The good thing about numbering your blog posts is that it’s easy to figure out when you have an anniversary coming up… 😉 And now’s the time! To be honest, I wasn’t really sure I would get that far when I started smartfilming.blog in the summer of 2015 with my first articles in German. I had made my initial steps in the blogosphere in 2009 writing about something completely different but discontinued the project two years later when I realized my interest in the topic was fading. Well, I have shown more stamina this time around: 6 years and 50 blog posts! (in case you want to check out an overview of the previous 49 click here) So what to do for this happy occasion?

I’m quite reluctant to the idea of patting myself on the back. Instead, I thought it would be more insightful to point the spotlight away from myself, towards the community at large and some of its preeminent members, many of which I am in regular contact with and really enjoy talking to and yes, sometimes arguing with. I decided to pick 50 creators, thinkers and edcuators and ask them three questions on the topic of content production with smartphones / mobile devices, something I pesonally like to call phoneography because it includes different aspects like video, audio, photo, graphics, text etc – all created with a phone. I know this was quite an undertaking and it definitely resulted in the most expansive blog post ever around here, but hey, I think it’s really worth checking out, there’s just so much wisdom, insight and also a very personal story to find in every single contribution! As I have met almost all of the contributors through Twitter and much of the conversation around this topic is happening there, I have linked their names to their Twitter accounts, from there you can easily click through to everyone’s personal and/or professional websites and/or other social media channels. I would sincerely like to thank all of them.

So here are the three questions that I asked everyone:

  1. When and how/why did you discover/choose a smartphone as a media production tool?
  2. What’s currently the biggest limitation and/or what new ability are you looking forward to the most?
  3. Where do you see this movement going within the next 5 to 10 years?

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Glen Mulcahy – International Trainer/Speaker and Managing Director Mojofest Ltd.

  1. My first phone that I used as a camera was a Nokia N93i. I commissioned a report for our newsroom to see if it was possible and to assess the quality. It was pretty awful. N93i had a 2mpx cam and used some weird mobile/wap video codec that Avid took AGES to transcode. Next attempt was with iPhone 4 when I was teaching video journalism on a European training course in Budapest. That report was shot in Filmic Pro, edited in iMovie and sent via FTP to RTÉ for assessment and in many ways was the beginning of the RTÉ mojo project. 
  2. I have yet to try “cinematic” mode in the new iPhone 13 Pro Max and am certainly curious/excited about the aesthetic. I think ProRes is a huge step for professional content, particularly for broadcast applications. If we can address low light performance and zoom either using either periscope lens tech or hardwired camera accessories I think the rubicon will be crossed. 
  3. Truthfully I’m stunned that newsrooms across a host of different media at this stage have not fully embraced mobile as a holistic content production platform. Ie not just from making the content but also for distributing the content. For me the ultimate opportunity with mobile is using the low price point to put more content creators in the field (focus on the storytellers not the gear) to be able to reach into more communities and serve a broader audience, to be able to restore local news from the way that it’s been decimated over the last two decades.

Leonor Suárez – Videojournalist and Mobile Journalism University Lecturer

  1. I started using a smartphone to produce stories because it’s a tool that’s always in my pocket. So I can tell the stories I come across whenever/wherever. Also, I can easily do the whole production/journalistic work and send it to my tv station to be aired immediately. It gives me complete freedom to do my work as a journalist and storyteller.
  2. The zoom can be a challenge when producing some kind of stories. Also, I’m not always happy with the outcome when using external ND filters.
  3. I don’t know how the tool will look like. The only thing I’m sure is that mobile journalism won’t go back. More and more, journalists need to produce and share videos to tell stories and they need portable and easy to use gear to do it as fast as possible, regardless where, when and what the circumstances are.

Juan Carlos Bagnell – Producer/Reviewer

  1. I’d dabbled a lot before it, but the LG V20 sealed the deal for me on a flight from LA to NY. I had to get some articles written, and gave it a shot with the V20 and a Bluetooth keyboard. It was SO much easier than lugging out a laptop. I could still watch a movie while I typed, and I had room on my tray for a beverage. Since then, I’ve actively been trying to do more from my phones. It’s refreshing to bring a handful of phone accessories to cover an event instead of THOUSANDS in studio gear to use on location.
  2. Software, software software! We’ve been grossly over-buying compute power for years. We need developers to take this pocket power more seriously. There’s so much more we COULD be doing.
  3. I HOPE we see more market disruption and modular thinking. A slate with radios and processors that can interact with other professional equipment like a Sony Xperia Pro, or replace consumer compute needs like Samsung Dex. Professional SHOULD mean being more adaptable to the actual needs of pros. However, our futures are somewhat entwined with companies that will ultimately decide whether they will disrupt their own existing product and profit lines. I fear it’s just as likely that mobility could take a more significant turn towards “average consumer” if folks don’t vote for features with their wallets. Samsung’s folding strategy is a perfect example. Why keep investing in Dex if significantly more people buy Z Flip instead of Z Fold? Why sell a consumer ONE incredible flexible product when you can get them to buy multiple compute devices with artificial limits on what those products can do?

Courtney G. Jones – Producer/Director/Head of Development Macaroni Art Productions

  1. I first decided to use a smartphone on a feature film called ‘Wood Witch: The Awakening’ in 2015 after hearing about ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ (2012) and ‘Tangerine’ (2015).
  2. I really look forward to better low-light performance in smartphones, whether by using bigger sensors or computational video or both.
  3. In the next 5+ years, I see mobile phones usurping DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. It might even happen sooner!

Bianca-Maria Rathay – Mobile Videographer, Mobile Journalist and Trainer

  1. It all started with a mobile reporting workshop with Matthias Sdun in 2014. It was so much fun that I thought afterwards this could be my niche in journalism. I bought some gear online (fun fact: it took me one and a half hours to explain the people at customs in Hamburg what it was until they finally cleared it (- no the metal case wasn’t a weapon) and practiced. Also I told lots of people about it and when I got my first clients I figured this would work. Eventually the business moved more towards PR and companies.
  2. Biggest limitation: zooming (at least with most smartphones) and decent shallow depth of field. Having said that the biggest new ability to look forward to: computational shallow depth of field (nonetheless albeit with limitations).
  3. The mojo movement is one that I really treasure. Smartphone filming and mobile journalism will continue to get better, also technology-wise. Nevertheless I guess the future is leading away from the device in my opinion towards the skills to know how to tell compelling stories for each platform and how to adapt technology no matter what camera you’ve got available. The smartphone will probably be replaced by wearables in the future but “story trumps device” has been the case all along.

Mark Robertson – Mobile and Video Journalism Trainer for the BBC Academy

  1. I first used a smartphone for video in 2009 to gather audio for radio news, but as a byproduct I had to record video to be able to get the audio. This was on a Nokia N95. You can see the video here.
  2. The biggest limitation is probably battery and memory. Though both of those are easily overcome with planning and care. Outside of that it’s that the smartphone is still not seen a a “proper camera” despite its technology been much in advance of many more traditional style cameras, or even now, in some cases the ability to shoot very high quality video formats.
  3. The future is becoming more mainstream as people realise the advantages of mobile filming and the democratisation it brings – you don’t need the latest greatest bit of kit from the big camera makers, the device in your pocket does just as well; and the price of those devices just keeps dropping, allow more and more people access to video story telling tools.

