Summary: Today’s mobile phones are also video cameras. People are using these ubiquitous cameras to document everyday surroundings as well as create more artistic videos. This paper examines emergent mobile film making patterns by tracking video composition and recording activities in ecologically valid contexts of use. We report the findings of a user study on user created mobile videos, where the actions of 11 active mobile video users were documented for 2 weeks. The collected material included diaries, device logs, and altogether 255 videos. Our findings characterize the features of a typical mobile video. Additionally, our study uncovers common practices, user motivations and pitfalls during filming and editing in the mobile context.