Tools of the Trade

Just like Stephen Rea I would love to own a movie camera, but for the purpose of this film project our access to film cameras is limited.

One piece of technology that we do have access to, however, is our cell phones. Most modern cellphones have excellent photo quality, are light weight, and user friendly.

Footage taken from phones can also be easily uploaded to online programs that allow files to be transferred over multiple devices. This will make the process of gathering and editing the footage we have easier.

The two phone types that we plan to be using throughout our filming is the iPhone 7 plus and the iPhone 11 plus. We plan to utilize the iPhones “airdrop” ability to allow for easy file transfer between the two devices. Both devices also have internet access that allows for the transfer of videos over programs like Google Drive and Microsoft’s One Drive.

The camera quality of both phones is compared in the video below.

While iPhone 11 plus has the greater camera ability, it is owned by my sister and therefore will not be available during all of our filming. My sister will be acting as the primary camera operator since she will not be acting in any of our scenes. This does not present itself as a major issue because both use a 12MP (12 million pixel) camera making the videos captured very similar in quality. The main difference between the two cameras is the iPhone 11’s updated ability to allow for “improved image processing to preserve more highlights and details in each shot”.

The iPhone 11 is also said to have a new “Night mode” but we do not plan to film any of our scenes at night or in dark areas so this ability would not be beneficial to us.

Resources:

“Daryl Hannah Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/daryl_hannah_202246.

Welch, Chris. “Apples New IPhone 11 and IPhone 11 Pro Cameras: What They Do.” The Verge, The Verge, 10 Sept. 2019, http://www.theverge.com/2019/9/10/20850694/apple-iphone-11-pro-max-camera-specs-features-triple-three-slofies.