Simon Horrocks – Writer/Filmmaker/YouTuber

  1. When Andrea Holle told me about her idea for a film festival showing only films shot on smartphones.
  2. Shallow depth of field.
  3. Not sure if it’s really a movement. Rather a change brought about by new technology. Like when people started driving cars instead of a horse and cart. Cars are a lot more convenient.

Eleanor Mannion – Digital Native Video Journalist with RTÉ News

  1. Glen Mulcahy ran a 5-day mobile journalism course at RTÉ in 2014. By the last day of the course I had filmed and edited my first ever mojo report and have never looked back since!
  2. I think one of the best advantages of mobile journalism is the apps which enhance your filming/production/workflow. Apps such as Filmic Pro, LumaFusion and Mojo are improving and widening their functionality continually. The iPhone tele lens was my favourite new ability in recent years and I always look forward to any lens improvements.  Any improvements when filming with limited light are always welcome!
  3. In the next five years, my team and I will continue to adapt and innovate with our digital-first platforms and our audience in terms of how they are consuming their news, and where they are consuming their news. We constantly revisit and reassess our basic purpose – made on mobile for mobile.

Blake Calhoun – Filmmaker

  1. I’ve always been interested in using readily available & affordable filmmaking tools and pushing them beyond what they’re really meant to do. That started with shooting 16mm in the late 90s to embracing Mini DV in the early 2000s, and then onto HDV cameras and later DSLRs. Then in late 2011 the iPhone 4s was released and that was the first time I thought that smartphone video was getting pretty good and was actually going to be a thing – and that’s the same year I started my YouTube channel on that topic. 
  2. The biggest limitation for me using an iPhone right now is a very technical one and that’s – dynamic tone mapping. Basically the phone will change the exposure settings even when things are locked – and that’s using the native camera app or a third-party app like Filmic Pro. It’s extremely frustrating as it limits what you can do, especially shooting professional video. I do think Apple will eventually fix this, but right now it’s definitely an issue and keeps me from using my phone on more projects. I’m really looking forward to seeing if Apple will add USB-C or Thunderbolt to the next iPhone Pro series phones. Considering they’ve now added the ability to shoot ProRes video and the files can be huge, so it really only makes sense to include this for file transfers (right now it’s very slow using Lightning or AirDrop). The other thing this would likely do is allow apps like Filmic Pro to send out a high-quality uncompressed 4K video signal so you could then record that to an Atomos recorder, etc. and not have to worry about the phone’s internal storage.
  3. I’ve said for a while that I think smartphones are on a similar path as DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Those traditional cameras have been evolving over the past 14 or so years, and smartphone video has really only been what I’d consider prosumer quality since about 2016 – and only REALLY good since 2020 with the introduction of 10-bit video and HDR in the iPhone 12 Pro series devices (Android too, but I don’t know their history as well). So I think in the next 5 or 10 years, which is a very long time in the tech world of course, we could see smartphones replace many (prosumer) video cameras just like they have with all the point-and-shoot stills cameras. The quality in many cases is already there now. The bigger issue is probably acceptance by filmmakers and clients. It can still be taboo to shoot professional work using a phone, which I do understand, but it was exactly like that with DSLRs, too. And today those are not only accepted, but almost ubiquitous. So who knows what the future holds for video tech, but I do think smartphones will play an even larger role for many of us.

Robb Montgomery – Founder & Director Smart Film School

  1. In 2007 at the Canadian News Association conference I presented a keynote titled “Web Video is not TV” to several hundred news executives and showed how a popular music video (featuring a Canadian pop singer) was shot entirely on Nokia mobile phones. I screened the Behind the scenes reel that showed the clever filmmakers revealing their tricks and these editors were blow away about the quality of the video camera they already had in their pockets. I was already teaching video journalism to many of their reporters, so it was a natural transition to switch from shooting with prosumer camcorders to smartphones.
  2. The biggest limitation for journalists and reporters making good quality video reports and documentaries is the confusion that comes along with the phone manufacturers introducing so many overhyped video formats and technical variables. The choices for resolution, color space, codec, and bit rates can be overwhelming. I am always looking to develop better guidance for these folks for when it makes sense to shoot 4K vs HD, enable or disable HDR, DOLBY ATMOs, PRORES, and LOG/RAW shooting. Most Video Journalists just need simple, reliable, bulletproof settings that preserve storage and capture high quality footage.
  3. In the same direction as I illustrated in that 2007 presentation. Mobile video storytelling is a language and way of seeing and sharing big stories with small cameras. A student just won Best Documentary film at the most recent Mobile Journalism Awards competition. Her mobile film bested many others that were shot by pros working at large broadcast news organizations. That is proof that the vector is moving in the right trajectory – #Mojo is available to every storyteller who is willing to tell the truth without fear or favor. The best films from each #MojoAwards season are curated for scholars, journalists and the public to review. It will be interesting to examine that body of mobile journalism work as it grows over the next 10 years.

Jack Hollingsworth – Photographer/Author/Speaker/Lovecat

  1. It was February 18, 2011, on the idyllic Caribbean island of Barbados. It was love at first sight.
    In less than a year, I went from infatuation to obsession, from fun-toy to production-tool, from casual to intentional, from snapshot to photograph, from taking to making pictures. Since that serendipitous rendezvous with destiny, over the past 10 years, I have shot over 1 million iPhone photographs, on 10 different devices, in 50 countries of the world. And also, in the process, have humbly become, a leading expert in iPhone photography, to discriminating and discerning photographers, around the world.
  2. I’ve had a camera in my hands since 1975. Almost, from the beginning, it was never my exclusive intention to simply own and operate a photographic business. Instead, I wanted to life a photographic life. The iPhone camera with its ease of use, simplicity, convenience, small form-factor, computational power, has got me one step closer to realizing this lifestyle dream. With phone-camera in hand, I’m no longer just a photographer but a storyteller.
  3. We are living in the Golden Age Of Consumer Photography. Yes, dedicated-cameras still own the commercial photography space. But phone-cameras own the consumer photography space. I am convinced, without a shadow of a doubt, that the iPhone camera, will go down in history, as the most influential camera of all time. I exclusively shoot with iPhone cameras and have no interest or motivation to change. The sky is the limit.

Dougal Shaw – Digital Business Reporter BBC News

  1. Around 2015 I was using my iPhone as camera B for shooting news feature interviews. Looking at the footage in the edit I thought it was so good, I started to entertain the idea of just shooting everything with the phone. I tried doing it a few times and found that it made my kit so much lighter. I became more nimble and it really freed up my film-making. I felt liberated so I didn’t look back.
  2. The biggest limitation for me right now is battery life on the phone. I carry an old phone with me as my back up, and switch to that when my battery gets to below 10%. On shoots that last more than half a day it’s a problem. I look forward to better battery life, or faster recharging. I would also like it to be easier to connect mics to phones. The process still involves some tinkering and third party apps for me. I could do without this when I’m dealing with other things on a shoot.
  3. In terms of news, mobile filming has taken longer to take off than I imagined back in 2015. But tech revolutions are often slower than you anticipate (think electric cars). I see more and more young journalists coming through now who are used to filming their own content on their phones for platforms like Snapchat or TikTok. They want to continue as creative, self-sufficient storytellers. So the old narrative that a reporter needs to have a second, technical person to help them (whether a cameraperson or a radio producer), a Sancho Panza to their Don Quixote, will likely fade over time.

