The Best Value Smartphones for Creating ASMR Videos (March 2018)

As a new financial year approaches I've been assessing my needs for producing my YouTube videos using the AirNinja Movie Method with the added parameter of vlog style production.

With Sony releasing the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact (and currently shooting using the XZ1 Compact) I was pretty disappointed to see Sony drop the headphone jack and downgrade the front-facing selfie camera in the new releases. So they are scratched off the shortlist :(

The front-facing camera has become more important to me as often my videos are created with it and using the selfie camera for video allows a one-man-band to monitor the framing easily.

Losing the headphone jack means also losing the ability to plug in mics, including binaural mics from Sony themselves.

I noticed that the Samsung Galaxy S9 kept the headphone jack still, but no way my budget stretches to £700+ for an unknown binaural performer. Obviously the Sony binaural mics won't be compatible, but my Røde smartphone mics will be.

After reviewing a bunch of sample videos on YouTube I came to the conclusion that the S8 is as good as the S9 for my purposes.

Read on to see what attracted me to the S8 and other phones I would still consider top quality for creating ASMR content on a lesser budget. All these phones record decent stereo-audio video  using either back- or front- camera. Many many phones only record mono including every single iPhone ever produced to date, yes even the X.


1. Samsung Galaxy S8 (£500-ish)

THE GOOD
Decent front camera with autofocus and binaural-video recording.
Amazingly fast and reliable autofocus in 1080P.
Great 'Pro' mode to selectively lock ISO and White Balance.
Looks good with minimal bezels. 64GB onboard storage (which tends to be my sweetspot shooting 1080P as I do).
MicroSD card slot.
Price has been cut with the release of the S9 and it's pretty much the same phone :)

THE BAD - This thing is gonna crack into a million pieces when it's dropped on-set or even just casually falling out of your pocket day-to-day; best buy a case too.
Touchwiz and duplicate Samsung branded apps kinda annoying for your soul.

THE UGLY - wtf is that dedicated Bixby button lol


2. Sony Xperia XZS (£250-ish)

THE GOOD
Really low noise mics, great audio engineering all around, can plug in a set of Sony binaural mics. 64GB internal storage is worry-free for me when shooting 1080P although can be expanded using the microSD too.
Doesn't overheat (honestly on older Xperia this really was a major concern when shooting long video takes, the camera app would just shut down d'oh - not on this one though and not on the XZ below either).
Dedicated camera button is sweet. Really fast autofocus though maybe a tad slower and less reliable than the Galaxy S8 above.

THE BAD
The 960fps is a bit of a gimmick and doesn't record any sound anyway.

THE UGLY
Whilst the phone itself is not particularly ugly looking I did always find it a bit annoying to hold one handed. I have long fingers but small-ish-to-average hand size what ya gonna do.


3. Sony Xperia XZ (£150-ish)

THE GOOD
Great value for the results you will get from it, shares many features with the XZS above including the low noise mics and ability to plug in Sony binaural mics to the minijack.

THE BAD
It 'only' has 32GB internal storage which whilst usually enough if you dump your rushes every day, I would start to stress if I was shooting over several days without a rushes dump. Thankfully it does have a microSD expansion but, y'know, it's extra admin and another thing to remember.

THE UGLY
Whilst the XZ never crapped out on me it can still tend to get on the warm side and it's not a great choice if you want to film long takes at 4K resolution.

Trash Arts Killers Volume 1

Now here's a twisted leftfield deeply disturbing absurdist collection of short films if I ever saw one. From the Trash Arts production stable and currently streaming on VersusMedia this macabre anthology explores themes from the masked corners of the human mind and will put cracks in the thin veneer of our outdated industrialised society.

Running at just over an hour it demonstrates just what is possible with a camera, a co-operative, and unbound imagination. This is not your multiplex 12A spandex CGI fest, obviously; rather grass roots risk taking fringe filmmakers with a self to express unhindered and (quite possibly) unhinged.

First up is Angel of Decay - essentially a vlog by a Ted Bundy fangirl documenting her slide into mimicry of her hero and beyond. If you ever want to know what to pack in your murder kit, this is the one to watch. Certainly lives up to the Killers moniker, plural.

Angel of Decay

After a brief insert of a plastic doll autopsy (which continues to be intercut throughout the first few shorts) we have Court of Conscience. If you've ever wondered if the soapbox loons foretelling end-times and apocalypse should be respected then this film has your answer. A simple idea, well, executed.

Court of Conscience

Then we have Arrows with a one-shot slow-cinema opening scene and an implied botched heist before we see our protagonist casual and confident strolling through the woods licking revolvers as you do. We find ourselves a masked antagonist and after a quick chase sequence the score is settled with a game of chance - namely Russian roulette. There's probably a deep multi-layered metaphor in there somewhere.

Arrows

Moving on to Here's Johnny we are left to imagine the circumstances and context of any storyline as this short jumps straight into the staple horror shower scene. Next time you're in the shower you might want to keep your wits about you and your clothes on.

Here's Johnny

Submitting to Desire we are presented with what is probably the most visually striking film of the bunch. Its abstract narrative arc is left to your own interpretation and anything unsettling is down to your own cognitive biases. Featuring blue steak, squished fruit, bondage, and music steadily building to a thrashing climax there's clues and cues to tie it all together into a coherent study of that suggested by the title.

Desire

Making you even more wary of the landline telephone, The Call sets a scene of a big local news story - so why does our protagonist keep getting calls from a double-glazing salesman questioning her sanity? A tale of ratcheting guilt until pushed over the edge.

The Call

A great use of available light in Southbank which documents the last minutes of life of the main character with a cameo from none other than Death - well this is Trash Arts Killers after all. With an emotive use of music we are in the moment with the lead with disregard for whatever came before and for whatever may come.

Southbank

Rounding up we have Attraction which explores a couple's relationship anniversary and psychological fallout when the relationship is not all you want it to be. Do you continue with the relationship or do you break up with unknown consequences.

