Essential Gear Packing List
What’s your “must have” gear when traveling to shoot? When you’re out in the field, you need to make sure you have all the necessary gear on hand. Today we’re going to go over all the gear I take when I’m in the field as a Smartphone Storyteller!
I’m currently preparing for an upcoming filmmaking trip. I will be heading to Brazil for about a week to work with an organization called “World Renewal.” They’re celebrating their 30th anniversary in the country and have some cool things planned, so I’ll be working with them to tell the story of what’s happening in the country. Beyond that, I’ll be hosting some courses to teach Smartphone Filmmaking so that they’re equipped to continue sharing the stories of the continued work.
When traveling to tell stories, you need to make sure you think through every scenario where you may need gear. You can’t just run to the store to pick up something you need, so planning pre-trip is key! Today I’m going to go through my gear packing list. All the items will be linked in the description, so you can find any gear you’re interested in there! These links may be affiliate links, but that doesn’t cost you anything extra, and if you buy through those links then it helps to support the channel. Also - Full disclosure - I work as a full time filmmaker, so I actually have two separate gear lists that I’ll be packing. I will be capturing footage using my full filmmaking rig, but I will also be capturing quite a bit of content as a Smartphone Storyteller and using my Smartphone. Since this is Smartphone Storytellers, we’re going to dive into the Smartphone setup that I will be packing!
Smartphone
This is by far the easiest thing to pack - the Smartphone. In terms of specifics, I’ll be packing my iPhone 14 Pro with 512gb of storage. You most likely pack your smartphone everywhere you go already, so it’s just a matter of following a normal routine. But it’s not enough to just have the phone - you need to prepare it for shoot days. First, check your onboard storage. Do you have enough space to film for the day? This will ultimately depend on how you have your phone set up to manage it’s onboard storage. On an iPhone, you can set it to automatically offload apps and photos if you hit a certain threshold of storage used, but no matter how you offload your storage you need to make sure you have enough space for the day. The amount of needed space will be different for every situation, but try to think through the required file sizes on your phone. If you’re filming using the stock iPhone video app, a minute of video takes up about 150mb if you’re shooting in 4k at 24fps. Other applications, frame rates, or devices will require different sizes, so do a quick search to confirm how much space you’ll need.
Next up, make sure your apps are all up to date. If you film on the stock app, that one is pretty easy as it updates with your phone’s OS. If you happen to use something like Filmic Pro or CinemaP3, you just want to check the App Store to make sure you’ve got everything up to date. The applications are always adding new features and bug fixes, so you never know when they’ll add something that will help you in the field!
Finally, make sure you’re all charged up before you head out. Shooting video on your phone will rapidly eat into the battery life of your Smartphone, so you want to start your shoot day on a full charge. If you’re heading out for a longer trip, you want to make sure you have a charger on hand with whatever adapters you need, but you’ll also want to consider our next item.
Portable Charger
A portable charger is a must if you’re doing a full day of shooting. You have a few options for keeping your phone charged in the field. First off is to just have a basic USB based portable charger. There are countless options for these, you just want to make sure you have one that hold enough of a charge to top off your phone throughout the day. I usually like to have one that will give me 2-3 charges for my phone. This is more than enough for a day of shooting, but that way I have a bit of headroom. If you want to charge while you film, you’ll want a longer USB cable to connect your phone so you can just drop the charger into your pocket. My most commonly used charger is the Anker PowerCore 10,000mAh charger. Small enough to drop into a pocket, but holds enough juice to power up my phone 2-3 times. It’s a slightly older model, so it only has the older style USB ports, but Anker makes quite a few other models that include USBC and USBA, so take a look at their offerings to see which fits your needs the best.
Another option, if you’re using an iPhone, is to get a Magsafe charger. These are just like the portable chargers we talked about before, but the advantage is that they just snap directly to the back of your phone and charge it wirelessly. Apple puts out an official charger, but if you’re not wanting to spend Apple dollars on a charger, I love the Anker 621 Magsafe charger. Works similarly to the Apple charger, the only downside being that it doesn’t charge quite as quickly as Apple’s. This is due to how Apple licenses the Magsafe chargers and their phones, requiring chargers to be certified in order to unlock the faster charging. I’ve used this in the field regularly, though, and it’s kept up with keeping my phone going longer than if I didn’t have it connected.
