Taking iPhone video is usually a pretty manual affair. You try to hold your hands steady, but eventually some shudder creeps in. Trying to maintain a steady focal point can be tricky, especially if you’re filming a larger scene, like a concert or play.

You could use a tripod, but they’re big, bulky and require some setup. You don’t want to move around with a tripod.

Monopods, however, offer the stability and easy-panning joy of a tripod without all the fuss. Manfrotto’s monopod (the aptly-named 562B-1) is a solid, tall, adjustable, simply fantastic accessory to make all your videos, iPhone or otherwise, look much more professional.

Lighting is a crucial part of any video shoot, whether you’re filming a scene for an indie movie with an expensive camera or using your iPhone to capture video of your kid’s soccer game.

Chances are, though, you’re not going to have a professional lighting kit along with you when you use your iPhone to shoot video (unless you’re actually an indie film auteur – this tip isn’t for you).

We spoke with Alaskan filmmaker Scott Slone about the best way to get great lighting for your videos without resorting to expensive and complicated equipment.

We’ve all done it before: we head to the family reunion, the wedding, the kid’s birthday party and we just shoot everything. We have no plan except that we think we’ll have time later to edit it down to something interesting.

Unfortunately, that just leads to a bloated iPhone with too many unnecessary video files. Plus, you know you’re never going to get around to sitting down and looking through all that footage again. Ugh.

With a good plan, however, and a firm grasp of one simple storytelling technique, you’ll avoid this problem and create some amazing videos without a whole lot of extra work.

Here’s how.

Like movies? Me too. Just watched ParaNorman (fun, cool animation, good for older kids) in the little theater down the block. Anyway, I also like to watch movies on the go, on my iPad for example. I have a good few movies on DVD and when I rip them to my Mac it’s great, just not very portable. I know I’m going to be heading to Comic Cons every month for the rest of the year (Columbus, Austin, then New Orleans) and that means flying. Flying means either I write or I watch movies. Sometimes I do both.

And how am I going to get more movies on my iPad? Well…MacX iPhone Video Converter Freebie

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD / iWORLD 2012 — The inaugural edition of the Original iPhone Film Festival (OIFF) gave out awards to small-screen Steven Spielbergs.

OIFF founders Corey Rogers and Matt Dessner were on hand to talk about common iPhone filmmaking problems, like getting release forms and copyright snafus. (If you want to take your iPhone videos from crappy to snappy, check out our exclusive interview with some great tips from Dessner.)

Florida – When Salvatore Miglino went to pick up his son at his former mother-in-law’s house for a court-appointed visit, he figured there would be trouble.

So he started filming secretly with his iPhone, which may have turned out to be a lifesaver. Cheryl Hepner, his 66-year-old ex mother-in-law, went ballistic and pumped three shots into him before her .22 caliber Beretta pistol jammed.