Attraction

All in all an entertainment filled hour that should help keep you awake at night! Trash Arts Killers Volume 1 is streaming on VersusMedia from 26th January 2018.

Full disclosure: the ASMR Dolls sections are submissions from my own productions at ASMR.Show

What Happens To Audio Happens To Picture (written in 2007)

What follows is a brief summary of what I saw happening in 2007. (for reference my cable provider today in 2017 offers me the capability to download ~37,500K a second at up to 300Mbps - and video streaming services proliferate - heck I've even got myself a couple of distribution deals across platforms and manage a very small YouTube multi channel network).

Will What's Happened to Music Happen To Movies?

First, you must believe the postulation that picture follows audio. What do I mean by that? I mean that audio workflows digitised long before movies, just as the audio CD predates the DVD, audio tape predates video tape, etc

In 1997 I was downloading about 3K a second. Today in 2007 I'm doing up to 500K a second. So in ten years, that's 166 times faster. But still not fast enough to watch "digital 35mm" in realtime, nor particularly practical to download. But it will happen. When it does, what incentive will there be to watch movies at the cinema, or buy a physical disk of the movie? Like music today, will people be satisfied with high quality device-readable files?

So the movies future is probably in your front room, what today is called home cinema. The cinemas themselves will no doubt continue to exist, just as theatre, radio and books do today. Is the AppleTV perhaps a precursor to that day, albeit in laughably low-resolution to keep file download sizes sane for today's broadband connections.

How does an indie moviemaker survive in that climate, yet alone see success coming anywhere near to an eighties blockbuster?

But workflows of the future will be all digital, including delivery. That is an advantage to the indie on the longtail - the price of admission is lower, although you'll still need great craftsmen to get close to your original vision for the movie, just as any moviemaker knows today.

Apple may become a movie distributor. Typically today big movies are not made without an assured distribution deal or completion bond. Self publishing will remain an option, but will remain niche, hobbyist and vanity as it does today. Distributors understand marketing. Apple understand marketing.

So content creation is available to all. So what.

Distribution is available to all. So what.

Marketing is available to all. Is it?

--

What I take away from this decade old short brain-dump, what I still see all around me, is that indie filmmakers still do not understand the importance of intelligent marketing - if you want to be an indie filmmaker today and haven't got lucky yet I'd recommend delving into psychology which segues nicely with marketing. Or partner with someone who does understand marketing and the absolute slog behind it.

Best Value Binaural Video ASMR Recording Device (£129)

So my journey has continued from iPhone through Sony offerings and I thought I'd settled on the ZTE Axon 7 (because Dolby Atmos and playback dynamic compression). However the size and weight of the Axon made it somewhat klunky in the pocket which was bugging my airninja-ness.

So I started looked for smaller, lighter phones that weren't the Sony Xperia X Compact (because the binaural mics on that phone are sub-optimally positioned). I happened across the Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 - a refurb at just £129, so I thought I'd take a punt after some critical listening to example video footage.



Bear in mind the A3 2016 does not have any optical stabilisation and is somewhat "stripped down" compared to more current smartphones - no fingerprint scanner, no water resistance, 16GB internal RAM - yes just 16GB internal RAM (ah but expandable by 128GB using microSD so perfect for my video needs!)

The camera is "only" 13MP but it is f1.9 which is great, but "only" records at 1080P @30fps (and does display some minor minor uglies in 50Hz lighting). The camera is however better than the camera in the ZTE Axon 7 (richer colours, snappier autofocus - though nowhere near Sony Xperia XZ snappy).

So for a phone that was released to the world in December 2015 it aint looking too shabby even now almost half way through 2017 - and it's "cheap", I mean £129, I've bought pairs of shoes that cost more than that! (Yes I'm an idiot).

I've been so pleased with the A3 2016 that I have now taken a punt on the A3 2017 model (released January 2017 IIRC) which also includes a fingerprint scanner and is IP68 dustproof/waterproof (can be in a metre of water for 30 minutes). Internal RAM can be expanded to 256GB and it's a USB-C connector.

Using relatively low cost equipment has been a goal of airninja for quite some time and it looks like I can finally put a tick in that box :)

Here's a couple of binaural stereo video recordings I made to test the Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 phone that cost me just £129 -







As always I'm happy to hear your own opinions in the comments so don't be shy!

☴ REVIEW: Sony Xperia XZ (Platinum, unlocked, 32GB, F8331)

Nowadays it seems a new smartphone release must be a controversial affair for anyone to pay attention and it's against this landscape of headphone jack removal and exploding batteries that Sony have released the Xperia XZ into the world.

Sony Xperia XZ (platinum)

What to say.

There's nothing very controversial about the XZ. It's elegant. Understated. Solid. Tasteful. Minimal. Designful.

Whilst other companies shave off everyday interfaces and leave an empty space with the excuse it helps the acoustics of its product's speakers (and co-incidentally drives sales for its brand of wireless headphones) and call this courageous, Sony has none of it. Instead Sony present (yet another!) iteration of its smartphone design know-how.

The days of being delighted by a smartphone - any smartphone - are long past to anyone who has owned more than a couple of handsets over the last decade. Dare I say the user experience is at a plateau and the land-grab is in full swing. Humans are irrational beings and it's our emotions that are appealed to and right now Sony is the brand that appeals to me - but let me rationalise :)

I'd barely owned my Xperia X Performance (XP) a few weeks when Sony announced the XZ. If you're not interested in videography improvements than I'd say get a deal on the XP now.

The Sony Xperia XZ back camera sensor augmentation

The XZ introduces some new sensors for the videographer, whilst keeping the superior Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) which produces much better results with the moving image than any current smartphone Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) - especially in environments with high frequency vibrations (for example the dashboard of a car).

I won't bore you with the marketing speak, but basically the XZ camera is augmented with a couple of extra sensors. Once deals with white balance, one with focus. This results in incrementally better video results than the XP (which to my eye is already very good).

