What we’re doing here

Cameras and Software for self taping

• Robotic PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom Cameras) -  BirdDog is a popular brand Many available at B&H. Lensrentals has a large supply.
• Mevo - Camera for livestreaming with remote control. Available for rental from Borrowlenses.
• iPhone 11 Pro and 12 Pro  - Quickly becoming a standard for remote shoots. 
• Filmic Pro - The standard for cinema quality acquisition on an iPhone. Getting someone to self-tape with this could be a bit of work because it’s professional software. 
• Dropkits - A significantly more expensive option to safely get a cinema camera into an environment for interviews and self-taping. Read more about it in the Wall Street Journal.

Workflows and tools for self-taping, monitoring remotely, and remote control:

• Our original workflow for making a remote video village with iPhone camera.
• Our updated, depth workflow of how we do remote iPhone shoots in multiple locations at the same time with input with lots of agency and clients watching.
• Teradek Cube - High end streaming devices from industry standard for wireless monitoring, Teradek, that allow for monitoring of professional grade equipment without a computer on set. Useful for both monitoring cameras, and also for monitoring edit sessions. Teradek explains how it works here. The various products are available from B&H. 
• SmallHD, maker of some of our favorite monitors, has high end monitoring kits, that allow for remote control of ARRI and Red camera systems. 
• OpenReel - This is a premium service which allows for remote control of an iPhone or iPad camera, monitoring, as well as using the screen as a teleprompter. Only works in specific countries. 
• NowMax - Another remote interview service similar to OpenReel. The service focuses on smartphone filming and supports both iOS and Android devices.
• Frame.io, who already provides an invaluable service, has a in-depth tutorial about how to set up a remote Resolve session up and running. This is highly technical, but a great way to make sure a DP is seeing properly corrected footage even in near real time.
• Evercast is a highly recommended service for securely sharing a stream with very low-latency. This seems to be a leader for creating a good experience for a supervised edit or color session. It's pricey compared to just sharing your screen on Zoom, but I've heard that the speed and quality are impressive.
• Frame.io is becoming an accessible and easy way to move around huge amounts of media quickly, and might replace Aspera as a go to for video creators.
• Useful tools for iPhone Shooting - This is our setup for how we've been doing simple rigging and lighting of an iPhone for shoots where the talent has to self-tape.
• Hardware and setup for remote client monitoring - An easy setup to allow remote monitoring from professional cameras with SDI or HDMI outputs.
• The best teleprompter for remote shoots might be TextEdit - Several ideas about how to get a teleprompter working for your remote shoots.
• Remote Control of an iPhone for a Remote Shoot - A reader sent us this great tip for how to control an iPhone camera offsite by treating it as a webcam.
• Getting great sound on remote shoots with a portable lav recorder - Our guide to how to ensure good audio when a sound technician is not present

Casting

• With in-person casting sessions a thing of the past, SAG-AFTRA has created a video for talent about how to Self-Tape Like A Pro.