A Day Out
After having spent the better part of the week cooped up at home, I decided to go out and get some sun today. Along the way I decided to give my iPhone 3GS' video capabilities a bit of a spin; I was surprised how well it came out:
The video has been compressed for streaming here online, but the .mov files that come directly from the phone are surprisingly crisp. It loses some clarity and frames per second when you get into medium and low-lighting situations, but it still works very well for coming from the small lens of a phone. I edited the video in Sony Vegas; I would have preferred to try it on a free video app, like Windows Movie Maker, but Apple's format is not often accessible on such programs, and also not easily converted. I originally tried several free internet applications to convert the .mov to an .avi, with no luck (except finding one app that worked, but wanted $60(!) to remove the watermark on the video). Mac users should have no trouble with their iMovie goodness.
The iPhone does have some trimming capabilities of it's own, but it's really only good for editing down the beginnings and ends of short clips. I was impressed with Sony Vegas, though, not having had a chance to really dig into it since I installed it for the 48 Hour Film Project we did last month.
My biggest difficulty in editing the video was balancing out the sound, the iPhones mic seems sometimes inadequate, as it picks up sound from everywhere equally, sometimes things can come out muddled. Also, holding the phone is a bit awkward, so I think in short order I shall purchase these two nifty accessories: The Brando Workshop Flexible Mini Capsule Microphone ($14) and the Rotating Tripod Mount ($28), so for under $50 I should have some pretty decent upgrades to the video and sound qualities, making it rival some considerably more expensive alternatives. I'm beginning to wonder if an iPhone Film Festival might not be a good idea.
The video exported as an AVI at a whopping 684mb, so thankfully I found the freeware program AVI->FLV, which quickly and with relatively minor quality loss, brought it down to a much more manageable 10.2mb. My bandwidth is grateful.
Once I uploaded it to the site, I was able to use a WordPress Plug-in aptly titled "Flash Video Player" from mac-dev.net to embed it directly into my website. The upshot of this is that I can host and play files directly on my website, rather than relying on a third-party site like YouTube or Vimeo. Why is that fortuitous, you ask? Well, when we made our 48 Hour Film Project last month, we were lucky enough to use a SAG actress (the lovely Catherine Combs); unfortunately, SAG placed many restrictions on the distribution of the film as a result, one of which was prohibiting it's display on a personal website (explicitly prohibiting sites like YouTube). Now, with this plug-in, I can bring our film, "Closure" to you all very, very soon! Hooray!
The songs in the video, by the by, are "Pick Up The Phone" by Evan & Jaron, from their self-titled album that was released wayyy back in 2000. If the name doesn't ring a bell, their hit song was "Crazy for this Girl". The second song is "Critical Hit" by No More Kings, which is an incredibly awesome band Pandora clued me into a couple of months ago. They're a funky rock band with a ton of pop culture references, including The Karate Kid, Short Circuit, Knight Rider, and in this song, Dungeons & Dragons.
Look out for more videos from me in the not too distant future. In fact, you may see something very soon, as in a few hours I am off to spend a day shooting a part in "The Swing", a short superhero film by my good friend Justin Cowden. I feel some behind-the-scenes features coming on!