Maine STEM Film Challenge Newsletter

Issue 4

November 21st, 2025

Hello again Film Makers, and a very happy Friday!

This is the 4th in a series of bi-weekly newsletters that we will be sending out to our team coaches/competitors with news, updates for the challenge, timeline suggestions, and resources for your films. 

Click on the flowchart to expand it, and feel free to use this timeline for yourself or with your team. (If you would like this flowchart sent to you as a separate document, please let our administrative assistant Cassidy know at cassidy.munley@maine.edu .) 

The previous three emails covered Topics, Research, and Outlining & Storyboards. They’re archived here.

For today’s newsletter, we’ll be discussing creating films using mobile phones/devices.

Filmmaking equipment can be expensive and hard to access. Good-quality cameras can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and professional film cameras can cost anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars (and that doesn’t even account for the lenses!). However, mobile phones & devices are now frequently equipped with high-quality cameras, and it is increasingly common to see media that was produced solely with a phone. This is especially true for short-form content on social media – think Instagram/Facebook/some YouTube videos, and so on. However, some full-length films, such as Tangerine (2015) and Unsane (2018), were filmed entirely using iPhones (note – these are both R-rated movies, used as an example here due to their relative success, not appropriate to be used as a reference in class for our K-12 participants).

It is entirely possible to capture high-quality video using a mobile phone, and acceptable for many situations – including Maine STEM Film Challenge submissions.

Please continue reading to find out more about how to get the most out of your phone camera.

Considerations when filming with mobile phones/devices

While mobile phones have a lot of benefits such as accessibility, affordability, and convenience, they tend to lack in a few areas when it comes to recording video. Primarily, this comes down to:

1. Fixed lenses (no optical zoom)
2. Nonstandard aspect ratio
3. Lack of storage
4. Low battery life
5. Low stabilization
6. Poor audio quality (!!)

A typical video recorded on a phone is not usually of sufficient quality for use in videos/films, mostly due to the above constraints. However, as mentioned above, phones are used in many different areas of video production. For your Maine STEM Film Challenge submission, you may need to take videos of people, places, or things to augment your submission. With some planning & consideration, it is very possible to get high-quality video from a mobile phone. We’ll cover some tips & suggestions below. Even using a few of these suggestions can vastly improve your video quality. We’ll be focusing on lighting, stabilization, file organization, and audio quality primarily.

Lighting

When it comes to creating high-quality video, the lighting is arguably more important than the camera itself. Most of what contributes to how a video looks is ultimately how well it’s lit. Film lighting is an area of study unto itself, and we are not here to explore its complexities. That being said, understanding a few basic concepts can vastly improve your final product.

Avoid dimly lit areas – As you may already know, video captured in low-light areas results in grainy footage. The reason for this is because the camera overcompensates for a lack of light by increasing the ISO or gain. This amplifies the video signal (making it brighter), but it also amplifies the noise (defined as the inaccuracies in the image capture caused at the sensor level, more obvious when gain is increased). To avoid the graininess, you can simply record in well-lit areas. Natural light tends to be best, but any light that is closer to eye level is ideal. This can mean windows, table lamps, or other sources. If that’s not available, overhead lighting is acceptable – and anything is better than no light at all!

Avoid overly bright areas – Video quality can also suffer if there’s too much light. Although it’s not as much of an issue as not having enough light, you can sometimes have issues with this if you’re filming outside with the sun directly overhead, for example. Consider filming in a shady area or at a different time of day.

Make sure the light is in front of you – Especially when you’re recording indoors, it’s important to make sure that the subject is facing the light source. If not, your video may look darker than expected. Consider a situation where a student wants to capture a video of a teammate for their film submission. They choose a location that has a large window with lots of natural light coming in. However, they position the student being filmed with their back towards the window, and the camera is positioned facing the window. This is called backlighting, and results in the student showing up in the video as a silhouette. Ideally, you would want to try frontlighting – with the student facing the window, and the camera in between. Here’s an example of both situations (as imagined if you were standing overhead):

Capturing sound

Probably the biggest challenge when it comes to recording videos with a phone is capturing audio. Audio recorded from a phone video can be inconsistent, hard to understand, and will tend to have lots of unwanted noise. If at all possible, it would be recommended not to use the audio that’s captured from a phone’s internal microphone in the final film submission. What else can you do?

If you have access to or are willing to obtain an external microphone, that can make a very noticeable difference. External microphones are useful, because it gets the microphone closer to the source that you’re trying to record (and further away from unwanted noise). This results in clearer and more even sound. If you get one that can be connected into your phone, then the resulting video file should have the microphone’s recording embedded directly into it.

