Thursday, March 3, 2011

iMovie on iPad2

I'm on the road going from location to location for a documentary...as a passenger, and they won't let me drive!

All I've seen for the past 4 hours.
I could have made a documentary on telephone polls from my window seat here if it weren't for the fact that there's a surprising lack of diversity among them. Anyways…

In the Mystery Machine here (which is what I call the crew transport because the Producer told me to stop "audibly calling it the Rebel Transport and/or Honeywagon" (direct quote, btw) and because where we're going each shiny new day is a complete mystery to me) I've been doing roughs (rough cuts) of the previous day's footage to show the director. Which doesn't make sense since we can't go back to the previous location anyways. Anyways…

iMovie's been on the iPhone but now theres a bit in the most recent keynote where iMovie is demoed on the iPad2 and it's actually very interesting. Reverse-pinch (seriously, no one has come up with a better term? Unpinch? PullApart? Lot? Reave?) to move into "Precision editing" mode which while cool and necessary and everything, really seems more like a way to overcome the small screen and lack of precision cursor (your finger) control.


Can you frame-advance? Does it support TimeCode?

What I'm wondering is how and if you can get video into iMovie on iPad2 that's not shot by the iPad2 itself. Maybe you can iTunes it over, I dunno. (iTunes = verb) I'll know after mine gets here I guess.

UPDATE: I'm being told you can import footage from your Mac for use in iMovie on iPad2.

Handling of still images gets some tweaks but while there's the Ken Burns effect there's still no Jack Cole effect.

iMovie for iPad2 outputs to a few formats that can be pretty client-handy, which is nice; heck, even CNN iReport. (Rogue gorilla film crew kidnaps handsome and helpless editor!) I suspect I'll be seeing iPad2s with iMovie along with the requisite iPhones with iMovie (and seemingly endless parade of Flip cameras) on corporate shoots where the client (or their "Social Engineer" which is a glorified name for someone who gets highly paid to post stuff to Facebook on a companies behalf) makes a behind-the-scene video to show their friends (competition) then offers it to me 'in case there are any shots I may have missed.'

Really.

Didn't Social Engineering mean something else just a few months ago?

Btw, if anyone on a set mentions that their phone shoots HD "as well" meaning like the main camera we're using, I will hide that phone behind their car tire for them. (Hope you find it before you leave!)

While mirrored video output will be pretty helpful showing roughs to clients one of the best things about Sharing The Drama may be having one on set and doing a rough edit right there, in-hand, along side the "this is the big boy's camera, you don't touch" camera.

I'm still recommending clients steer clear of iMovie (to save my own wallet) and because of it's posterization issues.

Other things I'm wondering about concerning the iPad2: Camera resolution, memory and despite Steve Job's email about it being "on the way" there seems to still be no wireless syncing.

I am so bored.

2 comments:

jwengwell said...

Just what I was thinking - how do you get footage onto the thing. Or to be more specific - Can you get video onto the ipad without a. Using a computer or b. Using the only the on board cameras.

So I type a question and arrive at your site and you are thinking the same thing, so I type out this comment using an old fashioned laptop.

We are looking to do primary school media training, and ideal mix would be shooting with Flip cameras or iTouches. Then have the kids make their films using iMovie on the iPad, but if you have to add syncing and iTunes into the mix then eerrghh! it suddenly becomes ugly.

Thoughts please : )

Walker Ferox said...

As far as I know, until I get mine in the next few days and confirm, the only ways to get footage on an iPad2 are using the built-in cameras and loading in (some specific formats I'm sure) footage via an iTunes sync.

Now, there will be some apps -some are already appearing- that allow you to work with footage stored on an iPad2 that wasn't synced via iTunes but was brought over via a computer and sync cable.

My best guess for right now is to look into this potential workflow:

1. Get your iPad2 and iMovie all set up.
2. Buy the Camera Connection Kit from Apple
BECAUSE...

"The iPad Camera Connection Kit gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera: using your camera’s USB cable or directly from an SD card. iPad and the Camera Connection Kit support standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW, along with SD and HD video formats, including H.264 and MPEG-4."

3. So , in theory, you could have a camera that shoots H.264 or MPEG-4 onto SD cards and then plug that SD card into the connection kit and then load that footage directly into the iPad2's iMovie.

Not 100% sure this will work but it would be very worth trying.

Hope it helps!