Pocket Director: Remote Camera

Saeid Jahromi

About this app

Your phone's best camera is the one on the back — the one pointing away from you. Pocket Director puts that picture on any other screen you own, and puts the controls there too.
Open a browser on a laptop, tablet or spare phone, scan the code on the phone's screen, and you are watching yourself and controlling the camera while you film. There is nothing to install on that second device. If it has a browser, it works.

FILM AND WATCH AT THE SAME TIME
• A live view of what the camera sees, on any device on your Wi-Fi
• Start and stop recording from across the room, with an optional 3, 5 or 10 second countdown
• Elapsed time and a microphone level meter, so you know sound is actually arriving
• Tap anywhere on the picture to set focus there

CHECK THE TAKE WITHOUT WALKING BACK
• Open Recordings and every take is listed, with its size and when it was shot
• Play any take back in the same browser window you are already watching in
• Download one take, or all of them, to the device you are sitting at
• Auto-download drops each take onto that device the moment you press stop
• Delete a take you don't want, with a confirmation first
A PROMPTER ON THE MONITOR SCREEN
• Paste lyrics, a script or notes and they scroll while you film
• Play, pause and a speed slider, so it moves at your pace
• Drag it anywhere on the screen and resize it to suit your eyeline
• It lives on the second screen only, and never appears in the recording
• Your text and its position are remembered for next time
LIGHT AND COLOUR YOU CAN SET BY HAND
• Light: auto, plus whichever presets your phone offers — daylight, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent, shade
• EV: brighten or darken the exposure yourself when auto gets it wrong
• Lock exposure and lock colour, so the picture stops drifting mid-take
• Flash on or off, where the phone has one
• Reset puts light, colour and EV back to automatic in one press
THE REST OF THE CAMERA
• Record in up to 4K where your phone supports it, or 1080p or 720p
• Front or back camera
• Ultra-wide, main and telephoto lenses, and real zoom that is recorded into the file
• Quality, lens and camera side lock while a take is running, so nothing changes by accident
MONITORING
• Choose the preview size: larger for a laptop, smaller when the signal is weak
• Turn the preview off entirely — recording carries on without it
• Rotate the preview on your screen; the recording keeps its true orientation
• Battery, temperature, free storage and recording time remaining, always on view
• Landscape controls float over the picture, so nothing falls off a sideways phone
PRIVACY THAT NEEDS NO EXPLAINING
• No account, no sign-in, no advertising, no analytics
• No internet required. Your own Wi-Fi is enough, and the phone's hotspot works with no data connection at all
• Nothing passes through a server of ours, because there isn't one
• Every device has to be approved by hand on the phone before it sees anything
• Approvals last only while the app is open. Close it and every device is revoked
• Recordings are saved to your phone in Movies/PocketDirector and stay there
WHAT YOU NEED
• Both devices on the same Wi-Fi, or the second device joined to the phone's hotspot
• A browser on that second device — Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge. Old hardware is fine; even an iPad on iOS 10 works
• Pocket Director open on the phone while you film. Android stops the camera when an app is minimised, so if that happens the take is stopped and saved
Made for anyone who has to be in front of the camera and behind it at the same time: musicians, teachers, makers, presenters, and anyone filming themselves with nobody else in the room.
Found a problem? There is a Report a bug button inside the app.

What’s new

Redesigned the camera controls for a cleaner, easier-to-use layout. Updated the Camera icon and in-app guide to match