Neal Augenstein – Reporter WTOP-FM and wtop.com Washington DC

  1. Initially the goal was to reduce the amount of lugging of radio gear — laptop, digital recorder, camera, microphone. In 2010, when a multitrack audio-editing app became available on iPhone, that was the starting point. In years past, the ability to produce all different platforms from a single device made it possible.
  2. The biggest limitation is that few apps are specifically designed for reporters, who want both a live stream and the ability to re-purpose afterward. But that limitation also makes it fun — contemplating “how can this new app designed for general use be helpful in my job as a reporter?”
  3. With changing social media based apps sprouting up, the different ways to communicate with the audience will continue to develop. Being a ‘real person’ with the audience is both a great chance to learn what they’re thinking, but sharing a bit of yourself increases that connection. While so much of social media (and society) is divisive these days, I think the ability to demonstrate a commitment to ethical journalism and civility will become even more important than it is today.

Judie Russell – Founder and Video Coach at The Vidacademy

  1. I was working on The Young Offenders Movie, in the summer of 2015, as the Behind the Scenes producer. I was shooting on a Canon DSLR but I couldn’t always carry my gear to remote filming locations as there was already so much equipment to bring for the main crew. So I started filming with my iPhone 6, never thinking that the footage would be usable next to the DSLR footage. But when it came time to edit, I was surprised and excited about the iPhone quality. Soon after that, I sold my DSLR, Canon C300, XLR mics and dove headfirst into mobile filming. And I’ve never looked back since.
  2. I’m looking forward to a future where I can add all of my clips to the timeline and allow AI to create the first draft so I can then add the final touches in my style. Editing can be slow and sometimes inefficient, but we are already seeing AI make smarter editing decisions for us. Apps like Quik edit to the beat of the music, and software like Adobe Rush automatically reduces the volume of music when it recognises voices on the timeline.
  3. In the future, I can see three things happening: (1) Everyone will become video editors – much like the adoption of PowerPoint and slide design in the late 90s. (2) Edits will be automated – Not only will an editor’s life become easier but when AI is mixed with Creative Commons footage, attribution free music and computer-generated voiceovers, this should lead to far more fully automated videos. (3) More organised and affordable cloud storage – improved video tagging and metadata along with more affordable cloud storage should allow us to recall clips and memories in a really simple and quick way. All of this should mean that most people will primarily use mobile video to communicate their stories and messages to the world.

Darko Flajpan – VJ, MoJo and Broadcast Trainer at Croatian Radiotelevision

  1. In 2010 Glen Mulcahy brought an iPhone 4 to our VJ workshop. In 2011 we started MoJo Training for Circom Regional and TV Broadcasters.
  2. iOS is great, but also expensive for lots of newbies. On most Android devices there is no 25 and 50 fps settings. Also, editing apps on Android devices are not as good as on iOS. That’s why I am so happy that LumaFusion will be available for Android. Great thing for MoJo work and training!
  3. I hope there will be more creators with great ideas and approaches in storytelling, not just consumers in a metaverse.

Kai Rüsberg – Radio and TV Journalist & Trainer

  1. It was about 10 years ago. I was filming a lot for my public broadcaster in Germany as a VJ since 1997, but the whole publishing process was totally traditional, and ineffective. Not closely connected to the viewers, and it took a long time to publish. As my bosses didn’t understand the advantages of mojo and only wanted to do it the way we always did, I started on my own. Changing the camera, I didn’t want to produce the traditional way either. As I thought, just replacing the camera and PC with the smartphone but doing the same lengthy process of gathering footage and editing and voice over won’t do the trick. Therefore, I adapted the skills of a live reporter: do just one shot and film, show, interview, report, feel, expose, narrate everything just at once without editing. So I developed the #Oneshot reportage for local news.
  2. The biggest limitation for the #Oneshot technique was to get good sound for interviews, as well as the reporters’ narration while moving through the terrain of the scene. Therefore I always used a classical shotgun microphone with a self soldered cable XLR (female) to 3.5 TRRS plug. With the new wireless microphone solutions from Saramonic and Rode with two lavaliers this gets even easier. But in the future we will run into the problem that smartphones might get rid of all external physical ports, even USB-C.
  3. I started changing the device: Instead of using the smartphone, case, gimbal or frame with external light I’m now often using a dedicated camera. The DJI Pocket 2 is the tool for me. It delivers all in one device, even a wireless mini-microphone receiver, a gimbal and native 50p fps. It has the same elements and sensors like a smartphone, but all is built-in. Some hardcore #Mojos might say: that’s not mojo, because it’s not all produced inside the smartphone: I don’t bother. If you need the smartphone feeling, there is a dongle to connect the DJI to it and use it as the big screen or to transfer the footage.

Matias Amigo – Media Producer / Mojo Trainer

  1. In 2014 I was in Tanzania working in an orphanage. During my time there I had many incredible experiences, and on more than one occasion I thought “I wish I had a camera with me” without knowing that everything I needed was in my pocket. When I returned from my trip, I started looking for information on the web about how to record with a phone and there I discovered the Mojocon. Without hesitation I traveled to its last edition. It was love at first sight, working with compact equipment, achieving broadcasting quality and allowing new ways of telling stories (because of its size and the amount of complementary accessories that exist) marked a before and after in my life.
  2. Without a doubt I think there are some aspects to be solved, a lot has to do with the phone’s camera. It would be ideal if it had much more versatility and improved quality when it comes to exposure. To be able to work better in low and extremely bright light and that video quality is not lost in the workflow. On the other hand, I think the zoom is something that is being worked on a lot and we have to wait a bit longer for its massive implementation. Finally, the battery always ends up being insufficient; more battery life will allow us to work more comfortably.
  3. First we have to accept that many people generate content with the phone, maybe not in the way we would like, but with excellent results. And secondly, I think the biggest challenge ahead of us is to focus, not so much on accessories and phones, but on our creativity, which will end up making the difference, because the world doesn’t care what phone we use to generate content, it´s all about the idea.

Rob Layton – Senior Teaching Fellow (Journalism) and PhD Scholar Bond University, Gold Coast

  1. It was while on family holiday in the Scottish Highlands that I realized the panos my wife shot with her iPhone 5s were better than the wide angles I was shooting with a modest DSLR. I converted to iPhone photography from that moment. This also enabled me to enter ocean photography/videography, as housings for smartphones are substantially cheaper than those needed for big cameras.
  2. Sensor size and shallow depth of field in video have long been the largest impediments to mobile photography/videography. But we are seeing very encouraging advances with both so I’m optimistic for the future. It’s like a space race of sorts, with smartphone manufacturers trying to outdo each other to gain mobile camera market share.
  3. Ten years is a bit far ahead but I have no doubt computation is the future of imaging. Smartphone innovation leads the way, with incredibly fast and powerful processors and incredibly clever technology.

Björn Staschen – Founder NDR NextNewsLab, Mojo-Coach, Author

  1. In 2013 or 2014 I was reporting from a yearly protest march, normally we wouldn’t cover it as long as it didn’t escalate into violence. So I had no camera crew. I talked to the online newsroom who were happy to use smartphone video from an iPhone 5.
  2. For me it’s still the wide angle – I find close-up shots, filmed from a distance, quite helpful in some stories. Sadly, even the zoom lenses don´t always help.
  3. I wonder if AI will help to improve picture quality with regard to partial lighting, white balance etc.