The XZ keeps the f2.0 wide lens but still produces very acceptable results in low light compared to any other contemporary smartphone, including those with f1.8 lenses (such as HTC 10 and new iPhone).

The binaural sound recording has been a staple with Xperia since at least the Z2 (my first Xperia purchase) and here again it appears incrementally refined, certainly a better signal-to-noise ratio than the entire Z series by around 3dB.

I still love the fact that the face of the Xperia is uncluttered with any physical button, and I regard the placement of the volume rocker as a distinct advantage in everyday use (I have never accidently changed the volume on an Xperia device, ever - the same cannot be said of the other Androids and iPhones I have owned with more traditional placement of those buttons).

The dedicated camera button on the XZ remains welcome, and is by far the most responsive including versus the XP.

The fingerprint sensor is another button placement that I find perfectly acceptable, and it's very quick to recognise my prints.

Sony Xperia XZ front facing camera records 1080P video

I'm not much of a vlogger but it's good to see that the XZ front-facing camera keeps a wide field of view and records 1080P and looks decent.

No SIM tool is needed to change the SIM or access the microSD slot. Storage expandability is another plus to the Xperia line in my book.

Finally, the XZ brings USB-C to the Xperia X line which is just a much more convenient and potentially more versatile connector than either microUSB or Lightning.

I've noticed the popular press has been kinder to the XZ after pretty much universally slating the XP - which is funny and cements my opinion that if you want a smartphone for a specific purpose you should do your own research; if not it's pretty difficult to find a truly awful smartphone in 2016. Which shows just how far the category has progressed and is an indicator of that plateau.

Did I mention the XZ carries forward the ingress protection (IP68) 'waterproofing' of the top end Xperia line. Although Sony seem to be keen to play this down, and it seems the camera app has had Touch Block removed - it remains to be seen how recording video performs underwater! But it does mean accidental dips should be nothing to worry about.

The Good
Well placed microphones for binaural recording.
Around 3dB (estimated) improvement recording SNR over recent Z5 handsets.
Elegant design.
Improved sensors including addition of laser assisted focusing.
Expandable storage via microSD.
USB-C.
f2.0 / 24mm lens.
Front facing stereo speakers.
Ingress Protection IP68 waterproof.

The Bad
It's quite big and relatively conspicuous.

The Ugly
Sony bloatware cannot be uninstalled.

Smartphones Are Legit Production Tools

Just as pencils and the public's ability to write diminished the scribe's monopoly of skill, today's smartphones are media production power houses that the establishment do not ignore.

If you think smartphones are only good for making home movies, think again... #mojoconhttps://t.co/D50XSr2M7A

— RTÉ Mojocon (@MojoConIRL) April 2, 2016

Ungraded Movie Reveals Filmed on iPhone 4S

Yes shooting your feature film on an iPhone is old hat, but in 2012 nobody figured out that the Pompeywood paranormal frugalwave flick "GAIN" had been shot on a phone.

Here we are in 2016 and the truth has been revealed!



From the video description (at time of writing):

Feature film filmed on iPhone 4S, ungraded.
This version divides opinion - those who side with britmic believe no grading is necessary in order to preserve the laziness of reality.
Conversely, the final release was colour graded before Evil C would give it his approval since it was felt lazy reality was too harsh, particularly the scene in the supermarket.

iPhone SE - A Lot To Like

So the 4" screen iPhone SE is here, retailing in the UK for £439 with 64GB storage onboard.

The real kicker? It has the guts of the latest iPhone 6S inside in terms of A9 processor and 12MP iSight camera with focus pixels.

For an airninja like me that is very very tempting. Why? Apart from the fact it is simply light and powerful and strips away a lot of the flimflam.

Over the years my iPhone usage has matured, much like my iPad usage - which has fallen away completely. I'm old, I'm boring, I don't play games (at least, I have played my favourite genres to the point of boredom) - the idea of having an understated - yet powerful - iPhone appeals.

And I've had extensive use of all the public iPhone form factors at this point.

I started using big screen phones with the Dell Streak, believing that I would soon be able to get real meaty work done with the occasional attachment of a keyboard. It's never really happened though - my usage pattern has basically reverted to iPhone for comms/navigation/camcorder and any heavy lifting done on my 2013 13" MacBook Air - if that computer is tied up doing a heavy render I reach for a ChromeBook to do stuff.

I think this is a result of failed mobile UX paradigms as much as my own brain calcification. Which ever way you look at it, editing a video is fiddly on a small screen (I attach my 13" MBA to a 24" display for proper narrative video editing sessions - though I did edit my first feature film on the 12" screen of a PowerBook).

There are a couple, and only a couple, of reasons I will resist pulling the trigger on a 64GB iPhone SE purchase:

1. My current 128GB iPhone 6S Plus has 61GB storage free - this tells me that 64GB max storage just isn't going to cut it for me without additional admin/habits.

2. The size of the iPhone 6(S) Plus means it has a huge battery relative to smaller models. I am just not concerned about shooting video all day whilst powering a microphone on the lightning port. Take that battery away and it becomes a choice of lightning microphone or an external battery pack - and, that's right, potentially a whole bunch of admin.

It's a case of iPhone SE at £439 (still a significant chunk of change) vs my iPhone 6S Plus at £789 though - and the airninja movie method has always been about grasping value propositions early on. For my actual usage, I suspect the iPhone SE with 64GB would do just fine (after all, I have made feature films using iPhone 4S - albeit with onboard mics and an external battery pack).

Remember, zig when they zag. Avoid the mushy middle. It is tempting.

Economics of Filmmaking & Finding Your Audience

Hands up if your film has made a net or gross profit.

OK, anyone with their hands up, they can leave the room. You have nothing to learn here (although you are welcome to stay and gloat).

