Killer Things: iPhone 6S documentary filmmaking kit

iPhone documentary news kit

You can use the iPhone for serious documentary, news and factual filmmaking. I’ve put together a compact, portable kit to get great sound and images with an iPhone 6S.

The phone: iPhone 6S

I use an iPhone 6S because it’s the best standard-sized iPhone for filmmaking. But the 6S Plus would be even better: as well as a bigger screen, it has optical image stabilisation.

Phone rig

It’s hard to hole a bare phone camera steady. I need to be able to grasp it firmly for better handholding.

With iPads, I use iOgrapher cases: they have two handles, cold shoes for accessories, a mount for screw-in adapter lenses, and a metal tripod socket. But for the phone, I wanted an extending clamp rather than a case. The Ztylus iPhone Rig looks to be the only one with a built-in cold shoe. It’s substantial and well-designed, with deep rubber jaws which go wide enough to hold bigger phones like the 6S Plus. It’s more secure than clamps that rely on spring tension: you push down against the spring and use a knurled screw to lock the jaws firmly in place. The tripod socket is a metal insert.

I bought it as part of their Pistol Grip Kit. The grip is very ergonomic and makes a big difference to handholding. Its wide platform lets you use it with bigger cameras and SLRs as well.

Sound

The quickest way to improve your films is to record better audio. Viewers hate bad sound more than bad pictures. The iPhone’s built-in microphones are OK for getting ambient sound, or people talking in closeup, but that’s about it.

You can get good iPhone microphones like the Rode Smartlav+. I also have their VideoMic Go directional mic. But I wanted to use my usual microphones, the on-camera VideoMic Pro (mine is the old model, the current one has a better shockmount) and the excellent wireless Rodelink Filmmaker Kit.

(If you need more sound options – or you can’t run to a wireless kit – you could connect a Smartlav+ to another phone in your presenter/interviewee’s pocket, then sync it up later.)

Connecting microphones to the iPhone

Both my microphones have minijacks rather than pro XLR plugs, but you still can’t plug them straight into your phone. They have TRS plugs and iPhone inputs are TRRS.

You could just use a TRS-TRRS converter like Rode’s SC-4. But recording sound without monitoring it is like filming with your eyes shut. So you really need an adapter that takes a microphone and headphones. (You also need FiLMiC Pro as you can’t monitor audio with the standard Camera app.)

Make sure you get the right adapter: these powered microphones need different adapters than unpowered microphones. In the USA, KVConnection make both kinds. In the UK, I bought the less expensive Conversor adapter.

If you’re using the Rodelink and you want to be more discreet, a male to female minijack extension lead will let you connect the wireless receiver while keeping it in your pocket.

I use Sony 7506 studio headphones which have excellent sound quality.

If you need to connect a pro XLR microphone, you could use the iRig PRE.

Lenses and case

You’ll always get the sharpest images with the standard iPhone lens. But add-on lenses let you go wider and closer. So I’m using the Ztylus 0.63x wide angle and 2x telephoto lenses, which I’ve reviewed here. You lose some edge sharpness, but you gain the ability to go really wide and shoot closeups from a comfortable distance. The Ztylus lenses come with a tough plastic case.