Martin Nutbeem – Senior Digital Education Developer, University of Bristol

  1. I’ve been creating media for education for about 15 years. The focus has always been getting content created rapidly for use with students, while quality needed to be “good enough”. About seven years ago I dabbled with using a smartphone instead of larger video cameras and realised it was a realistic approach for most filming requests. At the same time I also started getting students to film each other with Flip cams, for example building students filming each other’s brick work and then peer reviewing.  I now regularly train and support staff and students to use smartphones to create media as an alternative to traditional written assignments.
  2. Editing on a 6 inch screen is obviously bonkers if you want to create more complex media. I think the affordances that foldable devices bring will give a level of polish that is tricky with the average phone screen, currently. Phone formation for recording, then unfolding to edit feels like a great step forward. I hope the trend develops enough to become actually affordable. 
  3. When we first started running “Students as Creators” assessment projects, very few of the students would have used mobile devices to create content. Five years later and typically around a third of them have experience of using their mobiles to create as well as consume content. Openness to making media and confidence to have a go is increasing each year. When I’m asked to advise on filming now it’s a lot more common for people to say they want to use their phone. I anticipate that as devices continue to improve and the lines between smartphones and wearables blur, we’ll see mobile content production move from being considered a convenient novelty to serious option for many.

Matthias Süßen – Journalist/Blogger/Trainer

  1. My first smartphone was the iPhone 4 and I was immediately excited about the possibilities. I quickly realized that it would revolutionize media production. The whole process from recording to video editing to publishing was suddenly possible anywhere on a small device. Then there were the emerging social media networks, which for the first time made it possible for anyone anywhere in the world to report on their situation. Completely independent of the large media corporations.
  2. The lack of the ability to install custom fonts is, for me, currently the biggest problem in the Android and iPhone worlds. In addition, there are well-known problems like fragmentation (Android) and lack of memory (iPhone). It remains to be seen whether new operating systems will further fragment the smartphone market in the future.
  3. The real and virtual worlds will increasingly merge. The production of AR and VR are becoming increasingly important and there are already a large number of augmented reality apps in the app stores of iOS and Android. Social networks are increasingly being extended to include virtual worlds. Media creators should therefore think about how they can use this and how information transfer in virtual worlds works.

Terri Morgan – Co-Founder and Lead Designer LumaTouch

  1. When we were developing our first iPad app, we got a HUGE amount of feedback from customers that they definitely would use our app on iPhone. Once we looked at how the smartphone can streamline the Capture/Edit/Deliver workflow, it was a revelation. To not develop for the smartphone would have felt like a failure.
  2. For smartphones, the biggest limitation that we see on iOS is that they do not have a USB-C port. With a USB-C port, people could carry a small drive to record to, and edit directly off of, or plug into an iPad for editing, without having to transfer media or rely on a 5G or WiFi connection.
  3. Developers are pushing the boundaries and finding that touch devices are extremely capable of complex workflows. In addition, as AI improves, more technical tasks, like perfect keying, titling from existing metadata, and correcting audio and video, can be delegated to the machine, leaving more time to focus on creativity and the actual meaning of the content.

Nick Garnett – North of England Reporter BBC News

  1. After minidiscs, I was in the search for smaller computer based systems. Laptop recording and editing was good – but not portable. In 2002 we had Luci Live on laptops to allow us to broadcast live radio out and about. But it was only with the advent of the iPhone that it was ported to iOS. It wasn’t long before Poddio was released allowing multitrack audio editing.  In 2011 Voddio was releaed allowing video editing. I was now using a phone to record audio, edit audio, mix multiple tracks, send audio, go live on radio, shoot and edit video and send it in to the BBC. By 2013 I was using it to go live on TV as well.
  2. There aren’t any limitations in an audio sense. I can’t see how it can be improved or bettered. The biggest changes I can see coming out of phones are further improvements to the camera. The cinematic mode on the iPhone 13 is the biggest game changer for about 10 years. Next year it will get custom frame rates and 4K technology. And then we can say goodbye to ENG cameras and DSLRs (for some jobs)! I do worry about one future development – phones without sockets and a push towards Bluetooth and MagSafe.
  3. As I’ve said before Mojo is dead. Every journalist is now mobile and uses mobiles. Perhaps not to the extent we do but they will grow as developers harness the phone’s power and create ever more simple interfaces. We should focus on the way we tell stories rather than the devices we record and edit them on.

Bernhard Lill – Multimedia Journalist and Trainer

  1. It was in May 2014 and I was attending a video class. We were supposed to shoot a short news report and I had my old iPhone 4S with me. And I thought: what the heck, I’ll just try to film it with this smartphone and an external mic. And it worked. Since then I’ve produced most of my digital content with Android devices or iPhones.
  2. Actually, I don’t miss that much in smartphones. Okay, maybe a bigger sensor for better low light videography. But, altogether, it’s less the tech that makes a good movie than the creativity of the producer. I mean, Sean Baker shot “Tangerine” with three iPhones 5s.
  3. Mobile Reporting is becoming more and more mainstream already, even among public broadcasters in Germany. Apart from that, I’m pretty bad at foreseeing the future of tech. In 1991, I predicted that e-mails would never become a tool of mass communication. Well …

Philip Bromwell – Digital Native Content Editor at RTÉ News

  1. I became intrigued about the idea of using my then iPhone 4S (if I remember correctly!) in 2013. I filmed my first news story for RTÉ tv news in the autumn of that year. I was curious about the phone’s camera capabilities and wanted to see what was possible. The resultant story worked out really well and was broadcast on our main bulletin. No one batted an eyelid over how it was created – it sat comfortably alongside stories produced in the conventional manner. Since then, I have steadily increased my use of mobile devices for content creation – to the point that now I lead a team that produces original content for all platforms (tv, radio, online and social media) entirely on mobile devices.
  2. With every generation of phone, the device’s “limitations” become less and less, well, “limiting”. My iPhone 12 Pro Max is a much more powerful tool than my long-forgotten 4S. That said, filming with a smartphone still requires you to accept that you can’t really zoom like you would with a traditional ENG camera. However, that’s part of the fun of filming with a phone – it brings lots of creative possibilities in how you approach telling a story. Importantly, I still maintain that it doesn’t matter how good your phone is if you can’t tell a good story…
  3. I believe technology and audience behaviour shape today’s media landscape. They will also shape what happens over the next decade. As a piece of tech, phones are constantly evolving… so that suggests they will only become increasingly important as media production tools (particularly outside of mainstream media). How mainstream media emerges from the pandemic isn’t yet clear – but all the signs are that low cost, creative, nimble production methods (such as phones) could/should have a big role to play.

Mark Egan – Mobile Video Specialist

  1. I first used smartphones for real filming when my normal camera failed and I used an early iPhone instead. I was amazed how good it looked. I soon realised smartphones were making shooting video more accessible … but also the apps created a really smooth workflow. The latest phones let you shoot really high quality footage, edit it, share it and go live. In addition, as the audience now consumes more on mobile, it makes sense to create on mobile so you can be native to the platforms.
  2. Lack of optical zoom has historically been a limitation, but that is going away. I would like better battery life, but my real concern is audio. You can record good audio, but you do not have the multiple track options you have on a traditional camera. The lightning or usb connector can also be a bit flimsy. If manufacturers take away the charging port and replace it with wireless charging, we may even lose the ability to plug in an external mic. The ability I’m looking forward to most is complete “over capture”. You shoot and it gathers so much information you have full control of the focus, exposure etc in post production. We have a bit of that now, but it will get much better.
  3. The mobile journalism movement is really all about allowing anyone to tell a story, anywhere, anyhow and on any platform. It has already become quite mainstream and as apps, accessories and hardware get better it will be unthinkable to be in the media industry without being able to create top quality content with your phone. I think we will also see more artificial intelligence being used, more cloud services making the type of device less relevant and some new media storytelling techniques emerging.

