Posted on 06/30/2010 9:28:39 PM PDT by Swordmaker
It's easy to see how the iPhone 4's high-definition 1280x720 video would be a handy feature. It's an entirely different thing to see just how impressive it can be in the right hands.
Watch the Video Production here on Vimeo
In this case, those hands belong chiefly to Michael Koerbel and Anna Elizabeth James, students at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, who wrote a short video called "Apple of My Eye." Koerbel recorded it with an iPhone 4, and James edited it on the same hardware with Apple's new iMovie app--all in less than 48 hours.
As with Vincent Laforet's "Reverie," shot with Canon's first video-capable SLR, the EOS 5D Mark II, the appeal of "Apple of My Eye" isn't the acting or plot. Instead, it's the demonstration that a new generation of relatively mainstream equipment can achieve what only professional gear could earlier.
And as marketing executives know, such works also are a potentially powerful draw for all those budding artists who aspire to produce something beyond snapshots of the family. Many never will, of course, but that won't stop them from buying premium products.
Don't expect most iPhone 4 owners to craft comparably high-quality video vignettes. "Apple of My Eye" is pleasant to watch in part because its relatively professional production values--carefully arranged camera perspective, suitable lighting, a sweeping musical score--just aren't going to make it to most amateur video. There was more gear involved than just an iPhone, too--a tripod for still shots and a camera dolly for moving shots, for example. And James said it took 14 hours to edit.
Do expect cinema to be changed, though, as Moore's Law collides with Hollywood. The Red cameras at the high end, Canon's 5D Mark II, 7D, and Rebel T2i in the middle, and the iPhone 4 at the low end--these sorts of digital tools will fuel innovation among the experimental crowd and likely draw fresh talent to the industry.
The spread of high-end technology to the mainstream is a broader trend than with just video. The high-quality photos a person can produce with a digital SLR and Photoshop opened the doors for the microstock photography business, letting part-time amateurs elbow in on professionals' turf. Junior-high-school rock bands can mix and dub music with tools better than professional studios had a generation earlier. And the Brushes app can turn an iPad into an artist's sketch tablet in a way a $2,000 Wacom Cintiq tethered to a computer never could.
Again, such tools are most impressive in the skilled, capable hands that most of us lack. But the spread of technology means more people will be able to learn, and the Internet means there's a place for the rest of us to find what they've done.
So, while you shouldn't hold out Oscar hopes for that video of your child blowing out the birthday candles, you should expect for some engaging new art.
This still from 'Apple of My Eye' shows a little bit of what it takes to record a higher-end video with an iPhone 4.
HTC EVO. You have removable 32 GB MicroSD cards to record all the video you want, and change them out in a matter of seconds.
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interesting, but if you wanna make a film, it’s ideal to use a camcorder. They make HD hi def version no bigger than a pack of cigarettes now. Editing is still better on a laptop or in my case a netbook.
Swordmaker..... Have you heard any reliable word on when/whether Apple is going to contract with Verizon?
I want an iPhone 4, but I would rather settle for a Droid X than change to at&t.
Soon, I hope, I've heard 2011 mentioned.
I'm not touching an iPhone, even to try it out, until they give me something other than AT&T. All I can get in this area is Verizon.
Ignoring for a moment the irrelevance of your comment to this thread (other than as a hijack attempt), is this the HTC EVO of which you speak?
Users Fume as Software Update Bricks Sprint EVO Phones ??
Posted as a FReep thread over here
EPIC! That is seriously funny...;)
Yep biggest laugh of the week for me! :o)
Try editing it in HD on the HTC EVO... especially after it was "bricked" by an over the air update today...
I used it today. The video was awesome. HOWEVER, the iphone4 has a huge problem and it constantly drops calls. My friend who showed it to me was really not happy and I don’t blame him.
How many people have had their phones bricked? Perhaps it is very few. Is it as many as who have problems with antennas on their iPhone 4s?
That's pretty funny. Dumb as a box of rocks, but funny. I can't believe I watched the whole thing... :)
Apparently the "semi-official" rumor is that Verizon will be getting the iPhone 4 in January... at least, according to Bloomberg Press. I, however, think that it won't happen until five years expire in June... when the original five year exclusive Cingular/AT&T agreement should expire.
Yeah I kiinda did a facepalm myself for watching the whole thing..twice..
Nor was I -- I was just tweakin' ya a little. No harm intended.
> How many people have had their phones bricked? Perhaps it is very few. Is it as many as who have problems with antennas on their iPhone 4s?
No idea.
I'm waiting to see how Apple/Jobs corrects the iPhone antenna issue. Seems to me they're going to have to come up with an "improved" design that solves the problem, and soon.
I wonder, since the issue only happens when a bare hand touches the bare metal, whether coating the metal with something non-conductive would be a workaround? It wouldn't affect the radio waves one bit, but it would keep the skin from contacting metal. Seems like an easy fix...
I've had a rubber skin on my 3G since the day I bought it and wouldn't have one without it. Does nothing to limit the functionality and sure helps when you drop it like I have...more than once!
Yeah, I've got a low-end cheap LG/Verizon phone (VX5500 series) that I love, but it slid out of my shirt pocked and landed in the driveway once too often, so for $5 I bought it a nice custom-fitted condom that keeps it from sliding around so much.
I can't believe Apple didn't coat the metal in the first place. Probably an aesthetic consideration, and in this case, the aesthetics caused an awful lot of bad press and unhappy customers.
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