Short video shooting: 3 tips to teach you how to shoot high-quality short videos with your mobile phone!

Picking up the phone to watch short videos when nothing is done has become a norm for many people nowadays. It seems that something is missing if they don’t watch short videos. Many people have noticed this and have joined the ranks of short video operations . Short video operations have also become a popular industry for making money. More and more companies and short video operators want to monetize their revenue through short videos.

So the question is, how can we operate short videos well? In other words, how can we make money through short videos?

Presumably, this is what many friends who want to plan short video operations are eager to know. As the saying goes, "If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools." Therefore, whether you are making short videos or live streaming with goods, the first and most important thing is the short video shooting and the choice of shooting tools.

Generally speaking, there are three types of short video shooting tools: mobile phones, cameras, and camcorders. For individuals or friends who are just starting to make short videos, a mobile phone is generally enough. It is not recommended to use expensive professional cameras or camcorders right away.

However, it does not mean that you can use any kind of mobile phone to shoot short videos. First of all, the phone’s memory must be large enough (note that 2 to 3 mobile phones may be needed for live broadcast). Secondly, the captured image must be stable and clear enough.

In order to help everyone better master mobile phone short video shooting, we have summarized three major short video shooting techniques for mobile phones.

Short video shooting technique 1: mobile phone settings

1. Keep the lens clean

Before shooting a short video, remember to wipe the lens of your mobile phone. This does not need much explanation. Friends who wear glasses should understand it well.

If the lens is not clean, everything will be blurry. Friends who don’t wear glasses can refer to the mirror at home to see how big the difference is between clean and dirty.

2. Set the phone shooting parameters

Before shooting a short video, it is very important to preset the parameters of the mobile phone. Let’s first briefly talk about the most basic mobile phone parameters and how to set them.

Exposure and focus. It is recommended that you lock the exposure and focus on the subject before shooting a short video to avoid unclear video images due to frequent autofocus of the mobile phone.

Resolution and frame rate. If the resolution is too low, the image quality is not clear enough; if the resolution is too high, the platform does not support it and it takes up a lot of memory. Therefore, it is recommended that you set the resolution and frame rate to 1080p and 60fps respectively when shooting short videos. This will not only ensure high clarity but also save memory. It will also facilitate the later editing and production of short videos.

3. Flexible use of various modes of mobile phone camera

Nowadays, mobile phones come with many built-in modes, such as night mode, portrait mode, wide-angle mode... In these modes, the phone has already set the parameters for you, so you only need to make minor adjustments according to your video needs.

Short video shooting skills 2: necessary equipment assistance

1) Mobile phone + stabilizer/anti-shake mobile phone

When shooting short videos with a mobile phone, the most taboo thing is that the screen keeps shaking. If your hands cannot maintain a stable state for a long time, you can use a stabilizer (handheld gimbal, mobile phone holder) or buy an anti-shake mobile phone to keep the picture in a horizontal state.

2) Mobile phone + microphone

When shooting short videos outdoors or in a relatively noisy environment, we need to retain the original sound. At this time, the presence of a microphone is very important (especially in short videos such as live broadcasts, street interviews and food exploration). "Mobile phone + microphone" can easily help you solve the problems of unclear sound and obvious noise.

3) Mobile phone + fill light

When shooting short videos, fill light is also a very important device, especially when shooting close-ups in live broadcasts and short videos. With it, we can take good pictures even in the absence of light conditions.

Short video shooting skills three: master basic shooting skills

In addition to the changes in various scene sizes that bring different levels of depth to the video, the various Douyin short video shooting techniques will also make the entire video rich and colorful. Different shooting techniques express different meanings. Once you learn them, you can add more colors to the video based on the script.

(1) Push: The lens is pushed forward and the subject does not need to move, but the subject in the picture is gradually enlarged. Push shots are divided into fast push, slow push and violent push, which are used to express observation from far to near, step by step.

(2) Pull: The camera lens is pulled back. Similarly, the subject does not need to move. The shooting device moves backward and the subject in the picture is gradually reduced. Pull shots can also be divided into slow pull, fast pull, and sharp pull, expanding from the subject to the whole to express the environment.

(3) Shake: The camera moves up and down, left and right, or rotates, so that the viewer feels as if they are in the scene and looks around the screen.

(4) Moving: that is, moving shooting, which refers to shooting while moving along a horizontal plane. Moving the lens can make a stationary object appear to be in motion.

(5) Ascending: Shooting ascent

(6) Descend: Descend to shoot.

(7) Bird’s-eye view: Bird’s-eye view is often used to show the overall appearance of the environment from a macro perspective.

(8) Looking up: Shooting from above often conveys a sense of tallness and solemnity.

(9) Swing: A swing shot is also called a panning shot. It refers to swinging from one subject to another. It can be used as a means of scene change to express the rapid speed of object movement.

(10) Follow: refers to tracking shooting. "Follow and move" is a shooting method, and there is also "follow and shake", "follow and push", "follow and pull", "follow and rise", "follow and lower", etc., which is to combine following with more than 20 Douyin short video shooting methods such as pulling, shaking, moving, rising and lowering, and carry them out at the same time. In short, the techniques of tracking shooting are flexible and varied, and they keep the audience's eyes fixed on the person or object being followed.

(11) Empty: Also known as empty shot or scenery shot, it refers to a pure scenery shot without any characters in the play (whether human or related animals).

(12) Comprehensive: refers to comprehensive shooting, also known as comprehensive shot. It is a shooting method that combines several shooting methods such as pushing, pulling, shaking, moving, following, rising, lowering, tilting, raising, rotating and swinging into one shot.

(13) Long and short shots: The limit is 30 seconds. Any continuous shot longer than 30 seconds is a long shot, and any shot shorter than 30 seconds is a short shot.

(14) Reverse shot: refers to the shooting of two people in a scene with the camera in a different direction. For example: when shooting a man and a woman sitting and talking, first shoot the man from one side, then shoot the woman from the other side, and finally cross-cut them to form a complete clip.

(15) Zoom shooting: The shooting device does not move, but the focal length of the lens is changed to make people or objects in the distance clearly visible, or to make the close scene go from clear to blurred.

(16) Subjective shooting: also known as subjective lens, which is a lens that shows the subjective sight and vision of the characters in the play, and often has the function of visual psychological description.

High-quality short videos are rarely shot with fixed lenses. The above shooting techniques are common in short videos. After all, short videos are characterized by a colorful style.

It will not remain unchanged, and naturally requires the addition of many elements. Shooting techniques are also one of the means to achieve this goal.

In order to operate short videos well and realize monetization through short videos, in addition to short video shooting skills, you also need to master how to select short video topics, write scripts, increase account followers and traffic, and realize short video monetization...