Silas Bang – Editor of Video, Jyske Fynske Medier

  1. With the launch of the iPhone 6S in 2015 I felt the quality was now good enough and I was tired of editing in Premiere Pro as my PC crashed again and again. When editing in iMovie I had no problems.
  2. It is a limitation that we need a lot of adapters to plug in a couple of mics. I would love to be able to have more wireless mics working via bluetooth or something better.
  3. I do not believe that the big cameras will or should disappear but more and more people in both media and especially communication will realize that it is that much easier to get into visual communication with a phone. And for most the quality will be more than enough.

Mike Buttery – BBC England MoJo Project Lead

  1. I have been using mobile phones to capture video since VGA camera phones in the late 90’s. I find them the perfect device that is always with you to document the world around you. Since then I have been a professional cameraman working with film, tape and solid state cameras creating content for TV News, Entertainment, Music, Sport. As a BBC News Operations Manager During COVID19 I wanted to help inform our audiences of what was happening in the world by training the BBC England News teams how to safely tell stories on a low key, light weight device, a device all our audiences are familiar with. I issued 50x MoJo kits to News content makers across England and trained them alongside the BBC Academy. We now see stories told to our audiences across all our output using MoJo.
  2. Overall the mobile device with all the ancillary kit is very robust and versatile, however the biggest limitation is the ability to zoom. It’s great that most mobile phones offer multiple lenses to choose frame size prior to filming and of course the ability to shoot in 4K allows the filmmaker to crop in after during post production. I am really looking forward to being able to zoom in and zoom out during capture just like a traditional camcorder. For documentary and gorilla style filmmaking this would give you so much flexibility in capturing the moments without using digital zoom. With this having at least one grade of built in ND filter would be another great step to the professional standard.
  3. With technology advancing at a rapid rate, I would expect in the next decade to see larger sensor sizes in most mobile devices which will improve depth of field and low light. Also I think we will see zoom lenses and other professional add-ons. Technology will bring more people to MoJo as it will make it easier to operate and this will increase the market to consumer level which in turn will rapidly reduce the gap between professional kit and kit aimed at consumers.

Umashankar Singh – Senior Editor – Foreign & Political Affairs NDTV India

  1. I started using a smartphone as a media production tool a long time back but it was occasional. I can remember using ‘a phone with a camera’ (it was not a smartphone) in 2006 to record a few clips for my report. This continued over the years. Actually I used it only when a big camera was not with me, to record small clips to be used for my TV reports. But it was in 2016 that I adopted the smartphone as my main media production tool. Reason was mixed. My organisation NDTV India decided to go mobile journalism (mojo) way. I willingly and happily adopted it as it gives me ultimate freedom as a TV journalist. A smartphone always remains in pocket so one doesn’t need to wait for the big camera/camera person to reach the location where news is happening. You can start on your own, especially when in a situation where something good or bad happening was not planned or foreseen. And even in a planned shoot, you can do it on your own, without others’ help. You can do live reporting through a phone only by using app like LiveU or others. Last but not the least reason is financial too. MoJo has reduced the production & travel cost so I can do the production single handedly.
  2. Mobile phone cameras have their own limitations. Camera quality is improving but it just can’t match the technicalities of big cameras (like zoom in etc). Though there are apps and small devices to enhance the technicalities but that’s not enough. Nowadays we are working with smartphones with camera. As a mobile journalist sometimes I think I should have a camera with a smartphone. That means a camera which has all the features of smartphones. What I mean to say is that as of now smartphones manufacturers put ‘camera into their smartphones’. It may sound like a weird idea but I am hopeful that any camera manufacturer companies will soon put a ‘mobile phone into a camera’ so that mobile journalists like me feel more empowered as media producer.
  3. As I said, smartphones are like a match box which can light the fire within seconds. You don’t need to rub stones for hours to light the fire. This is in production sense. So I think it will go a long way. Not just because of the fact that it’s easier to carry or cheaper in cost than a big camera unit, but also that smartphones have greater reach. At every nook & corner of the world, people have smartphones in their hands. They are generating video clips of events, natural disasters, political chaos, inhuman behaviours, terrorists’ attack & acts… anything for that matter happening in front of their eyes for the world to view. This phenomenon will be strengthend even more in the coming years.

Matthew Feinberg – CEO Alight Creative

  1. It was 2010. Apple had just released released iMovie for iPhone, and the company I worked for decided to try building something similar for Android. My original job was building developer toolkits for streaming mobile video, but I ended up on a two-person team doing research into what would eventually become KineMaster. From the beginning there was always resistance. Even with Apple leading the way, people laughed at the idea of editing video on a phone. People still laugh, but the reality is that tens millions of people now produce and edit video content on smartphones every day.
  2. There are so many amazing new ways to capture video on a smartphone, from 4K and HDR to high frame rates and ProRes. While these open up many new possibilities for creative freedom in post, they also come with a big drawback: Huge file sizes. Unfortunately, storage management is a bit of a mess. Increasingly strict app sandboxing, unavoidable for security, means apps need to keep their own copies of files they work with. Unfortunately, storage management is a bit of a mess. Increasingly strict app sandboxing, unavoidable for security, means apps need to keep their own copies of files they work with. Under-the-hood optimizations (to avoid storing duplicate data) deep within the operating system help to mitigate the wasted storage these copies would otherwise incur, but also mean that the operating system’s visual representation of used and free space can be wildly inaccurate. Finding a clear and simple way to visualize used space without sacrificing accuracy will be a big challenge for operating system makers, but one that I think will become increasingly important to address.
  3. The line between traditional workflows and mobile workflows will continue to blur. I’ve moved on from KineMaster to found Alight Creative, where we make desktop-quality professional motion graphics and video compositing tools for mobile, such as Alight Motion. But we (and companies like us) are now naturally beginning to fold desktop support into our roadmaps. With new MacBooks supporting mobile apps, and Windows adding support for Android apps, the tools that we and other companies are building for mobile will naturally evolve into fully cross-platform tools. As apps like these become more and more full-featured, they will become serious alternatives to traditional desktop-only apps. The decision of whether to use a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone will, for most people, become a question of form factor and budget, rather than a question of functionality. This will lead to new levels of freedom for content creators in their choice of tools, and an easier learning curve for new creators entering the industry. The future of content production is indeed bright!

Tim Bingham – Photographer

  1. Looking back I firstly discovered the video capability around 9 years ago when I started interviewing  people for my job , In regards to photography it was probably about  6 years ago when I started using the smartphone for photography. I have always seen the smartphone as part of my toolkit.
  2. I am going to write this response from the perspective of an Android user. Firstly the progress that has been made over the past few years has been incredible, particularly with AI optimisation however that can be a disadvantage in certain circumstances. Having the DNG or raw capability on the phones has really enabled me to capture photos that can be edited on the phone and printed in A0 and no loss of resolution.  The biggest limitation for me at the moment is not to have a variable aperture when using one of the telephoto lenses. This for me would be a further game changer in the use of smartphones.
  3. I think we will see big movements in the next few years, however I am very sceptical if AI takes over completely and doesn’t allow the user to be creative. I would definitely envisage a manufacturer bringing out a smartphone with zoom capability and a variable aperture, let’s face it we are nearly there. I envisage larger sensors particularly with the new developments in single lenses using nano structures which can then offer true optical zoom. In regards to the whole movement I am watching to see where it all leads as it’s interesting speaking to other film makers and photographers  and many of them are saying that the prices for smartphones are expensive compared to mirrorless and DSLR cameras and these still have the added advantage of all the various lenses. I can see a big future in the whole area of journalism as producing and editing high quality content on the smartphone is already happening.

