Two of our biggest corporate clients have recently asked us to edit videos that had been shot on iPhones. Which begs the question:
Is it ok to shoot your video on an iPhone?
The answer is: Yes.
But there’s a caveat. It’s ok to do it if the viewer expects to see iPhone video. In both cases, our corporate clients had people in the field (employees, customers) submit stories that they shot themselves. So it was perfectly natural for the finished videos to have that homemade feel. In fact, the videos would have been a lot less impactful if they had too much production value or were too slick.
It actually takes longer to edit iPhone video than professionally-shot video. That’s because there’s a lot of cleanup work to do: Image stabilization, color correction, audio sweetening.
On the other hand, if your audience expects to see a professionally produced video with real production quality, an iPhone is not going to be your camera of choice.
Here at Allied Pixel we have a pretty wide range of cameras and we try to use the one that is best suited to telling a particular story. The tiny and indestructible GoPro is great for point of view action shots. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is marvelous for intimate interviews. The Sony EX3 is a terrific event camera. And the F3 and F55 bring cinematic beauty to high end projects.
Choosing the right camera for the job is important. But even more important is what you do with the camera. That’s all about storytelling and craft, intangibles that come from years of experience and that make all the difference.
But yes, it’s ok to shoot your video on an iPhone, if that makes sense for your project. I’ll even lend you mine if you want to do a two-camera shoot.