If you want to give up the day job and earn a living through the business of show, you have to have your content make money, right? I mean sure, "do what you love and the money will follow" is something people say to the aspirational but at what point can you make a profit from passion?

I'm not sure I have any answers, but I do have research. Data. 18 months worth of data.

I present to you, Exhibit A - an award winning short film made by a team of dedicated filmmakers with much care and attention - and a passion for storytelling. It was shot over a few nights in November 2014 and cut into its final form and uploaded to the public in January 2016. The film has been marketed to festivals across the world (as well as a lot of admin time this costs real money in terms of entry fees - arguably tax deductible as part of the marketing budget). It's now on Youtube with appropriate metadata tags for SEO.

208 views at time of writing.

Here I present to you Exhibit B - a genre and brand exploiting short video made in a few minutes by a single hack of a filmmaker with a focus on delivering an experience for a defined audience - and a passion for stereo sound. It was shot realtime and uploaded with no editing. Tagged in Youtube within minutes. The film has had no active marketing; only passive metadata tagging for SEO. Arguably someone had to buy the product in this video which is a negative cost - however, it is a tax deductible line item from the marketing budget, right?

423 views at time of writing.

I said I don't have any real answers. I don't. There can be no absolutes when markets are fluid.

Which movie would you rather watch, and why?

Which movie would you rather make, and why?

What I will say at this point is that both of these movies have generated revenue on Youtube - and at time of writing one of them has generated almost 400% more revenue than the other.

Problem Solved: If Apple Ditch The Headphone Jack

The sky is falling as Apple is rumoured to be ditching the headphone jack in iPhone 7. Aside from the fact it is merely conjecture at this point, the entire planet seems to have forgotten that Apple are unlikely to ditch Bluetooth and, that being the case, instead of lining Apple's pockets you can buy a third party Bluetooth receiver to use with your old headphones.




Sure, this is not perfect - if you are able, use a cable - because of course the Bluetooth receiver costs money and is another battery to charge, another device to pair, another complication in your life (simplicity at Apple died with Steve Jobs?) - but it does make Apple's decision easier to deal with if they do indeed ditch the headphone jack and you really want to keep hold of your old headphones (I'm quite attached to my iGrado pair for example).

Actually, it's a TRRS jack, and I'm kind of more annoyed that it will render my Røde Smartlav+ microphone obsolete without some Lightning adapter or improved Bluetooth protocol inclusion.

There's always Android!

☴ Watchlist: HFR & ASMR

I've noticed an emerging trend amongst progressive filmmakers. Firstly they treat online as their primary global distribution platform (natch) but secondly I am seeing more and more content produced with HFR and ASMR.

HFR has largely been rejected by cinema going audiences, but I believe long-term it will become de-facto standard and 24fps will be regarded by my grandchildren as I regard the quirky looking 18fps footage of a hundred years ago incorrectly played back at 24fps.

Everyone can be a filmmaker using a single device.

It's ironic that as a young filmmaker stuck with 50Hz PAL video, I hated that horrible 'soap opera' look of 50i. I strived for that 'film look' just as some modern filmmakers strive for that 'VHS look'. Madness! I yearned for D1 720x576 but when it was finally affordable it was basically obsolete. I wish I'd discovered Laver's law in my twenties then it may have all made a lot more sense to me.

I remember reading, I forget where - other than in print in the early 90s - that when developing Star Tours the boffins got great reactions from audiences when subjected to HFR (60fps was trialled IIRC) - not interlaced like TV, but progressive, actual frames, like film. It wasn't to be though, probably due to reasons of expense and available bandwidth in existing technology. Wish I could remember what the article was and where I read it!

Reading that, it stuck with me to this day. So HFR came as no surprise to me. I believe more motion data is just as important as UHD and beyond. Kids growing up on console gaming just see a blur when they go to the cinema. In fact, so do I (and I don't even own a console).

Cinema may stick with 24fps (for that extra stop in low-light during acquisition), but it's doubtful if IMAX will. I firmly believe IMAX will supplant contemporary cinema as the 'narrative event experience' because home cinema is more comfortable (and a whole lot cheaper) than going out to the cinema. Audiences are split about 3D at the cinema but frankly that's a big fat red herring that gets rolled out every couple of decades. If you want 3D go see a stage play, they are awesome nowadays.

There's an argument that the dating scene will sustain modern cinema. I call bullshit on that, as Netflix & Chill has been marketed so successfully to the younger generation who have grown up with choice and abundance.

EXT. Star Tours.

No way home cinema will stick with 24fps, it will cater to the console kids who grew up gaming at 60fps and will demand their own normal when voting with their wallets (well, assuming the concept of a wallet survives ...)

HFR, especially at 60fps, solves a lot of problems for the progressive filmmaker.

ASMR hasn't made it into cinemas, mainly because 'true' ASMR required the listener to be wearing headphones. It's unlikely that traditional production technique will ever cater to ASMR. However, again, I believe my grandchildren may be more au fait with it than the general public of today. Whilst it may never be mainstream, I believe its benefits will ripple out just as Hi-Fi has done over the last 40 years or so.

There's no doubt that ASMR is pseudoscience, however I have definitely experienced emotional and 'tingly' responses to sound and ASMR is a good an explanation as any.

Essentially ASMR boils down to two things, of which in my experience only one needs to be present (but both is better).

POV often neglects audio completely.

Firstly, perhaps most importantly, ASMR is positional stereo. This usually means recorded binaurally POV. Not practical for most narratives (great for first-person-shooters that the kids play on their consoles - are you detecting a theme yet?). However, I believe a good stereo sound stage reproduction will suffice (more practical for production of traditional narrative).

Secondly, frequency response. Not necessarily flat, but it needs to be 'clean' rather than 'muddy'. This is because the ear cannot discern the direction of bass frequencies but higher frequencies can be highly positional. Higher frequencies tend to lend more air, and thus feed into those ASMR tingles.