Rather than make a specific product recommendation, you may have access to (or want to get access to) a microphone like this:

They are typically referred to as lapel or lavalier microphones, and these are wireless. One end connects to the phone, and the other is clipped to the collar-area of the person talking. The microphone can also be held, but that’s general not recommended. Make sure you keep these kind of microphones far away from your mouth – they are not meant to be used like a typical microphone. You may hear what can be described as “crunchy” audio if it’s held too close. By clipping it onto the collar/chest area of a shirt, it keeps the microphone at an appropriate distance.

However, it’s not always realistic to buy a new microphone to complete projects like these. If the audio from your phone recording is not sufficient, consider muting it or discarding it altogether. If it’s not possible or accessible for your team to get an external microphone, the team can try narrating the film on a separate device. Even a phone that is held closer to the narrator’s mouth, or set stationary on a table, can result in cleaner audio. You can use laptop or tablet microphones (usually built-in) to have the team record someone speaking. This can usually be done in any video or audio editing software. This should result in a separate audio file that can be added to the film submission. 

If you need to capture sound other than voice, an external microphone would probably be a really helpful addition. Phone microphones are designed to capture primarily frequencies that are close to the human speaking voice, and are not optimized to reliably capture other sounds.

Stabilizing the video

One easy change you can make that drastically improves video quality is to stabilize the phone that’s recording. Shakiness and unintended camera movement can be distracting. Finding ways to keep the phone camera static can really help.

There are lots of products that exist that serve to remedy this issue. Primarily, you will find 3 major categories – tripods, gimbals, and selfie sticks. Image below:

The selfie stick can be used to maintain a greater distance between the subject and the camera, if being operated solo. Tripods exist to hold the camera in a very static position, and sometimes serve to increase the height of the positioning as well. They also help mechanically isolate the camera from the floor/table/other surfaces, which can stop the video from capturing vibrations (such as footsteps) that may appear shaky. Finally, gimbals are devices that actively stabilize the phone against movement. If the phone is rotated or moved suddenly, the gimbal resists that and keeps the phone steady. These typically function by using center of gravity magic, or by using motors and sensors. I’ve attached a GIF of a chicken demonstrating gimbal properties, as it’s maintaining its head positioning despite forces:

However, you do not need to use a product to get better stabilization in your videos. One simple method would be to prop a phone against an object (a pile of books, a wall, anything really), rather than have someone hold it. Another method would be to create a custom stand for your phone. Do you have access to a 3D printer? If so, there are 3D models available to print custom phone stands that can make it easier to record video. Here’s a few examples: Vertical Phone Stand for Video Calls & Phone Holder Video Stand.

Finally, most video editing applications/software has the ability to stabilize video after it’s been filmed. This is usually available as a feature or a filter. It’s generally accomplished by zooming in on one portion of the video, and discarding the rest. This is a great tool to have if you’re trying to improve a video that’s already been recorded, or if you need to record the video by having someone hold the phone.

File organization

After you put all of the effort into capturing high-quality video, it’s important to keep your video files organized. It can be easy to lose track of files if they’re not named and organized appropriately. Keeping track of the purpose of each video you film is a great place to start.

If you decided to create a storyboard after reading the last issue, this would be a wonderful way to use it. A storyboard may label different parts of the film things such as “introduction”, “section 3”, or even things like “scene 1”, “chapter 2”, etc. Labelling the video files on the recording device in a similar fashion can help keep track of your content.

If you plan on moving the files to a computer/laptop to compile or edit them, there are a few ways to do this. One would be using a cloud storage service (Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, DropBox, etc.). You can upload the individual files right from your mobile device onto the cloud, and subsequently download them on the computer that you are planning to edit them with.

However, there can sometimes be issues uploading very large (5-10GB, depending on your bandwidth) files to cloud storage. If you are having these types of issues, consider using a cable to plug a mobile device directly into the computer. Sometimes, this is easy, and sometimes, this can be a multi-step process. I would recommend searching the internet for “<phone model> computer file transfer with a cable” or a similar query to find what the process is for your device.

Finally, there are paid applications you can download for media organization & file transfer services, but we do not have any particular recommendations in this area.

Helpful links

Tutorials:

Record Video With Your Cell Phone – WPI

Best Practices and Tips for Shooting Smartphone Videos – NC State University

How to Film a Documentary on Your Phone: A Beginner’s Guide

Beginner’s Guide to Making Video with your Smartphone – Commons Library

DIY Cinematic Lighting Setup – $50 (YouTube video)

Apple/Android apps:

Capcut – video editing

Canva – video editing

Adobe Express – video editing

Black Magic Camera Free App – expanded camera application

As always, please feel free to reach out to us with any questions! You can email us at msfc@maine.edu, or ask our administrative specialist Cassidy directly at cassidy.munley@maine.edu

“Movies touch our hearts and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our life, we need to keep them alive.” – Martin Scorsese, director and genre master