1157 – Create Better Video: Tom talks Cellphone Video Gadgets

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

Tom Antion covers hardware accessories that can make smartphone videos easier to produce and significantly improve their quality, with options that work with both iPhone and Android.
• Mounting & stability: MagSafe mounts offer quick magnetic attachment and easy switching between horizontal and vertical shooting. Mini tripods, monopods, friction arms, cages, cheese plates, and car mounts provide additional positioning options.
• Lighting & monitoring: A rechargeable Lume Cube provides portable lighting. A Bluetooth selfie screen lets you frame yourself while using the phone's higher-quality rear cameras.
• Professional rigs: SmallRig and Beastgrip make cages that allow microphones, lights, monitors, and other accessories to be attached to a smartphone.
• 360° video: Cameras such as Insta360 can create unusual effects including invisible selfie-stick shots, simulated multi-camera footage, and fake drone-style shots.
• Better audio: A wired clip-on microphone is the budget solution, while Tom uses a DJI wireless two-microphone system for better flexibility and sound.
• Storage & stabilization: An external SSD provides substantial video storage and simplifies transferring footage. A gimbal produces smoother video while walking or moving.
• Better lenses: Tom recommends ShiftCam, Neewer, and Moment rather than cheap clip-on lenses. Options include wide-angle, telephoto, and anamorphic cinematic lenses.
• Filters: A variable ND filter acts like sunglasses for the camera in bright conditions, while diffusion filters such as CineBloom can create a softer, more cinematic appearance. Properly fitted lenses and filters are preferable to poorly aligned clip-ons.
Key takeaway: You don't necessarily need an expensive conventional camera to dramatically upgrade your video production. A good smartphone combined with stable mounting, quality audio, proper lighting, and a few carefully chosen accessories can produce professional-looking results.

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Episode 1157 – Cellphone Video Gadgets
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.
[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1157 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about cellphone video gadgets, pretty much for either iPhone or Android. This isn't one of those phone things where it's mostly iPhone. All this stuff will work for both iPhone and Android. And we're talking about hardware, not software. So these are actual gadgets that can make your life way easier in shooting video with your cell phone, and also get better quality out of out of your videos. All right. Let's see. Hey, version 4.0 of the automation book is out, so grab it at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. It's really comprehensive. It's kind of made in two parts in that you can read the chapter and then do the practicals at the end or just skip to the practicals if you don't want to hear me yapping about it during the prose part of it. So check that out at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And then let's see. I hope you didn't miss episode 1156. That was how to stay top of mind with your prospects and customers so that they keep spending money with you over time. And check out my mentor program, greatinternetMarketingtraining.com and my school IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by SCHEV.
[00:01:53] All right, so let's get into this. None of these are in a particular order. Some are cheap, some are more expensive. We're going to go over a bunch of them today. And if I missed any. Sorry if you had even a portion of what I'm going to talk about today. Your videos will be way easier to create and look a lot better. All right, so the first thing is, is MagSafe. Now what is MagSafe? Magsafe is a type of connection from a tripod to a cell phone that is magnetic. So you don't have to try to squeeze or pull apart these spring loaded things or screw something out and then screw it back in to tighten your camera down. And, and it always, it hits on the buttons. So you have to adjust this, all that hassle stuff. So MagSafe will stick to MagSafe phones, which are iPhones. However, every MagSafe gadget that you buy has a ring included with it that you can glue to your. Any kind of phone case you want, and then your MagSafe thing will work with it. And it's great because you can snap it on, snap it off. They you can turn it horizontal or vertical without a big whoop de doo. And just make sure that it's got good magnets and there's all kinds of different ones. And one of them is this one that I have in my hand right now. It's about the height of a pack of cigarettes, but it's three times thinner when it's all folded up and you can fold it out and it'll be a little tripod with a MagSafe hook on it that you can move all over the place.
[00:03:47] And you can even pull out this one little thing and hang it on the side of a fence or a desk or something. So very, very versatile. And some of them, and it's also magnetic. So if you have a refrigerator or some metal post, uh, I don't know, posts Postmodernists agree it should be a flat piece of metal, metal fence thing or something. Then you can just magnetize it on and it just really, really handy thing. I'm not going to give you any particular models for, I mean, some of these things. I will tell you, because there is a lot of really junky stuff out there, and especially if it's more expensive, I want to tell you the best brands. All right, so that's MagSafe safe stuff. All right. And also one other thing that allows you to do is use the best camera, which is the back facing camera with the three little lenses on most modern iPhones. And I don't know what it is on Android. And so that's, that's where it glues or it magnetizes to. And sometimes you can get a MagSafe case for your different phones, but for iPhones, it'll stick right to the phone without any kind of problems with the phone. All right, let's go to the next thing. A lume cube that's a little portable, battery operated light that you can mount with some of the brackets I'm going to tell you about in a minute to get light for night shots or selfies.
