Qik Video Camera Pro

Qik is one of the most popular, and easy to use applications for mobile devices. The app has numerous uses from a journalistic standpoint as well as in your everyday life. For example, if you are hanging out at a local venue and you run across an interesting performer of some sort you can take a video and upload it to Qik right then and there. It’s the same for performers that have family and friends that can’t see their show. Just tell people when and where to go to see it broadcast. In terms of journalistic value, this application can be used for breaking news. Not by newsrooms, but a free lance journalist could be the first to get footage of a breaking news story in the field. That footage could then be picked up by stations in order to tell the public what’s going on.

It is incredibly useful for vloggers. While you are filming video for a blog a person watching can send you comments that appear in your screen, which you can then respond to right then in the video. It’s just an interesting concept and allows for a more open discussion with your followers. It opens up so many more doors than simply having a comments box under a blog post or video.

Qik even has the ability to save your videos if, for some reason, you lose your signal. As soon as you regain Internet access the videos are uploaded without anything getting lost. The application offers many effects like frosted glass and black and white. It’s one of the fastest ways to upload to Facebook and YouTube, as well as many popular blog hosts and Twitter. The render time isn’t long so you have a little less frustration.

Right now there’s no way to edit your videos, so what you record is what you get. That means be careful. Don’t say anything you would need to edit out then.

UStream Recorder and Broadcaster

There are two different UStream applications. One is UStream Recorder and the other is UStream Broadcaster. The differences between the two are pretty self-explanatory. Both have their own uses that would benefit you in different situations.

The UStream Recorder is a good tool - it’s easy to upload videos that are in your camera roll. You can also record a video in the application but you have to be careful. If you don’t hold it the correct way the video may end up side ways or upside down when you upload it. This can happen with the camera roll videos as well. Overall, it doesn’t take long to upload to UStream and it has similar qualities to Qik. I happen to like Qik a little more. UStream is a bit laggy sometimes and the videos come out dark if you don’t have excellent lighting.

Now, UStream Broadcaster allows you to see people tweeting at you while you’re actually broadcasting live. Some people find that distracting, but it’s an interesting concept. Say you’re filming a vlog or a show; you can answer those tweets as they come up on your screen. It would be incredibly useful to cover a concert or performance. If you alert people before the actual event they can tune in and watch as you stream it. This can be a little laggy as well. As technology improves I’m sure this will stop being such a problem.

You can’t edit these videos either. So again, be careful with what you say when you’re streaming live, or if you want to upload the videos. Technically you could just edit the video in a different application, save it to your camera roll and upload it from there. That’s always an option.

To see UStream in action, check out Jennifer's election day coverage post.

Mobile Tripod

First of all, any tripod is leaps and bounds better than holding the phone steady. Your hands are not steady enough, no matter how calm or relaxed your muscles are. If you are using the mobile phone to live stream an event, you absolutely need a tripod so the characters (and not the background) are the only things that need to be refreshed. Clarity is much better and your audience doesn't feel seasick.

Brando's Mobile Tripod is a fairly good mobile tripod. You can separate the legs as you like and you can adjust the pivoting head, but it is pretty limited compared to the Gorilla Pod (which can be wrapped around fences, limbs, etc...). The portion that holds the phone has foam and adjusts to many different phones, which is very good - not everyone has an iPhone. I would recommend this device if you are looking for a small, cheap tripod (it is only $10.00, compared to $29.95 for the Gorrilapod). If only the legs were longer or moldable, because the price sure is right.

Video Review: Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard

Both versions of the video were shot using an iPhone 4, a Z-grip, a wireless mic and a tripod. They were edited using VeriCorder's 1stVideo application.

