you have it. So I highly suggest you take a look as I use them for most of my videos, especially travel videos that I create. Now, since most of the shots we're taking on a tripod, it can get a little bit boring as there is no camera movement involved, but there is an easy fix to make your locked off shots look more dynamic. All you have to do is fake your camera movements in the edit. There are different ways to achieve this. You can pan across the frame or what I like to use most often is to apply a zoom in or out on the subject. And you also can add fake handheld movement to your static videos, which also adds extra visual interest as if someone would be holding the camera. So for example, in this video, I added a slight zoom in which allows the viewer to focus their attention even more on the car. And then in the second shot again, I added a slight zoom in. And then in this shot, I added a pan which goes from left to right, which is also really nice. And then for the last shot, I added a zoom out to let the viewers know that the scene is ending. And in this clip, I also added a camera shake as I step out of the car. So when I play it back, you'll see, boom, boom, which makes it even more dramatic. So the next thing I did is I color graded each of the clip. So this is how it looks like straight out of the iPhone's native camera. And after color grading, this is how it looks like. As you can see, it looks way more cinematic. And I'm not gonna go through the entire process of how I color graded this clip because that's a video for itself. But basically what I did is I first converted the HDR clip to an SDR clip using the HDR tool inside of Final Cut Pro. After that, I adjusted the highlights, mid tones and shadows. And then I made sure the white balance is correct. And then in this curve, I also raised the shadows to make it look a little bit more vintage-like. Then I adjusted the hue and saturation. So I made these leaves over here less saturated and also made the sky a little bit more teal. And then I added a vignette to help the viewers focus on what's important. And then last, I added a look to my video and actually used one of my own LUTs, which is the orange and teal look to make the image pop more. If you're interested in getting my premium mobile LUTs, the link will be in the description below. And last but not least, I added a letterbox on top of the entire clip to make it look more cinematic. And once you're done, I head over to the top right-hand corner, select export, and for the format, I pick Apple device. The video codec is H.264 in 4K resolution. So there we have it. That is how I edit the entire video that I shot of myself using Final Cut Pro. Overall, filming yourself can be challenging, but a rewarding experience as you learn a lot by doing this. As you can see, there are many different things to consider when filming yourself as well as editing to get the most out of your video. By following these steps, you can ensure that you get the best shots possible and make your shooting experience more enjoyable. So remember, take your time, be creative, and have fun. Now guys, if you enjoyed this video and want to learn more, make sure to check out SmartphoneFilmmaking.com as I have tutorials just like this one where you can learn how to film professionally and cinematic videos using just your smartphone in no time. On top of that, I just released a mini course on the iPhone 14 Pro inside the SmartphoneFilmmaking course with 25 plus lessons explaining every setting you need to know to capture the best footage possible. If you're interested, make sure to check out the link in the description. Now if you're new to filming with a smartphone, make sure to download my free SmartphoneFilmmaking guide which will help you get started making quality videos right away. Now make sure to subscribe to my channel to not miss out on my upcoming videos. Thank you so much guys for watching. I appreciate all of you. Take care and I will see you in the next video.