Radio reporter films 'mini-documentary' using iPhone

A BBC local radio reporter has filmed a five-part "mini documentary" using just his iPhone – said to be the first of its kind for BBC local or network radio.

Rob Adcock, who presents the drivetime show at BBC Northampton, shot the two-minute videos on the future of the area's shoe industry for the station's Facebook page.

Yet despite having access to a Sony video camera, he decided to use his iPhone 5 "to see how it would work".

The video was shot without a tripod, although Adcock did use an additional microphone to record audio separately.

"The microphone on an iPhone isn't very good so we miked the interviewees up separately," he explained. "What I did was use a lapel mike from an old online kit and sync the audio with the pictures afterwards".

"I had to get the audio, make sure it was all in one take, edit that first, and then edit the pictures to go with the audio and match it up."

This was the "most pain-staking" part of the editing process, which Adcock did using iMovie on his own MacBook, although he added that it "didn't take a long time by any stretch of the imagination".

A key thing for creating short videos of this kind is to make sure your interviewees are "really well-briefed" said Adcock.

"Make sure that their answers are concise because if not and you get nine minutes of rambling you're going to be in trouble," he added.

"If you clearly explain to someone what it's going to look like and how it's going to sound and how it all fits in, that's when people work best on this sort of thing."

And although Adcock has some basic video editing skills from his six month's work at Newsround, he believes anyone can produce a professional-looking video with an iPhone.

The main problem, he said, is recording the sound. "Until you can get sound into the phone of good quality, that's what's going to hold it back," he explained.

The five videos have had more than 65 'likes' and 35 shares on Facebook, and Adcock is already thinking of his next "mini documentary" project.

His tips for other journalists using smartphones to create short films? "Patience and a steady hand".

You can view the full five videos on BBC Northampton's Facebook page.

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