Smartphones and tablets have certainly impacted filmmaking in a large way, mostly making things run easier and smoother. With the success of many filmmaking/industry related apps, developers have taken notice and now the market is flooded. A lot of filmmakers are wondering which apps really are useful and we hope to shed some light on that in this post.

Cinemek Storyboard Composer HD ($29.99)

This app is a little on the expensive side, but I think it is worth the money, especially if you’re a director. Cinemek Storboard is billed as “the world’s first mobile story boarding application”. This app allows you to take photos of a set or shot that you’d like to see in your film. If you don’t have actors available, no problem! You can add digital stand-ins. Storyboard Composer HD also lets you add camera movements to your shot and see what it looks like. After your finished with all the photos, you can play them all together giving you a rough idea of what your project will look like.

Action Log Pro ($32.99)

Action Log Pro is a simple, but useful app that basically performs the role of a traditional paper log on set. You can add multiple cameras and easily add information for each take. It also has the ability to be imported in to Final Cut Pro or Avid. You can also sync timecode (time of day or free running) across multiple cameras.

DSLR Slate ($9.99)

DSLR is a great Slate app designed to use with DSLRs(if you didn’t guess by the name). It works as a traditional slate and also has the added features of being able to put in information such as shutter speed, ISO, aperture, lens, and frame rate. It also includes a color chart.

Sunseeker: 3D Augmented Reality ($8.99)

This is a must have app for Director’s of Photography. It provides a flat view compass that shows the path of the sun, its hour intervals, its winter and summer solstice paths, rise and set times, as well as a map view that shows solar direction for each daylight hour. This is great when shooting exteriors or timelapses.

Easy Release ($9.99)

Instead of having to carry around paper releases and get them signed, why not just use EasyRelease? This app allows you to collect all the data and signatures you need right on an iPad or iPhone’s touchscreen. It comes with standard releases, as well as ones for Getty Images, iStockPhoto, and Alamy. You can also load your own custom release file if you’d like.

These are just a few of the hundreds of filmmaking apps out there. We’ll be regularly making posts with some of our favorites, so keep checking back!