Marcel Anderwert – Mobile Reporter SRF News

  1. In late 2014 I filmed my first Mojo report for Swiss TV’s main evening news show «SRF Tagesschau», using an iPhone 6 and the amazing FiLMiC Pro app. Although the interview did not look particularly great back then, nobody in the newsroom noticed the report was shot with a phone.
  2. It would be great if it was possible to easily attach a good telephoto lens to a smartphone. Moreover, I am looking forward to sensors and lenses getting better, in order to have more possibilities for working with depth of field.
  3. In the last seven years, I have always been ready to go back to filming with a normal camera. But it never happened. I still like to work with my light and low-key smartphone equipment very much. Especially for more personal stories.

Marc Blank-Settle – Smartphone Journalism Trainer, BBC Academy

  1. I’d love to say I discovered or chose it, but bigger brains at the BBC got there before me. We had developed an application on Symbian to send material in from Nokia devices but that was changed to iPhones and I was asked to deliver training on how to use it.
  2. The lack of a decent zoom on most smartphones remains a challenge. Video journalism often involves getting close to the action visually and with a decent zoom you can stay at a safe distance. Most smartphones can’t zoom much before the quality gets worse so people either have to get closer, which could be dangerous, or they can’t get close-ups, which limits the story that can be told.
  3. Better cameras with a periscope zoom lens, hopefully. The big question will be how Apple’s AR glasses change things eg can they be used to gather and send content? If not, the smartphone will remain dominant for the rest of the decade and beyond.

Laurent Clause – Journalist/MoJo-Trainer/Blogger

  1. Editor-in-chief of a computer magazine devoted to the Apple world, I was invited in 2007 to the launch of the iPhone in San Francisco. I was already pushing my team to produce video content for the web at the time. When I saw the 1st iPhone, even if it only took still pictures, I immediately understood that my job as a journalist would change with this new device as soon as it would shoot videos. I really started producing video content with the iPhone from 2010. First by editing it on the computer, then on the iPhone directly from 2012.
  2. The main limitation of the smartphone in my eyes remains the lack of real zoom. I am asked more and more often to film on a smartphone because people are less afraid of it. But when you need to make people around unrecognizable, a super telephoto lens is best to have a shallower depth of field / more bokeh and avoid blurring faces during editing. I am also waiting for the adoption of the Bluetooth protocol by microphone manufacturers. For two years I have had a prototype Bluetooth transmitter for XLR microphones which is just great and I do not understand why the manufacturers do not offer real Bluetooth microphones. That would allow us to record good sound – even if it’s not as good as professional sound – without connecting a receiver to the smartphone.
  3. I hope to see optical zoom and Bluetooth transmitters coming soon. I also see live video developing rapidly on smartphones with multicam and multiplatform control room applications available to everyone. 

Martin Heller – Multimedia Journalist and Trainer

  1. I started in 2012. I was working with an iPhone 4s back then. Times have changed, so much improvement!
  2. For some journalists, it’s totally unprofessional to use smartphones for interviews. I think that’s wrong and the biggest and most dangerous limitation in your head because it limits your creativity. Of course, there will be improvements technically in hardware and software. But I am already very happy and thankful to have such great gear to tell stories easily, fast and experience the surprise and enthusiasm in the eyes and smiles of the participants of my workshops.
  3. Maybe the „movement“ will be eaten up by its own success. As mobile journalism has become the „new normal“ in more and more situations, it’s not revolutionary anymore. I really love the community of mobile journalists and see what’s possible today with all the ideas growing out of a basic gear and knowledge. There’s so much undiscovered potential in smartphones – and humans!

Nicki Fitz-Gerald – Artist, Illustrator and Teacher

  1. I was already using my phone as a creative tool to take photographs and create digital art. Creating videos was a natural next step but it really took off for me when I was invited to speak about my mobile photography at the first MojoCon, Glen Mulcahy’s brilliant gathering of mobile creators (journalists, photographers, communications folk, bloggers) in Dublin 2015. This event and subsequent annual Mojocons and Mojofests showcased a myriad of mobile creative possibilities and gave me the confidence to start making my own short films for the communications department I worked for at the time.
  2. For photography, I’d like a fabulous built in telephoto lens on my iPhone. I’d love to flatten images seen from a distance in the way that you can with a DLSR camera. Always better battery. Better resolution on the front-facing camera so I can do pieces to camera and see myself while filming without having to compromise on quality.
  3. I am a bit out of this space as I’ve been focused on my digital art but there does seem to be a lot of excitement around everything happening virtually, and after the pandemic (is it over yet?) and numerous lockdowns, this seems to have accelerated activity. I heard that we will be able to visit people and feel like we are actually in the same room so maybe the future is creating more content for virtual and augmented reality environments. Personally, I’d prefer to pop over to my mum’s and have a Sunday dinner…I just can’t seem to make my roast potatoes as good as hers.

Judith Steiner – Video Production Coach

  1. I used to work as a video journalist. I loved doing video productions, but the longer I worked, the more I struggled with the pressure of news and the fact that I could only scratch the surface of the topics. So I started thinking about what I would really enjoy doing. That’s how I came up with the idea of a talk show that I host and film at the same time. That was 10 years ago, smartphones were still something quite new in our lives. I was fascinated by the technology. So I bought three iPhones and filmed my talk shows with them. It became a field of experimentation for me: how do I get a smartphone onto a tripod, how can I connect an external microphone. At that time I had to order tripods and microphone adapters (TRS to TRRS) in the USA. That’s how my story with the smartphone as a media production tool began.
  2. So far in my video courses I’ve said: “The biggest disadvantage for me when filming with the smartphone is the lack of depth of field.” The cinema mode on the iPhone 13 now makes it possible and it works amazingly well. Now it’s small things, but they improve again with every new smartphone: Light sensitivity, image stabiliser (especially in the selfiecam).
  3. I think the lenses will evolve. With the iPhone 13, we are at 3x zoom with the telephoto lens. More will probably be possible in the next few years. The resolution will increase to 8K. There will be even more automation in the editing apps, especially in speech recognition, for example, to generate subtitles quickly.

Chris Cohen – CTO Filmic Inc.

  1. The moment Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 with a high-quality BSI sensor, I realized that media creation was on a new trajectory that could not be thwarted.
  2. I’m looking forward to the advent of higher-precision depth mapping techniques on smartphones. This will enable new aesthetics and workflows that far exceed what we can presently imagine.
  3. In the coming decade, smartphones will have multiple ToF sensors, powerful TPUs capable of realtime whole-image transformation, camera modules with Quantum Dot substrates (and possibly non-bayer color filter arrays). The high end ‘prosumer’ camera market will finally collapse. In every pocket a device will reside that equals or surpasses the best camera systems available today. At that point, the technology itself will cease to be relevant. It will fade into the background. Invisible. Only skill and technique will matter.