Finally, another option is if your handgrip that you’re using has an internal battery. I’ll be talking about some options for this a bit later in the video, but these will operate similarly to the Anker 621.
ND Filters
The ND filter - sunglasses for your camera. You CAN film without it, but if you want full control over your camera settings then it’s valuable to have. If you’re filming on a bright sunny day, your camera is going to act the same way as your eyes do - they’ll be overwhelmed by the brightness. The only difference is, while your eyes eventually adjust, the only way that a camera can adjust is by changing the settings to be less than ideal. Higher aperture, which means a deeper focus, and a shutter speed that isn’t double your frame rate, which means that your footage will have a less than pleasing to the eye look. I’ve watched videos filmed without an ND filter before that were fine, but if you want to set your camera to the perfect settings, it’s valuable to have.
The problem with any ND filter is that you’re putting an extra layer of glass in front of your lens. No matter what, this glass will have an impact on your image. Whether it’s a color shift, a slight ghosting in the image, or softness, any extra glass has potential to negatively impact your image. So while there are cheaper options on the market, this is one area to consider some of the “higher end” options as they do yield much better results.
There are a few options for putting an ND filter on a phone. First is the most simple - a clip on ND filter. These are by far the most affordable, but they’re not perfect. They’re not built specific to the phone model, so they might have some of the issues I mentioned before. But they’re a great option on a budget, and sometimes are much better than not having one at all! I picked up the Neewer Clip on ND filter and had some good luck with it.
The next step up is to look at either a case that can adapt to a higher end ND or some ND filters that clip onto a case. Previous to my current case, I used a Moment case that offered an adapter that allowed me to put one of my higher end ND filters on. The only issue I’d run into with this setup was that it was very easy to knock the ND filter off, so I’d need to be careful as I went around and filmed. That being said, I was able to utilize some high quality ND filters, so this ultimately would give the best results if you can put up with the issues I had.
I’ve recently switched to a Freewell case and started using some of their variable ND filters designed for the case and have been very impressed. In terms of glass quality, 1-3 stops have little to no color shift, and 4/5 has a shift, but it’s still quite usable. I picked up the 6-9 stop filter to test out and plan to do a full breakdown on the case and filters in the future. These filters lock in and are incredibly solid, allowing you to film without worry that you’re going drop your glass.
Audio
If there’s one topic I’ve spent a ton of time on, it’s been audio. I’m not going to go into every audio option, but if you want a deep dive into different mics then check out my smartphone audio microphone comparison video linked below. Needless to say, audio is incredibly important for a successful shoot. I’ll watch a video with poor quality visuals, but if the audio is bad then I’m out. Before heading out on a shoot, you want to make sure your audio gear is charged and ready to go. There’s nothing worse than getting to your “set” and finding out that your mic is dead. When picking your audio gear, you want to consider feature set and quality. If you’re filming selfie style videos and holding the camera at arms length, the onboard mic may be enough. If you’re filming an interview or a talking head shot, or in a slightly louder environment, you’ll want a dedicated microphone.
In the past, I’ve run the audio recorder on someone elses iPhone and placed that in their front pocket and used that as the recorder. You can also attach headphones with a microphone to that phone so that the phone can stay in their pocket while the wire runs up their shirt. Ideally, though, you’ll have a dedicated wireless microphone setup running that goes directly into the camera that’s filming the video.
For this trip, I’m going to be taking the HollyLand Lark M1 Duo as well as the AnkerWork M650. Both are great options for getting clean audio on a Smartphone. I love the HollyLand for it’s simplicity, small footprint, and clean audio. Meanwhile, I love that the AnkerWork M650 allows me to record on the device itself as well as it’s advanced options for tweaking the sound, so I’ll be bringing those to use with my other cameras.
