Phone Movies

Before we left for Boston I decided I would use the trip to experiment with my new phone. It would be invaluable in getting us around the city. Knowing which T to take without wring our hands at posted maps was awesome. Besides being a map, it was my gaming buddy, got us around PAX and feed us, but I wanted it to make movies too. Like I've said, life in the future is good.

I decided I would capture and edit a short film about our trip. There would be lots to see and do and sharing those experiences through video is more appealing. We own a semi fancy HD camera that has a small body, but taking it in and out of a messenger bag the whole trip is a pain. Having the phone in my pocket to take out and record in an instant is a big draw. I've edited 5-6 movies on the computer in the last year. We are both comfortable with the process, so editing on the phone was really just for geeky curiosity.

The product of that experiment is going to end up in two parts, but you can view the first already. Experiment complete I can now reflect on the experience here. Capturing video with the phone can be a shaky affair naturally. Learning to stand with a good base, pace my breathing and holding the phone with a feather touch all helped. The quality was no where near what our HD cam can capture, but I didn't expect it to be. That is the trade off I am willing to make. Vertical video is out too, as it doesn't play nice with any player on the web. We are a horizontal society.

As for editing, the interface of iMovie is great. Cutting and cropping through gesture and touch work really well. The big issue is performance though. I shot everything in 5-15 second intervals. Opting for lots of jumps to try and share a lot of story. Around two plus minutes of edited video the app slowed to a crawl. Taking a second or more between each action. It is why I ultimately split the video into two days. Now that iMovie is a sunk cost though, it will be nice to have around to make quick edits to short video. I have tasted possibility and I like it. Given the current state though, my desktop will still have to do the heavy lifting for the foreseeable future.

With Phone

Years of plotting and scheming to get an iPhone in our home never bore fruit. My wife can see right through me when it comes to technology. My techno wants and desires usually change once a month anyway. So she adopted a strategy of waiting out my goldfish brain. As soon as he sees a new shiny, he will forget the old one.

It was effective, but I never got over the iPhone. I certainly had peaks and valleys, but it would come up once every six months without fail. Two now dead iPod Touches didn't quench my desire nor help my cause. How could I be expected to care for a more expensive phone if I left other devices out in the rain. I wouldn't trust me either.

Time passed though and technologies from the turn of the century finally caught up with my lovely bride. She started talking about the virtues of having a smartphone and specifically an iPhone. To check her Facebook on the road or get her email at the mall. Who was this woman? Not wanting to spoil a miracle from above, I just shook my head as if all of these ideas she was offering were new and wondrous to me.

I crossed my fingers near 10,000 times in the lead up to the announcement of the iPhone on Verizon. All of the rumors said it was a sure thing, but I wanted to do my part as well. All that superstition paid off when it was finally announced. Fast forward to February 10th, 2011 and we are the brand new owners of iPhone 4s. Finally out from under the thumbs of our parents phone plans (6 years in the making) and made real the technology I have coveted for so long.

Now a month of iPhone ownership under our collective belts and it is everything I dreamed. For my bride it is everything and more. Her not knowing she actually wanted one until three months ago. We are rolling deep in apps and games and burning through data faster than we are anytime minutes. Life is in the future is good.