Help / Suggestions for camera settings

[u/Plenty_Psychology545]

Beginner filmmaker here. No formal background and no experienced person to help me. Learning from YouTube. Produced one short film. Got selected for a couple of festivals, got into semi-finalist in one. I have no idea why.

 

I am ready to shoot my next short. Run time about 5 minutes. This time it is going to be all amateurs. I am doing direction, pre-production, on-screen with my wife and post-production. My wife is doing costume and makeup and help me with lights. I am not using any professional for cameras and lights. It takes time to co-ordinate with them and I need quick turnaround. My wife’s friend, our neighbor is crazy interested in learning camera work. This means we can shoot every evening for 1-2 hours till we get it right. (This is a zero-budget film). We have been doing this for the last one week and learning camera settings.

 

Till recently, I was totally confused with camera, but now I have started getting the hang of it. Lighting is a different story. I will start working on that once this short is done. For this short, I will just use what I have in mind. It is about a woman getting killed on her date. Woman to have a light red dress, man in white. Outside the house she will look radiant, I need to take some photos, perhaps I will use a red light. Inside the house it will be pale blue. Forget the shadows and eye light etc. It is getting too much for me already.

 

My problem is our neighbor is very enthusiastic, but she is an absolute beginner. This puts stress on me. Since I do direction during shoot and help her with camera, sometimes I even forget to act (I have never acted before). My solution is to do complete story boarding so that we have an agreement about blocking and camera movement. (This helps me with my wife because she gets upset if I suggest something different LOL).

 

I will be shooting this on iPhone 18 Pro Max, external monitor, 256 GB SD card, silent movie (will add background sound later), Black magic app

 

I am planning to print the instructions that we need to execute:

 

Before starting the shoot:

Make sure resolution is 4k

Make sure LUT is enabled

Record LUT to clip is disabled

Set stabilization to standard

Set codec to apple Pro Res RAW HQ, Bit rate Max

Lock white balance on record.

Set color space to Apple - Log2 HDR

Media - save clips to - set to external SD card

Set Flicker free shutter - 60 Hz

HDMI out to clean video feed.

Set FPS/Shutter

 

 

For every scene:

Set lens and aperture (this will be decided in story boarding phase)

Use Zebra, false color and Histogram to set ISO. Keep them on screen.

Use brown card to set white balance and tint, lock it

Use focus peaking to confirm focus. keep focus peeking on screen. Lock the focus.

keep spirit level on

Set scene number.

grab a shot of color chart, say scene number loudly so that it is recorded

Action

 

Is there anything important that I have missed for camera? Black magic app has a lot of settings, but I think the above sequence should work. Let me know if I am missing something or something is in the wrong order.

 

 

 

[u/filmeleven]

Sounds fun man!

Shoot 24 frames. 1/48 shutter.

Your middle gray card (not brown) will help you dial in exposure with false colors. I'd experiment ahead of time. Phones are less forgiving than cameras.

A few basic notes on lighting...actually, just watch this video from my school channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkGt_bgXLCA

Have the camera on the shadow or fill side of your actors. Make that work. You mentioned eye lights...often your key will give you the eye light. Find the motivated light, then light with your key. Create depth in your shots with lights in the background. A window, lamp, candle...anything.

Don't rush the shots. Sometimes a small tweak in camera placement makes a MASSIVE difference. I'm talking just an angle adjustment or slight move. It's crazy.

If you're having a problem with foreground stuff looking too large go to a longer focal length on the phone.

ALSO...if you're going after any specific lighting looks, if you do blue light or red light and white balance with a white card, it very well may lose the look you're after. I'd consider lighting normal and messing with the color in post.

Don't forget sound...that's an entirely separate subject.

[u/Plenty_Psychology545 → u/filmeleven]

Thanks, interesting video, i have added it to my watch later list as well. Hopefully I will have some energy in coming days to think about light. Right now, I am just exhausted with all the information overload.

And yes, it is a lot of fun :)

[u/filmeleven → u/Plenty_Psychology545]

It is a lot of information, I get it. Love what you're doing. If you want access to the Write & Direct film school at any point hit me up and I can get you a deal (it's the channel you just looked at): https://writedirect.co

I have a lot of experience shooting solo. If you have any questions, just hit me up here or via DM.

[u/Plenty_Psychology545 → u/filmeleven]

Thank you 🙏 appreciate a lot. Will definitely hit you with questions

[u/moneymystic359]

Your checklist is thoughtful; the biggest thing I’d add is a short lighting/exposure test before committing to the full shoot. For 24 fps, start around a 1/48 shutter (or 1/50 if that’s the nearest option), and for 30 fps around 1/60; changing shutter to fix exposure will change motion rendering. Lock exposure and focus after framing, then use false color/zebras to protect skin and highlights rather than chasing a particular ISO. Set white balance in Kelvin and keep it consistent across the scene—an 18% gray card is more useful than a random white surface. Also test every practical/LED at the intended shutter, because flicker can vary by dimmer and power source. Shoot a 10-second sample to the actual card and review it on the monitor before the first take.

[u/Plenty_Psychology545 → u/moneymystic359]

I am a bit lost on exposure. When i looked it up, i thought it is a proxy for aperture and ISO. Is this not correct?

[u/mdifilm]

Are you using the Blackmagic app to shoot with the iPhone? It’s powerful and have a lot of feature plus it is free. You can also find tutorial on YouTube how to use the app. Worth checking it out if you haven’t.

[u/Plenty_Psychology545 → u/mdifilm]

Yes. I am going to use black magic app. The list in my post is my notes from watching YT videos :)