Comments for Jeremy's Blog

Comment on Making Movies on the iPhone 4 by Sina

Sina — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:09:41 +0000

Seriously, I definitely do not thrive on the idea carrying a movie making studio in my pocket. It’s just a nice gadget. It is more likely that people underestimate the effort that needs to go into making a film, if their first contact of video editing software is iMovie on an iPhone. You have to take you rose-tinted, apple-shaped glasses off. I can’t see the future David Lynch emerging as a direct result of Apple putting iMovie on their iPhone (maybe a future Mike Figgis though, which would be good indeed). And sorry for pointing this out, but your discovery of iMovie in 1999 hasn’t turned you into a brilliant film director either. To turn up the geek level a notch – i started editing in 1997 on Avid (6 GB external hard drives!). Avid is the pro, the serious stuff, the one to use – hasn’t turned me into a brilliant film director or editor at all. It is not the technology that makes people do great things. It’s their mindset. Apple’s iMovie on the iPhone is just another way for them to make money. That’s all.

Comment on Making Movies on the iPhone 4 by Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:16:15 +0000

Me over-hyping Apple kit? Never!

Seriously though, if it hadn’t been for me discovering iMovie back in 1999, I’m not sure that I would have developed my interest in digital video editing and if iMovie on the iPhone turns a few people on to making movies then I’m all for it. Who knows which brilliant film directors of the future might develop their initial interest in this way? If it makes the medium accessible to a wider range of people then I think it is almost certainly a good thing. That’s not to say that we won’t have to put up with a lot of poorly shot and edited movies, in the same way that the desktop publishing revolution led to a lot of dire amateur print publications. But are you telling me that you don’t like the idea of carrying a movie making studio in your pocket? You’re kidding, right?

Comment on Making Movies on the iPhone 4 by Sina

Sina — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:32:36 +0000

Interesting, but a little bit too glorifying. We need to be very careful what we are getting excited about here. I very much doubt that iMovie on the iPhone 4 is a significant development in video editing. Because it is not the technology that makes people turn into great video makers / editors, but the mindset. The people that made the little short video you posted here clearly understand video making. So they just use a new technology for the same classical approach of making a video. This is pre-planned and thoroughly thought through. Yet the iPhone 4 might give the impression that video making is just an ad-hoc exercise as it is so easy to press the record button and then edit something together. This is not so significant, yet I am worried that iMovie on the iPhone could do to video making what Word has done to essay writing. There is the tendency to start up the equipment a lot earlier and therefore reduce the research and planning time to a minimum. What is better: to make a video “on-to-go” on an iPhone 4 or to make a good video? We are putting too much emphasis on what we are using for video editing, but it is not the software or hardware that determines how good the outcome is. It is skill and hard work and time spent on it. This goes for essay writing as well as video making. The technology might be new, but the essentials have not changed.

Comment on Making Movies on the iPhone 4 by Matt P

Matt P — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:05:25 +0000

Must download iMovie and give it a go. Perhaps I’ll be the new Antonioni. Or perhaps not.

Comment on Making Movies on the iPhone 4 by Keith

Keith — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:36:26 +0000

Thanks for this Jeremy…fascinating and as you point out it is remarkable how far the technology has come. What I love is the physical simplicity of it. I like the way the iPhone easily slots into the gaps on the train enabling the shots from onboard; it wouldn’t be so easy with a standard DV camera to set this up. What other shots are out there waiting I wonder? I hope you get some other examples here on the blog. Will be good to see how people exploit the technology.

Comment on Mediator 9: The Basics by Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:04:10 +0000

I’ve started work on a new screencast that explains this and more stuff relating to drag & drop. I’ve already made up some demo pages which I will be uploading along with the screencast. Just bear with me and I’ll try to get the screencast up within the next week or so. This one takes a bit more time to make as the concepts are a little trickier to explain and I want to make sure that it is really clear and easy to follow.

I’m definitely going to look into setting up some kind of Mediator forum/user group – and I have some ideas about making this part of a broader online forum for folks who have an interest in both learning and technology. Watch this space!

Comment on Mediator 9: The Basics by Curtis Nelson

Curtis Nelson — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:50:01 +0000

Thanks! I’ll try that! How would that work to return an object to its original position if an incorrect choice was made?

A Mediator (unofficial) community forum would be fanatastic!! Let’s pool our knowledge, discoveries, and experiences!

Comment on OmniFocus v Things by James

James — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:05:50 +0000

Hello there,
I’d like to give my opinion in both programs as I’ve been using them to organize job things from the one side and college courses from the other.
At first, as most of the people I know using it, I fell in love with Things and I didn’t like Omnifocus. It had a better interface, menus, better coloring but that’s really only the surface. After a while as I typed everything I wanted, I couldn’t do anything more, and don’t get me wrong here: all I want to say is that Things after a while seemed like a really good notes application (kinda like a mix of built-in dashboard notes and ical).
Omnifocus on the other hand was totally different. Not so good interface (still I believe that this is omnigroup should work on (It strongly remind me of boring windows applications -sorry about that) but deeply it was really what I was looking for. Everything was much easier: from sync as Jeremy said to file attachment even deleting something was easier (It took me half hour to understand how deleting worked on Things).
I don’t want provoke any reaction towards Things I still think of it as a very nice app but I think that OmniFocus is a professional app that even though it takes a little longer to learn is much better at the moment.

Just an idea though for developers: although very nice both apps I think it’d be better to introduce to the apps various ‘modes’. Like different when you want to make a job plan (I think both apps are leading there) different when you want to make a study plan (like assignment planner) etc.

Comment on Mediator 9: The Basics by Jeremy

Jeremy — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 09:05:28 +0000

Advanced Drag & Drop screencast to follow soon, I hope. In the meantime you could try using a series of ‘nested’ IF actions. For example…

IF x=1 THEN do y ELSE IF x=2 THEN do z etc…

Hope this is enough to get you started.

The eBook sounds great. It seems to me that exploiting multimedia technologies for teaching and learning purposes is the right way to go. What is perhaps even better is getting the kids to make their own multimedia and tools like Mediator make that very achievable.

I’m looking into the possibility of setting up an unofficial Mediator community forum where folks can post questions and solutions. In the meantime, keep the comments coming.

Comment on Mediator 9: The Basics by Curtis Nelson

Curtis Nelson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:55:16 +0000

Thanks, that seems to solve some of the problem!

On the “hide” action, is that embedded in the events of the object or of the target? If target, how does it differentiate which object to hide?

An Advanced Drag & Drop screencast would be great!

Btw, I use Mediator to create an interactive Etext on American Popular Music History – one of the classes I teach at college. The final product is used like a “book” except that it is interactive with video, audio and self-grading practice tests. Mediator is a great program, even with a few limitations.

Thanks for your help.