[00:05:20] And it's rechargeable Usb-c rechargeable. And so very handy thing to have. All right, a selfie screen. This is something that's also magnetic. Or you can mount it somewhere. If you're using MagSafe mounts. You can't put two magnets right there unless you have a double sided MagSafe. So that's something you want to consider. But the thing is, for this particular item, this is something that you want to be pointed towards you and it reflects the screen. So you can see the the back facing cameras are considered way higher quality than the front cameras, which are the ones where the screen is. And you don't really see it. It's up in the corner. So in this case, you can magnetize this to the camera and then see what you would be seeing if you were on the other side of the camera. So you could set it up on a tripod or a monopod and use the good cameras. But now you can see yourself to make sure you're in the frame. See? So that's what the selfie camera is. It's Bluetooth. It connects right up to your phone. It doesn't have to be right on the phone, but it's handy. Or you could have an assistant monitoring it while you're doing the video. So that's a selfie screen.
[00:06:50] Next thing is brackets and cages. These are things that go around your your cell phone, but they have all kinds of places that you can mount stuff like like Mike shotgun microphones and lights and things like that. And I'll give you some of the places that make those things. One is small rig. I'm trying to think what the other good one is. Oh, beast grip. Yeah. Small rig and beast grip. Make these cages and you can screw things into the sides. And you can put what they call cold shoe things, slides things in with microphones and lights and all kinds of stuff. So and yeah, that's another place you could put your monitor facing either way you want to. And, um, and there you go. So those are brackets and cages. Now one really handy thing is called a friction arm. And this is where you can mount your camera just about anywhere. It'll clamp to things and it'll screw into your cage. Or some of them will clamp onto your phone and just really versatile. So you can mount your camera just about anywhere. Okay, let's see a cheese plate. This is if you get hungry while I'm doing this podcast. Actually, it's a it's a piece of metal usually. I mean, if it was plastic, it would be really cheap. A piece of metal with quarter inch usually and 3/8 inch holes in it and screws in it.
[00:08:28] So it allows you to mount a whole bunch of different things to it. So that's called a cheese plate. It can mount to your tripod and then your phone can be hooked to it, and your light can be hooked to it. And your, you know, microphone can be hooked to it and all kinds of things. So that's a cheese plate. You can just, you just Amazon this and cheese plate for video because you don't want to see, you know, platters for parties and stuff. So cheese plate for video and you'll see what I'm talking about. And I told you about the mini tripod with the MagSafe thing on it. So it folds up tiny tiny, it'll really fit in a breast pocket of a guy's shirt easily with room to spare. All kinds of car mounts are available where you can mount it to your windshield, to your dashboard, to your vents of your air conditioning system. I'm not for that so much because in the winter you're going to well, it's going to block air conditioning from that vent in the summer and it's going to blow. It's going to overheat the camera in the winter with a heater on. So I'm not a big fan of those, but there's ones that'll stick into your cup holder in the middle of your seats.
[00:09:43] And some of them have an electric suction device where you hold it against the window and push a button, and it sucks it down really tight. Some of them claim that they'll work on a a pebble dashboard, but I haven't yet seen any that didn't have bad reviews, you know, significant number of bad reviews. So be careful of that. But anyway, those are car mounts and then don't wreck your car shooting videos to try to get a million views, especially if you're dead. This next one is quite a bit of money to do this. This is an Insta360 camera or a a Roku or Roka ZT one, I believe it's that's the model number. These are anywhere from 600 to $1000, but this gives you the 360 thing, and you need to just go to YouTube and watch all the crazy cool things you can do with 360 cameras. You can make it look like it's a three camera shoot with just you and what they call an invisible selfie stick. So it's programmed to eliminate the the stick part that's holding the camera out there. So it looks like somebody else is walking backwards filming you. I mean, just amazing things. And you can put it on a tall stick and do like fake drone shots, amazing stuff. So that's a 360 camera. Insta360 in the roka is the or the big one. Well known ones. Uh, let's see now.
[00:11:18] Good audio is important. So the budget method is to get a clip on mic that'll plug into your cell phone and on a with a cord. All right. So but you're limited on the length of the cord. And especially if you're using the 360, I don't know, it's kind of dumb and chintzy to try to use a wired mic when the wire is going to show up right where unless you tape it perfectly to the stick, it's going to show up in the shot. So I happen to have a DJI microphone system. It's got two mics and a receiver and uh, and that makes your audio great no matter how far you are from the camera, reasonably far from the camera. Okay, let's see, having an SSD, this is another thing that's not cheap, but it's enormously high digital storage. Uh, If you're shooting a lot and and then it makes it really easy to transfer it to your computer when you get back. Another thing is a gimbal. I've covered this before where this is a thing that you put your cell phone on and it balances it perfectly. And then you could be running and it still looks like it's a smooth shot. So gimbals are used to smooth out things. And there's all kinds of cool shots you can do with gimbals. Again, go to Google and say creative gimbal shots.