It's totally possible for ASMR to be mono, but it is far more effective in stereo. Stereo allows the ear to pick out positional details due to time differences in the sound wave hitting each ear.

This is why it annoys me that Apple's iPhone cannot record stereo with its three (count 'em!) onboard mics. In every other way, the onboard audio always amazes me except for this glaring omission. Sure, external mics are available (and very decent M/S mics they are too - see video embedded below) but sometimes the onboard mics are all you have - typical during the frugalwave. Onboard stereo mics on an iPhone would no doubt be thought about and positioned correctly in relation to the camera lens (or the corrective/adaptive DSP would be spot on).



So Apple has 800 engineers working on the iPhone's camera that they buy from Sony - so what about the audio-visual?


UPDATE: Yes, I should have mentioned the digital bits that represent latitude and all that good 4:4:4 stuff but I think something akin to Moore's "law" in CCD / CMOS / NEXT TLA will see better and better low-light performance over time - it's going to happen anyway.

Sound Really Is 50% Of Your Movie

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God – it’s the big bang that started it all, not the big picture!

The sound wave, not the light wave.

Sooner or later you’ll hear someone say how important sound is – but rather than wave them on and uttering “we’ll fix it in post”, have you stopped to consider what it is that sound actually brings to your movie?

Here’s a quick test. Watch your favourite movie with the sound turned off.

Does it still engage you fully? Honestly? Would you sit so long through the end- credits (or opening title crawl) if it weren’t for the choice of music?

Does that really constitute 50% of the movie? Well, on a purely “count the senses” – vision and hearing – yes, yes it does. Arguably sound can improve the visual, and even make people see things that aren’t there.

Good sound can really help prop up a substandard visual but bad sound is, well, just bad sound. Our eyes provide vision as a dominant sense, our ears provide sound almost as a secondary sense – a sense waiting to alert us to events rather than continuously inform us in the foreground. Vision gives us actual information – “that bloke is closing a door” – sound gives us implication – “I heard the door shut, it must be shut”.

Seeing is believing; hearing is implication. Implication can exercise far more of the imagination than actual seeing (afraid of the dark? things that go bump in the night?) – yet so much sound today is used with direct correlation to the visual, giving little room for imagination amongst the (im)perfectly rendered CGI.

Imagination is possibly the most visual weapon in your arsenal as a moviemaker – and that can be driven by sound moreso than picture.

It’s not all about imagination though. Most directors agree that a performance recorded on-set will be better than any looping session (looping, or ADR, is the re-recording of dialogue in controlled studio booth conditions), although often certain environmental conditions will mean that the production sound recorded on-set or on-location is not useable.

Sound is also positional in a way that vision is not – the cinema screen is immersive, yet sound allows you to hear things off-screen (given at minimum a stereo soundstage to work with). Even with the latest 3D visual technology, you still need glasses and everything is still contained within that rectangle. Sound is reproduction of actual physical waves in the air, broken free and authentic in ways that photons are not (and, of course, vice versa – arguably – headphones are entirely optional!).

We could get into stereo miking techniques here, but I suspect that’s best saved for another post. Suffice to say I’ve been a convert to stereo recording for several years, yes, even for production audio. It gives so much more depth and spatial precision versus the cost of full sound design – cost usually being a major factor in the indie moviemaker’s world (whether that cost be in time spent or money spent).

“Real” sounds obviously work best at “real” locations and not those recorded in the fakery of the staple studio system. In the late sixties, “Easy Rider” and “Midnight Cowboy” promised to liberate the moviemaker from the shackles of over-engineering. Then Star Wars happened and moviemaking was never quite the same again.

What do you think? Is sound under utilised in modern movies? Can indies get one up on contemporary Hollywood by tapping into imagination drawn from intelligent sound rather than absolute CGI that uses sound as a crutch only?

Since originally writing this article in 2012 for OTTfilm (now defunct), it's interesting to see the rise of popular ASMR related content on YouTube vs the cinemas push for 3D glasses and a general overall industry push to 4K imaging, IMAX, and resolutions beyond.

From #2wkfilm To AirNinja Movie Method

Talking with co-conspirator Evil C about our next January film production, I was reminded about how AirNinja germinated from the tactics used filming and completing "The Original Soundtrack" over a two week period in 2009.

The project was a success, here's a brief trailer:



One other output from that project was an essay entitled "Giving My Movies Away For Free" (reproduced below) which was first published in 2009 by the Royal Baronial Theatre.

I thought I'd dust it off, and see if any insights still stood today. I've reprinted my essay below, but do check out the others that were part of the same project.

The full length version of "The Original Soundtrack" can be viewed for free on YouTube.

--Begin Essay--

A Short Essay: “Giving my movies away for free”.

We live in interesting times. Avatar reportedly is the most expensive film in history and is the culmination of 10 years work. It’s projected to make $1 billion globally. Cameron is advocating 48fps and stereoscopic acquisition. The film is almost three hours long.

How on earth do you get to make films on such a scale?

Let’s start by paraphrasing a piece of Cameron’s advice to filmmakers yet to have made a movie: “Start by making a film. Complete it. From then on you are negotiating budget for your next one”.

But that quote’s probably two decades old or more. From a by-gone era - it’s from the era of scarcity when not everyone had access to the means of making a decent movie. We now live in an era of abundance where punters will accept anything from shakycam smartphone footage to 4K RED, or anything inbetween. Shooting at 1920 x 1080 (the same resolution the Star Wars prequels were acquired at) only requires a modest investment with the huge advantage that you can also go tapeless.

In the era of abundance you need to be able to stand out from the clutter. Cameron largely does this on reputation (“From the director of Titanic, Terminator, Piranha II”, etc). How can you hope to match that reputation? Do you even need to? Zen Buddhism has a good piece of advice, “begin by beginning”, in other words get out there and do it, make a fool of yourself until you’re comfortable with the process. With the technology abundant (therefore affordable), it doesn’t make sense to hold back if all you want to be doing is running around out there making movies. If you want to raise finance and stay warm and dry, study accountancy, wear a suit, go to meetings and act conservative. 

