RAY MEESE

The iPhone 4 is a great tool for multimedia journalists but like many of the features built into the phone, the video falls a bit short in it’s capabilities. Enter FiLMiC Pro, a great app for shooting video on the iPhone.

I could ramble on forever but if you’re serious enough about shooting quality video on a mobile device, simply pointing out all the features itemized in the photo below will make you realize how sophisticated this app is.

1. Focus (same as the native camera app only you drag this blue box around the screen as opposed to simply tapping the screen).

2. Exposure – unlike the native camera app, FiLMiC Pro lets you focus on one area while exposing for another. This icon can be dragged around the screen to expose for whatever area you want.

11. Within the settings you can set your framing guides for 2.35:1, 4:3 or 16:9 but note it doesn’t actually change the aspect ratio (you’ll have to ‘crop’ the video in an editor of your choice.)

3. Lock the focus
4. Lock the exposure
5. Lock the white balance
6. Turn the torch on/off
7. Basic app information
8. Your video library – videos are stored here until you choose to export them to your camera roll, YouTube etc.
9. App settings
10. Record

Within the settings you can choose your resolution, frame rate (max of 30fps), choose to use color bars or a slate at the beginning of each recorded clip, configure your slate, turn on/off the rule-of-thirds guides, set the framing guide and turn the audio meter on/off.

I’ve found this app to be extremely easy to use and the focus lock, exposure lock and white-balance lock make a world of difference in rendering higher quality video.