[00:12:45] You got to have some kind of tripod. Now you can get by with a monopod if it's good quality and sturdy for at least short, you know, up to five and a half, six feet. But above that, if things get really shaky, you don't want a camera and a bunch of stuff on top, top heavy because these monopods have very tiny feet at the bottom. So if you're if you got some money to spend, you could get a Siriu SIRIU, which is a much heavier duty monopod with feet at the bottom. And, uh, it's just a loads of loads of advantages to it and setting it up and so forth, but it's much heavier duty, but you can't fold it up and stick it in your pocket. All right. It's very serious thing, but some kind of tripod. And if you just need a monopod, make sure you get the one that's the best reviews on Amazon. And it has a tripod bottom, which can be a handle if you're using it as a selfie stick. And then the feet open up and you can shoot by yourself anywhere you want, as long as that tripods there and there's not too much wind. All right, so that's a monopod. Now the next thing or lenses you may not know, but you can get all kinds of lenses for your cell phones. Now, here's the thing. If you just Google cell phone lenses, the bulk of what you find is absolute garbage, either plastic or terrible or or clip on which you won't stay right in the center of your lens and just terrible crap like that.
[00:14:31] So this is where I will give you three different companies that make high quality stuff. One is called shift cam, the other was newer and EWER, and the other one is moment. Anything you get from them is going to be high quality. And what happens is you can make a wide angle lens of really high quality. Like I'm probably going to get one of those because I'm going to be shooting some real estate pictures soon to sell one of my rental houses. And instead of paying a photographer, I'd rather buy a lens because I have other properties and all kinds of places to use it. See? So, uh, I just had to. I took a course on real estate photography. It happens to be way easier than regular photography. As long as you get the shots that the realtor wants, say, and how to do that. So I took a course on that. Uh, so that's wide angle. Now they also make extreme telephoto lenses, which very seldom do I need such a thing. If you were shooting wildlife, possibly. But you better have a tripod because the longer you zoom in the the harder it is to keep it steady.
[00:15:42] See? But those are all kinds of available. Now there is a. If you're. If you're into really making beautiful cinematic type stuff, there's a lens called an anamorphic lens. It's a wide screen, like a cinema, like you're at the movies and usually has some type of orange or blue flare to, to just make it really, really beautiful. So I don't have any need for that at all. But you might want to tell you about it. Now, the next thing that is very important, especially if you're shooting outdoors at all, is a variable neutral density filter ND filter. It's kind of like sunglasses for your camera, so you can shoot in super bright sunlight, but your camera internally is going to adjust a whole bunch of settings to make the final quality. You get the picture, but it's not going to be very good quality. So a neutral density filter with a ring on it. So it's variable, you can turn it until it just cuts out the right sunlight so that your camera can keep the nice settings and the picture can be beautiful. That's a neutral density filter. And also frequently people use it to protect on all kinds of cameras. It's way cheaper. So you it'll protect your actual camera lens if something hits your lens, see? So it's a, you know, you can throw it away and get another one. Not that they're, you know, like $2.
[00:17:15] But the thing is, it's way cheaper than damaging the lens and an expensive camera. So that's a neutral density filter. And they also have other kinds of filters like Cinna blooms. It makes mist and, and dreamy, you know, a little bit softer look. And that's fine for talking head shots and anything you want to make a little softer, more, more cinematic look to it. Even though like, for instance, you don't need an anamorphic lens for all the stuff that we normally do, talking heads and, and, and educational videos, that wouldn't make any sense at all for an epic lens, but a innerbloom lens might make sense for you if you want to soften things and make it more cinematic. Now, if you buy one of these, any of these filters, you got to make sure the thread size matches what you're doing. And on some of these lenses, you'll see a lot that will clip on. Well, you pretty much don't want that. The neutral density filter you could clip on because it's gigantic and we'll cover the lenses nicely. But for the the wide angle and the telephoto, the clip ons just, you know, if they slip one little bit, it ruins your photo. So what you can do is you get a case that matches the kind of lens that you buy and the, and of course, the phone that you have. And then it, the, the lens, you know, you put it in and turn it a quarter turn and it locks perfectly into place.
[00:18:49] So that's a better idea when you're using any of these external lenses. But anyway, you got to make sure the thread size is correct. If you get any of these other lenses, 49 millimeter or 67 is fairly common. But if you happen to get a good deal or you, you know, you inherit or, you know, find ones that are different size, there's things called step up or step down rings that'll adjust the size for those. So you. You can use ones that aren't the standard size for your your particular camera. So there's a whole bunch. Let's see. Yeah, I think I covered most of them. What I wanted to cover. Of course you need lights if you're going to be inside doing stuff and everything, but that's a different video. But these are all hardware gadgets that can make your video life way better. And the final results immaculate compared to your competitors. So there's a bunch of video gadgets for you. All right, so check out my mentor program. Greatinternetmarketingtraining.com. And my school IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's quality distance learning. All right. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.