It wasn’t really until April 2009 that I’d realised how things had progressed with the technology - and how affordable moviemaking had become to outlaws such as myself. Having just signed up to Twitter I was invited to take part in the first #2wkfilm aka two week film challenge - shoot, edit, finish a feature length movie in a two week window before the end of May ’09. Up to that point I’d basically been spinning in neutral since the completion of my mockudrama ‘Crooked Features’ which was shot standard definition on miniDV tape with the Canon XL1 and a Sennheiser K6/ME66.

Seeing #2wkfilm as a way to get the fire started once more I started looking around for a means of acquisition. I already owned a Panasonic Lumix TZ which could record 848 x 480 and a bunch of professional boom mics with a Sound Devices 702T. All I needed was a script. And crew. And actors. And locations. Etc. I only had about two weeks to sort all this out if I was to meet the deadline of the end of May ’09. Oh, in that time I also upgraded my Lumix to a TZ 3 which shoots 720p (1280 x 720).

Well, we did it. The result was ‘The Original Soundtrack’ which screened on home turf alongside the other completed #2wkfilm entries at the Portobello Film Festival. The intent was never to make money from this particular venture. It was to make connections with local moviemakers, test a cheap SDHC card tapeless workflow, and chalk another one up in the IMDb. Secondary objective was to promote the local musicians without whose work the ‘Soundtrack’ part would not have been possible.

In aggregate the two versions of ‘The Original Soundtrack’ (700MB and 2.5GB version) on mininova have been downloaded 5,500 times. Somewhat predictably, DVD sales have been anemic (though to be fair it’s not like I’ve given the product any marketing push whatsoever). It was never meant to make me a profit though (the DVD is sold at cost), but it has added considerably to my wealth of connections and experiences.

In comparison I’ve had short film work on Archive.org for several years (always the progressive, me) and the most downloaded there is  ‘Adult Contacts’ at 60,000 times. It’s been there so long I can’t remember when I uploaded it. It’s also my directorial debut (well, with real live actors anyway) if you’re interested in my take on “two people talking in a room” from 1995. The final cut is just under seven minutes but funnily enough I remember the original cut was almost 15 minutes long. Yet, now, I can’t remember what I cut out. I do remember cutting between a Video8 deck and a NICAM VHS deck and some crappy Sony LANC protocol which was not frame accurate; being really jealous of my mate who was editing on Media100 NLE. Anyway, I digress.

Part of my “problem” is that I am a part-time moviemaker. Like many outlaw filmmakers I have a day job, a family, and a life. I just don’t have the energy for self-promotion and I don’t have the bravado to go full-time freelance. I like to eat, and so do my kids. Taking part in the first #2wkfilm has enabled me to re-engage locally and led to my enrollment onto the second #2wkfilm. That, however has turned out to be an entirely different kettle of fish.

‘The Fix’ is my second #2wkfilm effort although currently I disqualified it: although we shot the rushes over just five days, the remaining time was not enough to complete the movie to fine cut (though I did get it to a very rough cut and survive a bout of the ‘flu). The big difference here was bringing a production designer on-board and having access to Rennie Pilgrem’s back catalogue as well as a commitment for some scoring. The production locations were also more ambitious, everywhere from an autumn forest to a small studio space at Ealing. I also shot using a Xacti at 720p and recorded sound single-system (poorly but mostly adequately, the horror) with my recently acquired used Neumann RSM-191 M-S mic. Lesson: my next movie really must be shot double-system and that pretty much precludes it from being a #2wkfilm. It’s expected that ‘The Fix’ will be completed by June ’10 (some way off from the #2wkfilm target of October ’09) but that’s the great thing about being an outlaw - no rules, no deadlines, all my own terms.

To conclude, Hollywood finds itself at a juncture, similar to that when the printing press arrived in Europe in the 15th century. The printing press was a revolution for many reasons, and it put many scribes out of work. The advantages of the printing press were obvious to almost everyone and production costs were 700% less than employing scribes. I guess the scribes weren’t too happy about that.

In the 21st century is it a necessity to spend $300 million to tell a story on celluloid? Will outlaws become organised and create a parallel industry leaving Hollywood to wither on it’s own sick vine. Or perhaps efforts like Paramount’s to keep a slate of $100,000 movies will appease the masses and put the outlaws out of a job. One thing’s for sure. No one can predict the future. Everyone can sidestep the little bits of history repeating. Me? I really enjoy home cinema.

--End Essay--

Golden Ticket to LIVE FilmRaker ChatLab

After the success of FilmRaker's London Pop-Up, the next live conference is happening on the south coast of England in the seaside town of Southsea.


Numbers are limited at the venue so the event sessions will also be broadcast live via periscope. Keep an eye on FilmRaker's twitter feed on the 22nd from 6pm-BST for the live broadcast links.

The Switch From iPhone 6 Plus to Sony Xperia Z3+ (iOS to Android)

The airninja switch is complete. As I'm sure you know I am platform agnostic, being primarily interested in the best tools for a given job.

For the last five years I've been an iPhone user, upgrading most years with unlocked devices and running on Three UK PAYG (great unlimited data plans).

Each year I've been waiting for Apple to release an iPhone that is capable of recording stereo sound using its onboard mics when taking video (modern iPhone has three mics). Whilst iPhone mono recordings do sound good, I've always preferred the 'reality' of a stereo sound-stage - and I don't always carry a stereo microphone with me because extra gear is not the way of the airninja.

For various reasons (job redundancy being a huge one) I have been re-evaluating the "things" in my life and when Apple came under the microscope it just didn't hold up. The competition promised to deliver far more value into my life (including the stereo audio video recording).