Tripod
A good tripod is well worth the investment. The more weight you’re putting on your tripod, the higher quality of a tripod you want to pick up. You can easily spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on a high end tripod. I recently was on set with an O’Connor, which runs about $12,000. It was a work of art, and I could understand why someone would make that investment. Here’s the good news for us, though - with how I recommend you use a tripod, you don’t need the most high end tripod on the market. There are a few features you want your tripod to have, but ultimately in smartphone filmmaking I see the tripod as a tool to hold the camera when you’re recording an interview or a talking head segment. The majority of other Smartphone filmmaking is handheld, so the tripod just needs to be able to hold the phone and some basic support resources. All of that is very light, though, so it allows you to look at tripods that wouldn’t work for higher end cameras. The largest iPhone, an iPhone 14 Plus, weights less than half a pound, so even if you throw a microhpone receiver, case, lens, ND filter, and battery pack on it you’re still under 2 pounds - easily.
So what are the features you want to look for when finding a tripod for your phone? First, you want it to be able to go relatively tall - around 70 inches. This allows you to film someone either sitting or standing while still keeping the camera pretty close to eye level. Second, you want it to have a head that you can level independently of the legs. This way you can get the legs roughly set into place, and then fine tune the level of the head quickly. There’s a few ways to do this - a ball head, bowl head, or leveling head. All three accomplish the same thing, just in slightly different ways. For a Smartphone, any of these are a good option since the weight load is so small.
I personally use two different tripods for when I’m traveling - I have a Benro MeFOTO tripod that works great. This uses a ball head to level out the camera. It’s a bit clumsy putting all of the legs out with all of the different points on the legs, but that’s somewhat by design as this is designed to be a travel tripod. One of the things I love about it is that I can drop this in my carry on luggage and fly with a tripod. I’ve actually put my Blackmagic Pocket 4k on this with no extra gear and it held it great. I picked this up on sale for about $59. Only downside is that it is a bit on the shorter side, so I have had instances where it’s a bit too short to capture footage of someone closer to 6ft tall.
Additionally, I also use a Peak Design travel tripod with my gear. This is the Rolls Royce of travel tripods. It’s light, solid, folds down small yet is very simple to unfold to it’s maximum height. It comes in two versions - aluminum or carbon fiber. The only difference is in the weight - the carbon fiber is a little bit lighter. But it also comes at a premium price, almost double the cost. Aluminum runs $379, while the carbon fibre costs almost $650. Needless to say, unless you’re hiking miles upon miles each day, the aluminum is more than enough.
If you’re on a tighter budget, there are quite a few options on Amazon that could work great. I used to recommend an Amazon Basics Pistol Grip tripod that would go up to 72 inches in height, but it’s been a bit more difficult to get recently.
Additionally, if your tripod doesn’t include it, you’ll want to make sure you have a tripod mount for your Smartphone. I recommend the Manfrotto Smartphone Clamp, Pro Version. It’s around $22 on Amazon, and it allows you to mount your phone in either landscape or portrait. It fits most, if not all smartphones, and locks down to a solid grip while also protecting your phone.
Grip
What’s the importance of having a grip when filming? The phone is designed to be handheld, so why would you need a grip? Well, if you’re filming in portrait mode, you most likely don’t need one. The phone is easier to handle in this mode, which is why the phone is designed to be held this way in the first place. But if you’re filming in landscape mode, you want something to help you to have a more solid grip on the phone. A grip can also help to relocate some of the functions you’ll use most, making it even easier to jump in and film. Just like so many of these categories, there’s tons of options that would work great, so I’m going to go over the two I use most frequently.
First is the budget option - the Ulanzi CG02. The best part about this is that it works no matter what kind of phone you have - iPhone or Android. And it’s cheap! You can get it for around $22, and there’s a few different companies that offer it just rebranded. The Ulanzi connects to your phone via a clamp grip that stretches out to fit your phone in, then clamps down tightly once the phone is in there. It includes a bluetooth controller to start and stop recording as well as two other buttons, though I’ll admit I’ve never used the other buttons as they don’t work with an iPhone. It also has a tripod mount on the bottom if you wanted to add the plate for your Tripod so you could also use it to mount your phone on a tripod. The device also includes an onboard light, but I’d recommend not using that only because an onboard light like that never looks good.
