How to film a football match with a phone

By Marvin Heinzl · updated 30 September 2026

You don't need a special camera for usable match footage. A recent phone, a raised spot near the halfway line and a few settings are enough to pick out scenes calmly afterwards.

Cut a video

Runs in your browser, best on a computer. Your video is not uploaded.

Where to stand

Ideally raised up at the halfway line, on a stand, a container or with a phone on a telescopic pole. From there you see both penalty areas and can follow play with small pans. Behind the goal you get nice depth but hardly see the other half.

Film in landscape and zoom as little as possible. For analysis, seeing the distances between players matters more than having the ball large in the frame.

Sensible settings

1080p at 30 fps is enough for analysis. 4K takes several times the storage and adds little on a projector.
On an iPhone, Camera, Formats decides the codec. "High Efficiency" saves space, "Most Compatible" opens in every browser, Firefox included.
Turn on airplane mode so a call doesn't interrupt the recording.
Bring a power bank. 90 minutes of recording drain the battery noticeably.

How much storage you need

For comparison, from our tests: a Veo match of just over two hours in full HD with H.264 was 4.4 GB. With HEVC on an iPhone, a 1080p match is considerably smaller. Still, make sure you have a few gigabytes free before you start.

After the match

Many phones and cameras split long recordings into several files, or you film each half separately. That's fine. In schneiden.video you can choose up to five files, enter times for each and save everything as one video. How to turn that into a team talk is in the video analysis guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is a phone good enough to film a match?

Yes. A recent phone on a tripod from a raised spot at the halfway line gives footage you can work with.

Should I film in 4K?

For analysis, 1080p at 30 fps is usually the better choice because the files are much smaller.

What if the recording is split into two files?

Choose both files in schneiden.video. The finished video contains the scenes from both.

Sources

Apple Support: Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices