Mobile Filmmaking: Tips from My China Documentary Experience
Behind the Scenes of a cultural exchange tour of south west China as a documentary filmmaker.
I wanted my film gear to pack as small as possible in order to manage the daily field trips that were organized into a packed schedule. We would be scrambling up remote mountain villages, hopping into and out of busses, trains and planes and I reverted to my stripped down cinema rig shown below.
The Blackmagic camera app supports filming in 4K ProRes with anamorphic lenses so I used that for all the shots in the resulting documentary film I produced along with Joerdis Montgomery. She flew her DJI Mini Pro 3 drone and contributed creative shots from her iPhone 15 Pro.
Of course, we were not alone. We were joined by several dozen other visual journalists from across Asia as well as event photographers, illustrators and graphic artists.
Our adventures were featured in the local media as we made for interesting visuals ourselves, it appears.
Each day I would open the LumaFusion video editing app on my iPhone and cut together shots that would attempt to recreate the location we just visited: the people, the transport, the feeling, the surprises, the romance, the pain, the weather, and more.
By the end of the week, I had assembled four stand-alone vignettes that had a clear story flow. They alternate between the slower pace of rural life vs the modern life of high-speed trains and a gleaming cities.
Cultural exchanges
I brought my guitar and my cowboy hat on this trip and had a cool opportunity to sing and play a few cowboy tunes at the local stage in Libo.
Editing on mobile
Back in my Berlin studio, it was a simple matter to Airdrop my LumaFusion projects from my phone to to my iPad Pro M1 and assemble them into a single nine-minute project.
On the iPad I could now have greater control of the fussy keyframing I use for my titles. The latest animation tools in LumaFusion 5 are terrific and precise.
Soundtracks on mobile
On the iPad, I could also now finish the soundtracks I had been building up.
The first 'song' heard in the documentary is the sound of the villagers. The next song is the female choir from a traditional village that I recorded using the voice record app on my iPhone. The third song is an original composition of mine, the fourth is an instrumental I recorded of a famous Chinese song and the final music is from a live music show in Beijing
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View the documentary short film:
Learning Chinese, one song at a time
The cowboy persona and the guitar playing turned out to be a genuine conversation starter and a friendly way to approach our film subjects, hosts, and fellow traveling companions.
One afternoon I was relaxing next to some horse stables when one of the Chinese videographers sat down and taught me how to play a favorite song of his: "Ai Wo Bie Zou" by Chang Chen-yue.
In my Berlin studio, I arranged and recorded a guitar and string instrumental version of this tune to go with one of the film scenes.
Visiting China
As a U.S. citizen I had to pay 195 Euros for a 10 day visa to join the filmmaking trip and my German wife paid nothing for her visa. This did not go unnoticed by me.
Chinese officials, their state-owned media reps, and heads of the tourism boards were openly sharing their wish that visa-free travel will be available to citizens of more countries, including the U.S.A.
Currently U.S. citizens currently can visit up to 144 hours in the country without paying a visa fee if they have a ticket for an onward journey. That is not really enough time to make a proper tour of the fantastic rural landscapes that abound in this vast region. Visa-Free travel will allow more Westerners to visit the remote scenery, villages and people that we were honored to spend time with.
Apps in China
? Alipay
You would be well-advised to pre-load these apps onto your phone before arrival and also add your foreign credit cards to the apps.
WeChat and Ali Pay are the apps you need to have to pay for anything, anywhere. You also also order taxis using the Didi Travel app inside the AliPay app.
We went 10 days without ever handling any paper money. In fact when we tried to withdraw cash from a bank ATM in Guiyang, they flat out refused us. So, China travel can be cash free as long as your foreign card is accepted by WeChat and Alipay.
Forget using Apple Pay. You may be able to use your wallet apps for transit services, but only if you can attach a Chinese bank card to it. The QR code is king in China.
It is also impossible to check in for your flights without having a Chinese mobile number. You can order a e-Sim for a Chinese number within the Alipay app. I did not do this, so I cannot verify if that works.