Yusuf Omar – Co-Founder Hashtag Our Stories/Wearable Journalist

  1. I first got into mobile journalism in about 2010. I wanted to be a foreign correspondent and there weren’t that many opportunities for somebody young and inexperienced like me so I started travelling around the world using mobile devices and small cameras to capture stories. 
  2. I think the biggest limitation of mobile journalism is still perception to some degree. You can create a cinema ready piece of content with a mobile device and you can interview the president of a large country, but the form factor and accessibility means that sometimes it’s still not taken very seriously until people see the results.
  3. I think the future of storytelling and our interaction with technology is augmented reality layering the internet onto the world and telling stories through eyes. Over the next 10 years we will transition from mobile phones to wearable computers on our faces.

Klaus Mittmansgruber – Video/Content Reporter and MoJo Trainer OÖN

1. When I came across Glen Mulcahy’s Twitter account in the fall of 2017, a new horizon opened up for me: Independent, autonomous and high-quality production of video packages with my smartphone (Samsung S9), the „production studio in a pocket“. After some first successful trials it became clear to me: That’s it! All of a sudden I wasn’t „only“ a news editor but a cameraman and finally also a video editor. This combination – while being quite challenging – makes it possible to think a story through independently from start to finish and put it on air / online.

2. On the technical side, the biggest limitation/challenge for me is shutter speed which can often only be ideal when you have the right filter (lens) at hand. Particularly under difficult lighting conditions, this can be a problem. Furthermore, you are (still) limited by the zoom range.
Therefore, some events aren’t really suitable for „MoJo“ which you must be aware of and take into consideration when planning a shoot. Another (costly) challenge: big, data-heavy storage space. When you shoot a lot, you should at least have 256 GB space.

The actual work process of shooting video as an active reporter (for instance an interview) can be a tricky double-task: On the one hand you need to concentrate on conducting the interview and paying attention to the interviewee, on the other hand you also need to keep an eye on the image and the audio. But like Glen Mulcahy said: If working the MoJo way becomes a routine like riding a bike, you don’t have to worry about something falling by the wayside. 

I’m looking forward to new innovations like more powerful gimbals that can handle the attachment of accessories to the phone as it’s currently still difficult to work with external microphones and lenses. I’m also eager to see further development of the FilmicPro app and a way to have a completely wireless audio transmission from microphone to phone.

3. The work of TV and video journalists will be changing drastically. The required skills will blend more and more: Editorial work – camera – video editing: a one-man band – but with the severe danger of the journalistic aspect falling short in the process. Smartphones will get better year by year and with the 5G mass coverage, data transfers will be much easier and faster. The devices will grow into dependable live cameras.

Ivo Burum – TV Producer, Lecturer, Mojo Trainer and Digital Consultant

  1. I had been running a TV Department for ABC TV and the Nine network in Australia where I had used DV cameras since the 90s to create formats to enable our audience to be part of our productions. In 2003, I moved to a Nokia phone with a VGA camera. But it wasn’t until the iPhone and the app store and edit apps that I began to see the potential. In 2010, I decided to take all that I had learned with DV production, two decades earlier, and embark on a PhD investigating smartphone production. I wasn’t all that interested in creating UGC, but complete user generated stories (UGS). I saw an opportunity to provide Indigenous Australians, living in remote communities, with an opportunity to create their own local voice. With funding from the Australian Govt and support from Apple and Vericorder, I developed NT Mojo a project that trained nine Indigenous people, living in remote outback Australia to shoot, edit and publish local stories, using the iPhone 3. Four of them got work as mojos and two won national film awards. We were onto something, so I spent the next bunch of years introducing mojo to more that 60 media companies and many community groups globally.
  2. Mojo’s biggest limitation is also potentially its biggest asset. Many people involved in mobile journalism have never made video stories so, even in 2021, there’s an under appreciation of the craft of visual storytelling. Occasionally this can lead to a new dynamic interpretation of the visual digital form. While this can be a plus, what’s required is a balance between a prevailing techno determinist view and a much needed creative and editorial perspective—visual literacy. The second  limitation is not being able to ‘easily and quickly’ record and manipulate split audio tracks onto my recorded video.
  3. Recent multi lens smartphones with excellent steady cam functionality have enabled me to replace cradles with clamps resulting in much lighter and more affordable kit. This means much safer use for mojos working in conflict and other zones. I see the eco sphere growing, even more than the DV space did in the 90s and mobile continuing to grow to become even more that new digital pen that we never leave home without.  Finally, I see mobile as the conduit between the community, education and professional storytelling spaces.

Richard Lackey – Marketing Manager Fujifilm Middle East & Africa, Electronic Imaging & Optical Devices

  1. In about 2017 I started shooting video with the original iPhoneSE and FiLMiC Pro. My creative and technical background is with cinema cameras and cinema color and post production workflows. I was curious to explore if polished high end video, or even a “film look” could be achieved with video captured using a smartphone, by taking the same technical approach as with a dedicated professional camera, and post production workflow. I wanted to see how much of a role the source video quality played in producing the end result.
  2. Almost all of the major device limitations that I faced back in 2017 have been resolved by now in the current generation of smartphones. I don’t have experience with Android devices but with the iPhone, the main limitation is still related to dynamic tone mapping, although it is better than it used to be.
  3. I feel that achieving the kind of high end polished results that I started out pursuing is now easier than ever, and the knowledge required, and post production tools are more accessible than ever before. There is definitely more interest in using smartphones for video capture, and more people are pushing the limits of what is possible.

SJ van Breda – Screenwriter/Director/Editor

  1. I was fresh out of film school, had to move back to my home country, and had no contacts, no gear and too many ideas. I saw the Nespresso Talents 2018 competition and decided to enter and just shoot on my phone, as the contest was for vertical films anyway. I made the top 10 that year with Nespresso and I realised that I could make all the ideas in my head with what I already had. It was a great moment of realisation for me, because I think film school brainwashes you a bit that you always need all the gear and the camera etc. But no, you don’t need it, just make the film. 
  2. The performance of smartphones in low light, and their abilities with depth of field. The soft focus of a smartphone is very distinct and gives it away a bit. Once smartphones can handle low light conditions and lens options can mimic cine cameras, all bets are off. They’re getting better year on year, so we’re not far off. 
  3. This phenomenon has been observed before. At one point, showing up to set with a DSLR was considered laughable; now entire features are shot on them and play on global OTT services like Netflix, and regularly screen in huge cinemas. It will be the same for smartphones, and I’m honestly glad I joined the trend early-ish. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you shot your film. What matters is story and character and creating cinema. Any democratisation of that through more widely accessible tools will allow voices to be heard who would never have been given the chance under previous systems.

Cielo de la Paz – Designer/Photographer/Filmmaker

  1. About 4 or 5 years ago when I had to publish videos to an online learning platform – I realized it was good enough to be able to produce quality media.
  2. Depth of field is still pretty limited although it is getting better. I’m really looking forward to how computational photography can really increase production quality.
  3. More and more professionals will be incorporating the smartphone into their toolkit and it won’t be so revolutionary to be using a smartphone to film anymore.

