4. FilmicPro Advanced Features & Settings [7:02 min]
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What You'll Need: Filmic Pro
TRANSCRIPT
Hey there -- Aubrey from We Make Movies here.
Now that you’ve gotten the basics of FilmicPro down, let’s move on to the more advanced features and settings.
In addition to adjusting focus and exposure using the reticles, you can also adjust both more precisely using the manual controls. Do this by tapping the manual control button on the bottom left or long press either the square or circle reticle. You’ll see two arcs appear — one for exposure on the left and one for focus on the right. By moving the left arc up and down you are changing both the ISO and Shutter Speed. You can tap either the top ISO number or bottom shutter speed to lock that number. You can do the same thing for focus and zoom by moving the right arc up and down.
Next tap the Live Analytics button to the right of the manual button and you will automatically see visual cues to help you precisely set for focus and exposure. For focus, blue lines indicate areas of focus and the green pixels indicate the areas of sharpest focus. These live analytics are handy for creating those beautiful shots with shallow depth of field — ones where the backgrounds are blurry.You can even pull focus from two different points using FilmicPro. To do so, use the focus peaking live analytics to set your first focal point in focus and then tap either the lower or higher set point line. Next, adjust focus to your second point, using the green guide lines to see once you’re in peak focus, and tap the other set point line. Tap either set point line to automatically rack between the two points and adjust the speed by swiping the control arc in to the center and adjust the speed up or down.
Manually adjust the exposure wheel with the Live Analytics on and you’ll see red zebra stripes for areas of overexposure — and blue zebra stripes for areas that are underexposed.
Tap the clipping tool at the top to see areas of complete data loss — blue indicates areas clipping in your shadows and red for clipped highlights.
Next tool at the top is the False Color overlay — this is the most comprehensive way to visualize the exposure in your shots. Green is good for correct exposure, red is overexposure and blue for underexposure. If you tap the overlay button to turn it off you’ll see the red areas are blow out and the blue areas too dark for see many details.
WHITE BALANCE
To adjust color — tap the imaging panel —- the 3 color wheels in the bottom left. You’ll see an easy to use color matrix that allows you to adjust both color and tint simultaneously by dragging the cursor. Below that there are a lot of pre-sets that you can select depending on your environment - there’s incandescent, sunlight, cloudy and fluorescent lighting presets. You can add your own custom presets to these buttons as well by pressing and holding.
You can let FilmicPro auto white balance for you by tapping AWB once and turning it blue. This will allow filmic to automatically adjust white balance as you’re shooting. You can see it’s adjusting by the color temp numbers in the bottom left corner changing as you move your camera.
For a more consistent look — you can lock white balance by tapping AWB once to turn it red, tap it again to turn it orange and white balance will auto adjust while in standby but will lock once you hit record.
For best practices, zoom in and fill your screen on a color board, or if you don’t have one handy a white piece of paper, or even paper towel will do. Once you fill your screen lock your AWB button and zoom out. This will keep your shots looking consistent and any slight variations can be adjusted in post.
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Next, we’re going to cover a topic that some folks might say isn’t super sexy — but it will save you a ton of time in post — content management and metadata! First, open settings and then your DEVICE option. Make sure the toggle for SAVE TO CAMERA ROLL is turned OFF. If this switch is on, FILMICPRO will automatically save all your files into your phone’s native photos app but it will also erase any and all metadata you input. So, for best media management make sure this is off and tap out of the menu and open the Content Management System labeled CMS with a slate on top. This option allows you to label your files with the production name, scene and even take so that when you sit down to edit in FinalCutProX you’ll be able to find and sort your files quickly and easily. To start labeling — turn on the CONTENT MANAGEMENT toggle switch. You’ll see the greyed out text boxes below become fillable — you can type in the name of your project under PRODUCTION and then fill in the SCENE or SHOT you’re about to film. If you’re just starting out you can use the location name — Kitchen, Park for your SCENE name but professionals will want to label with the corresponding scene on the shotlist. For this example, we’ll use scene 2A since we just finished shooting 1B. As you can see we did 3 takes of 1B so we’ll need to reset the takes down to 1. You will need to update the SCENE and reset the TAKE each time you have a new setup. However, you do not need to update the TAKE upwards — FilmicPro will update the take indefinitely unless you reset back down to 1. Tap out of the menu to save when you’re done. Now if yougo to your FILMIC PRO clip library you’ll see your files labeled with the metadata you inputted. You can FAVORITE any clips by tapping the STAR on your files — this will add a star emoji to your filename and you can filter your clip search in your FilmicPro library by this option as well.
ACCESORIES
FilmicPro pairs nicely with a variety of mobile filmmaking accessories — by going into the settings menu and going to HARDWARE you are able to pair FilmicPro with a few different gimbals and adapters. To pair one of the gimbals listed, make sure your phone has already established a bluetooth connection with the device (usually done through the custom gimbal app) and then switch on the toggle button. Now, you can start and stop recording and cycle through menu options without touching the screen. For the MOVI cinemarobot this is how you’ll adjust response speed as well.

These are just some of the amazing advanced features in Filmic Pro. Next up we’re going to take a look at Filmic’s new app Double Take - which lets you shoot with two lenses on your iPhone at the same time.