If you’re using an iPhone with Magsafe capabilities, you could also take a look at my personal favorite, the Shiftcam SnapGrip. This connects by literally just snapping to your phone via the Magsafe connection. It’s a strong grip, and I’m yet to have my phone pop off unless I was pulling it off myself. The reason I love the SnapGrip is that it includes a battery inside that is about 3,200mAh. While this doesn’t fully replace the portable charger I mentioned before, it should give your phone at least half of a full charge in reserves while you’re shooting. Additionally, the SnapGrip also has the same type of remote trigger as on the Ulanzi, so you can start and stop your records in a similar fashion to more professional cameras.
Lighting
Finally, lighting. When I’m in the field, I try to overwhelmingly work with available light, but sometimes that’s just not available or isn’t exactly what I’d need. That’s why I prepare with some supplemental lighting. When I head out on one of my bigger film gigs, I’ll have a truck full of lighting and stands, but when traveling it’s a bit harder to take a full grip truck. Therefore, I need to think through the minimal gear that will get the job done. The lighting I bring on a trip like this is only for instances where I’m filming an interview or a talking head, as I use all natural lighting for any b-roll I capture. For this trip, there’s three tools for lighting that I’ll be bringing.
First is the Amaran 60d. This little light is amazing for it’s versatility. I will admit, if I were buying it again today, I’d get the 60x, as it is bicolor and gives a bit more options with using it in the field. Seeing as the majority of filming I do involved daylight color temperatures though, the 60d is perfect. It’s a small, but strong little light. You won’t be lighting a full set with this thing, but it’s perfect for giving a small kick of light on your talent. One of the best parts about it is that you can throw it into your carry on, power it via a traditional wall outlet, a V-Mount battery, or some Sony batteries, and have a light no matter where you’re at. For this trip I’m also taking the Light Dome Mini SE. This diffuses the light so you can point it directly at your talent and it’ll put off a nice, soft light.
Additionally, I’m going to be taking along a basic 1x2 flex light. These are great for travel because you can literally just lay them on top of your clothing in your bag and it takes up almost no extra space. Then when you’re in the field, you attach it to it’s mount and you have a somewhat strong, but dimmable light source. So many companies make these, but I’m going to be taking a Menik LED Light Video Mat. I picked it up used a few years ago and it doesn’t appear to be sold anymore. Either way, there are tons out there sold by companies like Amaran to Godox.
Finally, I’m going to be bringing a light reflector to have the ability to bounce light. This is literally just a round reflector that folds up to fit in a smaller case. When it’s unfolded, you have a few options depending on what fabric you have on it. There’s a black side to absorb light, white side to bounce light, a gold foil to bounce with a golden hue, or a silver side to bounce a bit stronger of a light. Each of these allow you to bounce your lighting, regardless of if it’s the sun or another light, in order to better illuminate your scene. The great thing is that these are very cheap. You can get a full kit for as little as $27.
I’ll also have a small stand to hold these up. It’s an older stand leftover from a Lowel lighting kit I had closer to my college days, but it does the job with a smaller light. Folds up nice and small and just strong enough to hold the 60d with the light dome. I wouldn’t trust it to hold much more than that, though. The great thing is that I can use this stand to hold any of the lighting items I’m bringing, though, so I have a few options.
So that’s the main gear I’m packing for Smartphone Filmmaking while I’m on this trip. Do I NEED all of this gear? No, I honestly could get by with only my phone. It just means I’d have more limitations that I’d need to work around. That being said, these pieces of gear allow me to use my Smartphone to capture high quality video while giving me the creative freedom to tell the story in the way I see fit. Make sure you like and subscribe to follow along as I deliver some content from my time on the field - it’s going to be a great trip! And remember, ultimately it’s not about the gear, it’s about the story!