Wytse Vellinga – Mobile Storytelling Expert

  1. The smartphone came into my workflow after purchasing the Nokia Lumia 1020 phone. A smartphone with a very good camera but a very limited number of apps. So after experimenting with it a bit I met up with Glen Mulcahy and Karol Cioma and they tought me how to use an iPhone for journalism. After that I never looked back and recorded, edited and published for Radio, TV and Online from my phone.
  2. There are hardly any limititations left that get in the way of telling a story. There are a couple of small things that could still improve a little. For example the low-light abilities of a smartphone camera and the ability to zoom or change the depth of field. A phone like the new Sony Xperia Pro-I comes really close to being a perfect Mojo phone.
  3. In 5 to 10 years there will be no difference between shooting on a phone, a mirrorless camera or even a wearable device like smartglases. Where the phone will always have an edge is that it is a multifunctional device: Being able to shoot, edit and publish from one device makes it a winner.

Yegon Emmanuel – Co-Founder and Communications Director at Mobile Journalism Africa

  1. We started sometime in 2017. We were still in university then and we had first interacted with the MoJo concept. After a workshop on the same, we decided to mainstream the idea in Kenya, and that’s why we started our journey officially in January of 2018.
  2. Initially, the public didn’t appreciate #MoJo as a way of telling stories but that has drastically changed now. People have finally seen the potential and the possibilities that come with being able to effectively and efficiently tell stories using their smartphones. We see this as a good sign as it means more people are getting into the space, and therefore more stories will be told. This way, we’ll get to achieve our goal of retelling Africa’s narrative faster, one story at a time for we believe #OurStoriesAreBestToldByUs.
  3. Here in the continent, this is going to expand tremendously in the next decade. I foresee a connected continent, with a huge network of autonomous storytellers reporting from different locations in real time. The extensive use of wearables, 360° cameras, AR & VR as well as gamification is on the horizon but #MoJo will dominate for many!

Sara Hteit – Video Journalist, Mobile Journalism & Digital Storytelling Trainer

1. I am a video journalist so I use a camera for telling stories. In 2017, I was assigned to train youth and refugee communities in Lebanon to produce stories related to them and reflect some positivity to their community.  Because big cameras are expensive and we can not afford to buy them for everyone, we decided to use a tool that everyone has, which is their smartphone. The first training project by DW Akademie was in a Syrian refugees camp for three months that covered everything related to video production using the smartphone, from basic photography to advanced video filming and storytelling. So briefly, my relationship with mojo started as a trainer then I started to use it in my report. During that year, to film stories, I shifted from using my sony px70 to my iPhone 10 back in the day.

For training, the smartphone is not just an electronic device that contains apps and cameras but it’s a very powerful tool especially in developing countries. Which can give everyone the power of covering and reporting independently without relying on a big crew (cameraperson, editor, tv station) or any media outlets. Also it gave them the possibility to tell the story in a different way that is very close to them and also close to their community and their audience. 

As a video journalist, my smartphone is the only camera that I use when I report and film a story. During the Beirut Blast, I produced stories immediately in the field. I just carried my small bag that contained a small tripod, a torch and microphone. I was moving around very lightly, I was very close to people and I filmed more than a story a day.

If I want to summarize my experience with the smartphone from 4 years until now I would say that reporting a story doesn’t require a lot of equipment and money. For good storytelling, one should be close to people and with a mobile phone you can film whatever you want. We shouldn’t also forget that mobile phones broke the monopoly of the huge production media outlets and restored the balance of power in dictatorship countries and it was a tool for exercising freedom and telling what was going on anywhere and anytime.

2. As I work in developing countries, let’s say Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco or Libya and some of these countries were in wars like Libya, or passing through a very big crisis like Lebanon. Our big limitation is not having a very professional application for filming and editing on mobile without paying money. As I know from my students it’s a very big challenge for online payment. Also people pay a lot for buying a good mobile with good camera features. Usually, after paying for an expensive mobile phone, some people can’t afford to pay for applications. Furthermore, countries that are facing an economic crisis don’t have the option of buying applications online. And for the free apps already available we face a lot of limitations related to advanced audio editing or writing in Arabic. Let’s say what we are looking for is a free app that contains everything related to video production, an app where we can add graphics templates for the text, build or use attractive transitions, and edit the sound very properly.

3. I don’t think it’s a movement, let’s call it an evolution and as long as we are using our mobile to be connected to the world, mobile journalism will stay the best way to tell stories from all over the word.

Anna-Katharina Schubert – Cross-Media Journalist/Presenter/Lecturer

  1. Since 2017, I’ve been in the social media editorial team for “Business and Consumers” at the WDR, which is a member of the public-service broadcaster ARD in Germany. We quickly realised that it was worth implementing moving image content specifically for Facebook and later for Instagram. As a TV journalist in the team, I went straight out and shot the first mobile reporting videos with my Samsung S8. To this day, I still really enjoy shooting with small equipment for our social media account Kugelzwei, also because I discovered cross-media work in journalism for myself.
  2. Whether as a filmmaker or as a lecturer for mobile reporting, I have one big wish for the future: standardised (charging) connections! That would make a lot of things so much easier.
  3. Mobile reporting will continue to be successful. On the one hand, because we as journalists will (have to) increasingly work cross-medially and the smartphone is perfect for this, if you use it correctly. On the other hand, I also think that this market (apps, equipment, etc.) will continue to develop and produce innovative tools. Because companies have now also understood how to train their employees in this field. The demand for workshops on “shooting and editing videos with the smartphone” is huge.

Gibran Ashraf – MoJo Journalist and Journalism Trainer

  1. I chose the smartphone as a media production tool very early on in my journalistic career, circa 2009. Back then I was a beat reporter for a daily newspaper who was dependent on public transport to get around. To save time between covering assignments and filing to my desk, I realised that the capability to write out my entire report and email it to the desk instead of waiting to get back to my desk and then file (especially if I had back to back assignments to cover), was extremely helpful. Back then, I used a Nokia Communicator which provided me with a full sized keyboard to type out my assignment and email it back to my desk. From then on, there was no looking back and as smartphones evolved and became better, I started to use them more and more for reporting, especially in the 2013 Pakistani elections and several other reporting assignments.
  2. I think looking forward, what I would really like to see in the future is a greater mainstream adoption of Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies at both the creator and consumption levels. We can also expect improvements in video capture and editing capabilities with greater software advancements allowing access to several features currently found only on desktop computers. 
  3. Over the next decade you can expect the emergence of highly specialised and incredibly powerful mobile devices which will become the central device in all forms of computer based work spaces and which will completely replace the current ecosystem of multiple devices such as laptops or workstations. We will also see greater use of smartphones as the primary devices on which content is created, whether by individuals, amateurs or groups and organizations for more professional use, especially by the younger generation who are natively adept at the emerging technologies. We will also see greater adoption of AR and VR as media formats.

Matthias Sdun – Documentary Filmmaker, Coach for Video and Visual Storytelling

  1. I had to rely on my smartphone for the first time in 2009. My camera broke during a documentary shoot I did in Saudi Arabia. And the only working device left was my old Nokia I had at that time. I started teaching classes with smartphones around 2011. I had been working as a video journalist at that time and had been teaching classes for about five years. At that point more and more people from print and online tried to implement video. Bigger cameras were not affordable for most of them. But smartphone cameras were everywhere now.
  2. Sound recording in video is still a big issue. Being able to record with several microphones on multiple audio tracks included in the video would be great.
  3. We see image quality improvement through Artificial Intelligence and smartphone video footage with shallow depth of field coming up right now. This is going to improve and the videos will look much more cinematic in the near future. Augmented Reality is huge. Being able to put photo realistic 3D Modells in your video is fun and I think there is far more to come. Connecting the smartphone with far tinyer drones than we have today and to produce high res videos is another big thing to come, I bet.