I bought a refurbished Sony Xperia Z2 for a shade over £200 to see how I'd get on. This phone model is about a year old, records 4K video, has 3GB RAM, expandable storage to 128GB and is made by the company and culture that Steve Jobs himself had great admiration for.

An Apple designer, Shin Nishibori, was asked to create “Sony-like” concepts of phones that carried the name “SONY” and “JONY”. The pictures were created around a year before the iPhone first appeared.

Based on my success with the Z2 (and the release of the Z5) I upgraded to the Z3+ which has an improved camera over the Z2 and a reduced price due to the release of the Z5. They all record stereo audio video and have 4K capability.


I did wonder if Apple's iPhone 6S might offer stereo audio recoding with video, but as far as I know it does not (the iPhone 6 which I owned definitely did not). So, for my airninja purposes, it looks like I made a good choice with the Z3+

Now if you google anything about the Z3+ you'll probably come across reports of how this phone runs hot and overheats. In my experience this is not accurate on the current firmware. Although when taking video it does run warmer than the iPhone ever did. I think it's fair to say that whatever problems may have existed with the Z3+ original firmware has been addressed by Sony in recent updates. HOWEVER a mild annoyance remains with the Z3+ in that the native camera app will report "overheating" and shutdown to cool off. It only does this on looong takes (30 minutes or more continuous) which most normal people rarely do. The workaround is to use an alternative app, such as Google's own camera app (also shoots video).

BTW, I have no compelling reason to ditch OS X or FCPX so I remain an Apple customer.

Competition between vendors is a good thing in general, and who knows I may return to a future iPhone iteration. Yesterday's Apple keynote only confirmed my thoughts on the direction Apple is now taking, and it's not a direction I want to travel when Sony already provides the sufficient destination today.

FilmRaker pops-up in London for a LIVE summer session

Anyone interested in the future of the British film industry (pounds not dollars) could do a lot worse than check out the free seminars on 25th June in London.

More info in the trail vid:



FilmRaker is the UK's première forbidden filmmaking magazine - live in London.

Archive: Film Shed interview with Mike Peter Reed (2005)

Since the Film Shed site is still down at time of writing, here is the full interview reproduced below:

By Jordan Brown

Getting a fully-funded, feature-length film made is no mean feat, but try doing it without the money. In the first of a series of interviews with ultra-low budget filmmakers, Jordan Brown spoke to Mike Peter Reed about his mockumentary on the porn industry, Crooked Features; discussing its production, the shoot, the script and his advice to fellow filmmakers.

Jordan Brown: Mike, Tell us a bit about your film - Crooked Features.

Mike Peter Reed: Crooked Features has been through many iterations, ideas and concepts. But it's fundamentally always been about getting films made that wouldn't normally get made - and the pitfalls along the way. Now, you may think that's what the various funding bodies are for; but if I couldn't get my science fiction short Ad Astra funded (now available for free as an 'open source' movie), what hope did I have as a first-time director trying to get a feature funded? I've always felt my work falls inbetween 'mainstream' and 'avante- garde' and therefore is neither a safe bet for the public at large, nor for the arthouse crowd.

So in its first incarnation it was called No Funds, One Penney in which a bunch of bumbling twenty-something filmmakers try to rob a bank to fund their film but end up with a hostage (Penney) in their garage at home that they cajole into playing the lead. Yeah, the bumbling filmmaker has been a constant aspect too. Anyway that got shelved until I started attending a writing workshop run by Alison Rayner. I used it as the basis for the next version, called Crew Cuts which brought in the documentary and the porno aspect and was also the first appearance of the (then) true villain of the piece, Freda Hiscock. Anyway, I was always uncomfortable with the 'porn' side of it, not because I'm a prude or because it was full of nude scenes (it wasn't) but because I thought it was a bit crass and a bit obvious. The script then did a stint as Wanda's Wonder World and instead of the story of the naive porn actress, it became a story of the pressures of a successful children's franchise and how those children's presenters might behave when the cameras aren't rolling. It also introduced a comedy element, but dropped the documentary style. Again, I wasn't satisfied with the direction of the story and it got shelved.

Fast forward a few years, and a few changes in personal circumstances and I'm just itching to get something feature length story made and brought to market, as an educational exercise as much as anything else. Older, wiser, and with a better credit rating, it seems I might actually be able to get something out the door. If only I had a script I was happy with. So Crooked Features was born, stealing the best bits of the previous incarnations. But what I really ended up with was a treatment and a few character outlines - not the 120 page screenplay that I needed. As luck would have it this is when I became re- acquainted with Kevin Turrell who was looking for a project to flex his writing muscle on and, ultimately, produce. I'd previously met Kevin a few times through a mutual friend, the most memorable being for a screening of The Phantom Menace. We both dislike that movie, but only because we love Star Wars so much. And so Kevin essentially penned the screenplay from characters and situations I had created.

Oh, you wanted a synopsis of the movie...



At it's most succinct, it's a Spinal Tap on the porn industry. It's essentially about a deluded, bumbling pornographer (Rod Shuffler) who thinks he's got what it takes to create a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster. Crooked Features is also referred to as The Making of Attack of the Clowns. However, things don't go as planned and Rod is pressured by the investors to go back to his hardcore ways. Most of his cast is made up of porn stars anyhow, except the leading lady. She's a newcomer to the industry, let alone the money shot. So decisions have to be made, and compromises approached.

JB: I was laughing throughout the film. Was difficult for you and Kevin Turrell to come up with a consistently funny script?

MPR: Well, it's certainly good to hear that we raised some laughs. There's always a fear when writing comedy that what you write won't translate to the screen. From what I remember, Kevin came up with the majority of the detail of the gags whilst I concerned myself mostly with the concepts. We also ping- ponged the script a good few times and story and dialogue edited between us. It was probably more hard work than difficult, trying not to contrive the comedy to the point of absolute farce. It was always in my brief that I wanted to make this an almost believable documentary, at least during the initial drafts. I suppose sometimes it was difficult to agree on what would be funny, whether a specific phrase or word made something funnier and exactly what the boundaries of our taste would be. Those disagreements are what created the work. But, hopefully, they created a more rounded comedy.

