It might seem a bit obvious. Your cellphone being one of the most powerful tools available to us as creators. But I don’t think creators really *appreciate* the cellphone as a content developing/distributing/curating apparatus. This article, I’ll do my best to help you gain that appreciation.

The Camera & Mic

If you have purchased a new phone in the last year, we’re talking iPhone 8/x, Samsung s8/9, Google Pixel 2, well then you’ve entered in an era where smartphone cameras are giving DSLR’s/Mirrorless cameras a run for their money. Will it replace those cameras? No. But it does a perfect job accompanying those cameras. For instance, Live Streaming. Facebook and Instagram have an extremely powerful platform that allow us to livestream straight to our audiences at any given time. Use that to your advantage! People love feeling involved in the creating process, and that live streaming feature is a perfect way to let them in. Want to increase the production value of your livestream without much of a cost, or hit to mobility? Throw on one of these lenses and mic’s that will give your video a more personal look, as well as a much better sound.

Moment Lenses

Credit – Moment Lenses

Shure MV88

Credit – Steve Garfield

Don’t think of your smartphone camera as the last resort, or a way to capture silly moments of your dog. Think of it more as an extension of your filmmaking repertoire. A tool, a very powerful, and very mobile, tool, that has tons of uses.

The Post-Production

One thing I took for granted, was the physical power of the smartphone. I didn’t quite realize the pure procession power behind it. So I always did most of my editing on my PC or laptop. But the phones these days are extremely powerful devices. The latest iPhone is more powerful than most laptops, which is insane. Not too mention, the screens on these devices are some of the industries best. So why wouldn’t I edit my content on them? More and more I find myself out shooting in the field – both photo and video – heading to my coffee shop, uploading the content straight to my iPhone, and then sending it right out to my audience. No need to wait till I get back to the office, or run home, just to splice up some short video, or color-correct some photos.

Photo Editing

Video Editing

I will say, I don’t use my phone so much for much video editing. This is only because I often have my iPad Pro on me as well, and I find it’s just so much better in that case. But the mobility is still there, and being able to do my post production on it has been a godsend. For instance, I’m out at a convention. I take some great videos of a company’s booth and their products from my iPhone and want to show my audience. I’ll send those clips, through AirDrop, to my iPad, and finish my editing. All while I’m still right there at the convention. I don’t lose much, if any, quality at all, and I’m getting my content out there before anyone. I’ll be writing a more thorough tutorial on my mobile workflow later. For now, grab those apps and start learning them!

Distro

Now I’ve shot my content, edited it, and its time to distribute. Still, it’s as easy as ever on your phone (or iPad) to get your content out there. AirDrop is your best friend. The Android equivalent is Files Go, though I don’t have much experience with that. With Airdrop, you can seamlessly send any files from your Apple devices to each other. What I like to do is AirDrop everything to my iPhone, so I can post my content whenever, wherever. This allows me to take advantage of the most optimal times to post. There’s also Hootsuite (which I mainly use nowadays) where you can add your social media and youtube, and schedule when you want to post. No more am I left waiting around waiting to post something, sometimes forgetting, missing those opportune times. I just dump everything to Hootsuite, write my captions and tags, and schedule them, where Hootsuite automatically uploads for you at those specified times.

Podcasting

One thing I’ve not done so much of on my iPhone, is podcasting. I have a pretty elaborate & expensive podcasting set-up in my office, and it just makes sense to record there. But I’ve been looking much more into podcasting from the comforts of wherever the fuck I’m at. I’ve always seen as podcasting as this long-form 3 hour extravaganza that takes all day to produce, and all day to listen to. But I’ve seen more and more successful shows lately that podcast more in a “news” style, which uploads audio only news updates periodically throughout the day. It’s interesting, and I want to take advantage of this “new” way of podcasting. And by doing that, I’ll need to be using my phone a lot.

These apps make it super easy to record your podcast, right into your phone, and upload to your feed, without much of an issue whatsoever. If you want that pristine sound quality that you’re used to with your podcasting studio, you can still use high-end condenser mics (or any mic for that matter), compressors, and amps with your iPhone or iPad using this audio interface SHURE MVi.

Final Thoughts

So hopefully I was able to convince you that there’s no need to worry about the latest gear and bleeding edge tech to produce some great content. If you have a smartphone, you have some of those apps, as well as the creativity and gumption to produce awesome content, then you’re pretty much set. Take advantage of the excellent advancements that have been made in the mobile market. Your audience will definitely thank you for it. And also, get yourself a battery pack. You’ll probably need it.