The Five Dollar Filmmaker

Ever Feel Like This Guy?

It’s mile 15 and you’ve just realized that 25 pounds of camera gear is actually killing you.  If only you could achieve high quality video and audio without all that damn weight and money.

Pull out your iphone (everybody has one) and buy the Filmic Pro app for just $5.oo  $7.99

I realize that since I purchased the app and got my lazy ass around to publishing this, the app has increased in price.  I’m still calling it the $5 filmmaker because there was originally a concept for the “Five” this or “Five” that.   Next in the series will likely be the “Five Minute Filmmaker” where I will discuss a few very basic editing concepts that anybody can do with just about any video editor.

So, let’s dig into Filmic Pro.

I can achieve the same settings on my iphone 5 that can also be achieve with my beloved Canon DSLR.  If you have ever operated a DSLR you already know the audio recording capabilities of just about any video recorder are just terrible.  So Filmic Pro also lets me capture the highest possible quality of uncompressed audio that I have used not just on a cell phone but any audio recorder.

I first caught wind of this beast of an app through film school.  There were assignments where we had to make a short production using just a cell phone.  Apparently there is quite a following of cell phone videographers at SXSW as well.

So why not use your phone for a video and audio recorder if you can achieve the same results operating professional gear?  If it’s because you don’t own any apple products, I must interject with a ‘they have that for all kinds of phones’.

By now you’re probably asking yourself “why is this guy talking about doodads, gadgets, and whatnot”?

The cold truth is: I’m tired of seeing knowledgable people putting out poorly produced videos and being overlooked by the end user for some punks that don’t know a stick from a hole in the ground but can make a good video.

Too many great minds are being passed by because they don’t know anything about cameras and gadgets?  No!  So I’m here to help them in any way I can.

That’s what Chris and I do here.  We promote outdoor living skills any way we can even if it means wandering off the woodcraft reservation periodically for some techy how-to’s.

If you have trouble with your writing, or videography, or marketing, just send us a mail.  We aren’t trying to guard some secret sauce recipe.  Most likely, we’d love to help you.  Because what’s good for us and good for you, is typically good for the industry as a whole.

Now that I’ve briefly touched on this app and why I feel it’s important, there is a quick video just to show you what this app can do.  Note that I barely did any editing to the clips used.  I didn’t do any stabilizing and very minor color grading.  No audio edits for wind.  Basically just a crop (like you see in just about any movie nowadays) and a few minor transitions.  The idea is to show you what out-of-the-box clips can be achieved here with just the Filmic Pro app.

If you have headphones with a mic, you can narrate without that insulting wind hiss.  I was going to narrate the clip but honestly it didn’t really need an explanation.

The clips I used were all from Oklahoma except the cedar/hammock shot in Kansas where I showed that you can play with depth of field or bokeh.  The whole thing is really random and there is no point to the video so if you watch it first before reading this, you might think I’m going crazy.

There were two bald eagles, one did not have a white hood so I assume they were parent/offspring.  Also a couple camps, a couple sunsets, a neat way to use a hammock with a canoe trailer, and of course my dog Red.

A big thank you for making it all the way to the end.  Well Done!  Now enjoy the video.  🙂