If filming on your mobile phone is new to you, it is worth practising with what you have already - your phone - before you look to buy any more equipment. 

When you are ready and have an idea of what would help improve your filming, you can buy equipment at a modest cost. We know every penny counts, so here are some options to help with cost: 

• Share the cost and equipment: Is there another organisations near you that has equipment you can borrow (some libraries might, and other community venues) or an organisation that would be interested in sharing the cost and equipment with you.  

• Local funders: This kind of thing might be something for smaller local funders if there are any near you. In your application, you should focus on the capacity building potential for your group or organisation; how will this equipment allow you to strengthen their communications and go on to secure further funding as a result? Will you involve the people they work with in creating the films? 

• In-kind donation: Could a local business or store donate the equipment as an in-kind donation?  

• Package it up as part of a project: For example, if you run a weekly youth group and are applying for project funding to run 6-week sessions over the summer holidays, you could include the cost of the equipment in the budget if you can demonstrate how it will be used as part of the project i.e. to use with the young people to get creative, create video scrapbooks etc. 

• Local council grants: Some local councils offer capital grants for businesses and charities/voluntary groups might be able to access this too. They're normally to develop and grow the organisation so again your application would need to focus on capacity building. Get in touch with your local council funding officer or TSI to find out what’s available in their area. 

Yes, absolutely. If you’re not recording speech/ sound isn’t crucial, so no need to buy an external microphone for this.  

Just remember to move slowly and steadily when you are walking through your venue, as your footage may be quite shaky otherwise.  

Don’t be afraid to try the walk-through a few times so you get the right pace and you’re comfortable with how you’re holding your phone.  

You could add a voice over or text in the editing software if you need to explain what different parts of the venue are used for. 

1-3 minutes is a good length. If you have more things to explain, maybe make different videos for different topics/themes, so people can choose which clip to watch. If you create a 10-minute video, people don’t know if they will get the answers they need and they may not click on the video at all.  

For social media, videos under 2 minutes do best.  

Search online for ‘Royalty Free Music’. 

You can also check out: 

• www.pixabay.com 
• www.free-stock-music.com 
• www.freemusicarchive.org 

Check what the rules are for using any music. You may have to give a credit to the musician at the end of the film, or even add a link to the artist in the description of your video on YouTube.  

Editing software like Canva or iMovie have stock music readily available.  

Attention grabbing, beautiful 2-3 shots will capture audiences far better than sped up video. Sped up video / timelapse shots are generally used to visualise passing of time, or an overview, or progress of something being made. They don’t really tell a story so it’s better to have the 5 shots. Then decide if timelapse is something you need.  

Filming in landscape will give you more options of where to show your film. If you shoot in landscape and add your film to an Instagram story, the viewer has the option to turn their phone on its side to watch, but if you shoot in portrait and upload your film to YouTube, the video will have black bars on each side, which doesn’t look attractive and may turn viewers off from watching. 

If you are filming an event, you need permission from the location first. Then speak to the organisers. You can add a disclaimer to the event invitation saying that there will be photography and filming happening, and for attendees to get in touch with the organiser if they have any concerns about this.  

Release/ consent forms can be filled out by interviewees, and you can also get a verbal consent on camera at the beginning of the interview. Make sure people are aware where the film will end up. Most people are OK with using it for social media, but they may not be as comfortable if the video ends up on national news story.  

It is legal for anyone to film in public; however, you need to be careful as people don’t like being filmed without consent. If possible, try to choose a spot away from people passing by. Generally speaking, as long as members of the public aren’t recognisable in the footage (e.g. if they are in the distance or we see them from behind) then you should be fine.  

You can record a voice over using the Voice Memo app (iPhone) or something similar and add the audio file into your editing software. Connecting a lavalier microphone to your phone would give your voice a better quality. 

When a video is uploaded to YouTube it will automatically generate subtitles, however, sometimes these can be wildly different than what is said, so do check them over. You can make tweaks to the subtitle transcript by clicking the ‘Edit Video’ button beneath your video, this will take you to the Video Details page, and on the right-hand side of the screen is the subtitle editor. You can also download the subtitle transcript here too.  

You can use different lenses on your phone if you have them, but you can also simply move your feet and get in closer to the detail of your subject. 

Avoid using the zoom function on your phone as you’ll lose picture quality. 

It depends where you want the film to be shown.  

Full (16:9/ landscape) is good for YouTube; 1:1 (square) for Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram grid; 9:16 (portrait) is good for Instagram and Facebook stories.  

Shooting in full (16:9) is the most versatile, as it gives you the option to reframe for 1:1 in the editing software, and if it is uploaded as a story to Facebook or Instagram, the viewer can just turn the phone on its side. 

Using a gimbal would help to smooth out your shots if you are filming in a car. If you plan to film a lot of traveling shots, perhaps considering purchasing an action camera (new or second hand) such as GoPro. These types of cameras have great stabilisation mode and they come with an array of grips, mounts and suction cups.  

The films shown in the webinar had between 30-60 minutes of filmed footage, and on average from that amount of material, it took roughly a day to edit each film – the time may vary depending on your familiarity with editing applications. If you don’t have that solid block of time to dedicate to editing, try chipping away at the film over a few days when your schedule allows. This would give you time to reflect on the film between editing sessions too. 

It would be best to film these as separate clips. It will make it easier for you to find the right bit for the edit. 

If you’re conducting an interview with an individual who wishes to remain anonymous, filming extreme close-ups of their features (e.g. just their mouth speaking, their hands gesturing, etc) or filming them from behind can still give the audience a sense of who the person is.  

You can also use depth of field to blur out the person - place an object in front of the camera to the side such as vase with flowers. Then make sure the vase is in focus leaving the person in the background out of focus.  

If the individual can’t be filmed at all, you could do an audio interview with them and layer images over this that relate to what they’re saying. If you can’t use their voice either, you could interview them and write a script for someone else to record to fully protect their identity. 

During the webinar, people asked about recommendations for editing software, tripods and mics. Check out the factsheets that are part of our online toolkit to help with this.