It’s time to don your artsy beret and direct your masterpiece. You don’t need all the fancy high-end equipment of professional studies to produce high-quality video. Really, all you need is a great smartphone and a few accessories.
1. The Right Phone
Image via Flickr by John Karakatsanis
Is it time to upgrade and you want to search for a phone to fill your video-making needs? Of course, you might already have a great phone for videography in your pocket. iPhones are capable of shooting high-quality 1080p HD video. They also feature software for image stabilization, so people who view your videos won’t be left wondering if an earthquake was happening.
There are also attachments available for iPhones that are not typically available for other models, including a variety of external lenses.
If you prefer to use a device with the Android operating system, consider the 2013 HTC phones, which feature spectacular HD cameras. Like iPhones, HTC phones have image stabilization software, which the HTC website says makes for videos that are “stable and a joy to watch.” You can also watch your videos in slow motion, so you don’t miss one beat of the action.
2. The Right Lighting
No matter how good the camera on your phone is, a video is generally only as good as the lighting in which the shooting took place. You know the basic principles of lighting. You need enough light, and not too much light behind your subject. When you are indoors, you can manipulate those things. When your shooting happens outside, the sun presents a new challenge. The Golden Light app will let you know the time of day that is best for shooting.
Lighting Designer is an iPad app for those truly serious about their mobile movie production. It serves as a tool for you to design lighting for your production. Choose the types of lights and their positions, create a floor plan, and communicate the set up to the crew who is helping with your video-making.
3. Tools for Editing
You need reliable apps to refine your videos. Videolicious lets you apply different filters and add music, and it includes basic video editing functions. It also lets you put your logo at the end and beginning of a film. You can even add voice-overs and narration to your productions. The product is a professional-looking video you will be proud of.
Clesh is another nifty video-editing tool. It is a cloud-based program, so it goes beyond your mobile device and lets you make easy use of the power and larger screen of a desktop computer. This Android-based app will delight anyone who wants to produce quality videos at an efficient pace.
The Pinnacle Studio for iPad app does more than help you edit. It is with you through the entire movie-making process. Start a project with a storyboard and build your project from there.
If you are putting together some videos for work, like to tell stories, or just want a fun video to share at your next family reunion, the right accessories will turn your mobile device into a movie-making powerhouse.
Developers working on apps for Google Glass have been informed they will not be allowed to place ads within the device’s display.
The newly-published terms and conditions for developers working on Google Glass also prohibit companies charging for apps.
The smart glasses, which have a five megapixel camera and voice-activated controls, have started to be shipped.
The first devices will go to developers and “Glass Explorers”.
Google held a competition earlier this year inviting potential users to come up with ways to use the device, while developers have been eager to be among the first to try out the technology.
Developers working on apps for Google Glass have been informed they will not be allowed to place ads within the device’s display
As part of the announcement, Google also gave the first official details of the device’s specifications.
The bone conduction transducer allows the wearer to hear audio without the need for in-ear headphones – sound waves are instead delivered through the user’s cheekbones and into the inner ear.
Google promises a battery lasting for “one full day of typical use”.
Google Glass display is the equivalent, the company says, of looking at a 25 in (63 cm) high-definition screen from eight feet away. The device is able to record video at a resolution of 720p.
It has 16GB on-board storage, and connects with other mobile devices via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
To date, it is privacy groups that have offered the strongest dissenting view against Google’s plans with Glass.
One campaigner from a group called Stop The Cyborgs, wrote “We want people to actively set social and physical bounds around the use of technologies and not just fatalistically accept the direction technology is heading in.”
He predicted that the focus of coverage about the device would shift from talking about the “amazing new gadget that will improve the world” to “the most controversial device in history”.
For developers, that controversy could begin with wondering how exactly they will be able to make money from the device.
Also keeping an eye on the excitement generated by Google will be Japanese firm Telepathy Inc.
Their device, the Telepathy One, has been touted as a possible competitor to Google Glass.
Chinese search giant Baidu has also confirmed it is working on a Glass-like project – but details are so far scant.
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Facebook has admitted that teenagers are becoming bored with the social networking giant.
Facing competition from younger, more agile and “cooler” apps such as Snapchat and Instagram, Facebook fears its long-term business could be harmed.
And as Facebook approaches its tenth anniversary the firm published its annual 10-K report last month revealing that its younger users are increasingly turning away from the multi-billion dollar business.
Published last month, Facebook annual report states: “We believe that some of our users, particularly our younger users, are aware of and actively engaging with other products and services similar to, or as a substitute for, Facebook.
“For example, we believe that some of our users have reduced their engagement with Facebook in favor of increased engagement with other products and services such as Instagram.
“In the event that our users increasingly engage with other products and services, we may experience a decline in user engagement and our business could be harmed.”
The sobering admission that they need to sharpen their public image comes as Facebook Director of Product Blake Ross announced in scathing terms why he was leaving the social networking powerhouse.
“I’m leaving because a Forbes writer asked his son’s best friend Todd if Facebook was still cool and the friend said no, and plus none of HIS friends think so either even Leila who used to love it, and this journalism made me reconsider the long-term viability of the company.”
Facing competition from younger, more agile and “cooler” apps such as Snapchat and Instagram, Facebook fears its long-term business could be harmed
Maybe because of the seriousness of his jesting post, Blake Ross pulled the message from his Facebook page.
However, it did not divert from the fact that teenagers are very often a plausible, but non-scientific barometer for trends – especially what is cool and what is not.
Indeed, the founder and of new social networking site Branch, Josh Miller, asked his 15-year-old sister for her opinion on Facebook.
Her verdict was damning.
“She tries to visit Facebook as infrequently as possible,” Josh Miller wrote, because it’s addictive, and because it’s not as fun as Instagram.
“Facebook may have an irreversibly bad brand,” Josh Miller concluded.
Web-expert, Laura Portwood-Stacer was more concise in her opinion of how Facebook relates to today’s teenagers.
“I think it has less to do with kids consciously looking for <<the next big thing>> than Facebook just no longer being a space that serves them,” said Laura Portwood-Stacer.
“I think kids are less self-conscious about trying to be cool than marketers would like to think,” she added.
Teenagers are turning to sites like Tumblr and apps like Snapchat and Instagram as their preferred methods of communication.
“Tumblr is mainly my obsession as of now,” said 15-year-old Collin Wisniewski to The Verge.
“It just seems more intimate and it’s not really a place of bragging, but more of a place of sharing.”
Apps such as Snapchat give power to younger users who do not like the idea of their images existing forever and tagged on Facebook,
“I would say that this app really is one of my major communicating devices more than really a social network,” said Collin Wisniewski.
However, this does not mean that teens are leaving Facebook similar in manner to the demise of MySpace.
They are simply using the service less and other newer products more.
And, of course, monetarily, Facebook owns Instagram and is still at the forefront of mobile device apps.