JB: When I looked at your site, it reminded me of the marketing involved in The Blair Witch Project. As a mockumentary was this a film that inspired you and were there any other sources of inspiration, other than porn that is?

MPR: I was certainly aware that Blair Witch proved that audiences were prepared to tolerate content over style, so long as the style was an integral part of the decision making process and not an excuse for lousy production values. In terms of tone I drew inspiration from Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap (of course) but also some lesser known works like Weird Al's UHF and Mike Jittlov's Wizard of Speed and Time. I think Tom DiCillo's Living in Oblivion probably had an influence too. Also the numerous 'making of' documentaries that I've seen over the years and books like Skywalking by Dale Pollock which is a Lucas biography. As to the porn aspect, Kevin tells me that interviews with the likes of Jenna Jameson and Grandpa Dave helped with the realisation of the script.

JB: Was your choice to make a mockumentary a result of a low budget?

MPR: Absolutely. I've had previous experiences of working with non-professional crew and so it was my intent to crew Crooked Features with professionals. We soon realised that it was going to be difficult to get a full professional crew together locally who would work for deferred payment (which always turns into a risk of basically working for free). So to keep costs as low as possible we made the decision early on that we'd shoot PSC (Portable Single Camera). We also held the

auditions locally, the theory being that if someone thought the project was interesting enough to travel out of London for an audition then there was a good chance they would be committed enough to turn up for the first day of shooting. Most of our costs went on putting our actors up in a B&B and making sure everyone was well fed. We did briefly consider moving the production to London, however I felt quite strongly that shooting locally would allow us to exploit local landmarks, like the Tricorn (now demolished, so we've recorded a piece of history in that opening shot), Staunton Park and the D-Day museum.

JB: Is there anything that you'd change if you had a bigger budget?

MPR: Ha ha, plenty! For starters I'd have employed a professional camera operator and sound recordist. And an experienced 1st AD. I think the direction suffered a little because of the PSC format, essentially me directing and crewing. But hey, I've seen plenty of documentaries made in this way and so that is why I gave specific directions to the actors that if something went wrong, or they forgot a line or whatever, just wing it and see where we end up. We shot to an insane schedule, I think we were doing between 10 and 20 setups a day over 10 days. Still, this kept the energy going, and the pace was such that on many days we actually finished ahead of schedule. 

So with more money I think I would have afforded the 'luxury' of a longer shooting schedule. I'd largely keep the cast the same, the relative unknown-ness of their faces is a positive attribute for the project and they all put a great effort into their performances (even those who ended up on the cutting room floor). I guess they would've appreciated Equity rates for their work. It might've been nice to have a dedicated art director on-board too, to take care of some of our wardrobe and set dressing challenges which may or may not be apparent in the final product (I suspect they are). Of course, I'm forgetting that scriptwriters, producers and directors shouldn't be expected to work for free either.

JB: The cast gave hilarious performances. Where did you get them and do you feel they did justice to the script?

MPR: From what I recall, it was a combination of a shout in PCR, Shooting People and CastNet. Considering the nature and conditions of the production I think everyone did really well and I'm hoping everyone who watches will have a different 'favourite' character to the next person.

JB: Did you base the character of Rod Shuffler on anyone in particular?

MPR: Hmmm, he's a real mixture and was of course further coloured by Kevin's writing. When we put the casting call out we asked for 'an eighties-style pop video director' - a kind of Godley&Creme wannabe but without the talent was what I had in mind, but with all the high-concept extravagance from that era. If he's based on anyone he's based on the filmmaker I hope I never become - blinkered and self-deluded.

JB: I noticed that you included a character called Candy Suxx. Is this a reference to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City? Are you a fan of the game or was the name a huge coincidence?

MPR: I spoke to Kevin about this, since I never made the connection. He tells me he was playing GTA whilst we were writing, so make of that what you will. I think Kevin's dropped in a lot of references that only he knows about.

JB: So what's next for you and your company, HARP 28? I see that Crooked Features is being shown in the eND oF tHE pIER fESTIVAL...

MPR: Well right now I'm concentrating on submitting to pretty much any festival that accepts DVD as a screening format. I think it's always going to be difficult with a movie that so overtly lampoons the industry and personalities that can be found therein. But I hope it's not just viewed as a movie for disenfranchised moviemakers, but is accessible to the public at large (profanity not withstanding - but we'll let any potential distributor decide if they want to bring out the bleeper). 

I'm also brewing another low-budget idea, taking a road movie format and exploring Chi Xi
Stigma, more popularly known as the meaning of the number of the beast (not a comedy). We've also got material for a superhero pastiche for anyone suffering from too much spandex in their life which would likely make a good TV series.

I still have to get Helldesk out of my system which I would liken to the IT department run by Basil Fawlty, that would be another TV series right there. Then there's my space opera film franchise tentatively entitled Saga City and I know for a fact Kevin has another dozen screenplays we consider marketable to the right people.

My philosophy is much like Disney's - making movies to make more movies.

JB: Finally, do you have anything to say to new filmakers looking to direct a feature length film? Any advice on getting it funded?

MPR: Well, anything feature length is going to take a lot out of your life. What I'm finding is that, even though we have a finished film there's still plenty of work to do 12 months later. And some of that still costs money. The best way to get your feature funded is to be dating the son or daughter of a billionaire. If that doesn't work then you may as well be playing the lottery as well as applying to the various funding bodies. The main thing is persistence and tenacity. I'd like to say you need talent but that's secondary if you give up too easily. Don't forget your thick skin either. And make damned sure you believe in the script. The idea and writing is the bit that has nominal actual real-world cost so you can afford to spend time on it.

Ideas are free.

Find out more about Crooked Features at Mike's entertainingly- thorough filmmaker's slog.