Comments 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.