The first video was edited standardly, but for the second I tried to add in some B-roll. To do this in 1stVideo I had to edit the clip how I wanted it and then export just the audio from the piece. Then, I opened another project, and added both the video and audio components, plus a piece of B-roll. Since you cannot separate the audio from the video track in VeriCorder (or in any mobile editing application that I have found), it was very tricky to line up the video and the audio after the B-roll. It took a long time and I wouldn't recommend it, but I wanted to try. Since the audio is essentially heard twice in the second version (once in the video and once in the audio), it made the background whirring noise doubly loud.

Bluetooth Mobile Keyboards from Jennifer Elston on Vimeo.

I used Vimeo for one, but YouTube for the other due to free Vimeo's restriction of only one HD video per week.

iMovie

I’ve used iMovie multiple times for various videos and I’ve found that it works best as a tool to put together clips in a string, and that’s about it. I am a big fan of the application, it’s easy to use, doesn’t glitch, and exports quickly to your Camera Roll. It’s incredibly easy to get off of your iPhone when linked to your computer and simple enough to upload to whichever video site you want.

The issue is you can’t do voiceovers like a conventional news story because there’s no multitrack editing. You would need to time your clips and voiceover separately, which would really defeat the purpose of mobile journalism. So if you are doing breaking news and film a standup of yourself at the site and then edit different b-roll with an interview clip, that would be your story. No voiceovers, trust me. You can’t actually control the volume of the sound, which can get unfortunate if your video was taken from too far away and without a stick mic.

iTimelapse Pro

iTimelapse is an interesting animal. We weren’t sure whether to categorize it as a video editing or photo editing software. What we DO know is that it does exactly what you would expect a time-lapse application to do, and it makes it pretty easy. You can click a couple buttons, set the camera up, and let it go.

Once you let it go, though, you run into the normal problems. You need a tripod to really use this application to its fullest extent. You could conceivably hold it in your hand and take pictures, but after taking pictures every 3 seconds, I needed at least 5 minutes of capturing before I had enough material to make a 10 second video. Long story short, you can either skip the tripod and wear your arms out, or you can invest in a little tripod and have some nice pictures.

Once you’re done, there aren’t that many options, so it is both simple and frustrating. On the one hand, to render it into a movie is really, really easy. But you also have very little control. You can’t re-order or adjust your pictures in any way. You can designate resolution size and frames per second, but you can’t, for instance, designate a set amount of time and then have it fill that amount evenly with the pictures you’ve taken. They also thoughtfully provided you with a few music tracks to lay over your video, but you better really like the ones they give you, because uploading from iTunes is not a possibility with this application.

Update: 10.10.10

Here is one of my loosely edited videos for One Day on Earth. I also updated several photos and some raw video footage from October 10, 2010. You can check out my account here: http://www.onedayonearth.org/profile/JenniferElston or on my Vimeo account.

Boring, Yet Beautiful Mid-Missouri from Jennifer Elston on Vimeo This is my video for One Day on Earth to help document the world's story on October 10, 2010 (10.10.10). I pictured all of the clips going along to Sufjan Stevens' song 'Chicago.'

It is loosely edited so in the off chance that One Day on Earth actually uses my footage, they can pull from longer clips because in the disclaimer, it states that they probably won't keep your edited piece together. I really didn't have anything of interest happening to me on 10.10.10. I was just out enjoying the nice fall weather, etc... A lot of the other submissions show poverty, starvation, birth and death. My piece seems so insignificant when discussing those issues.

Review: 1stVideo

So, I've pretty much just been working with the 1st video application in one way or another so far, and I have to say, it's a surprising app that takes a little getting used to.

Now, at first, it seemed like an incredibly time consuming process. I assumed I would need to go clip by clip and trim them all before I could drop them into a timeline. This was my fault for not understanding how the application works. I'm sure it probably saved me a little time in the REAL editing phase, but it doubled my clips and took about an hour before I even so a timeline, at which point I commenced to cut and clip things without regard for my earlier trimming. Once you start a new project, though, this baby shines.

The video editing section of 1st Video just WORKS. My fingers are a little big, so sometimes it got frustrating trying to snag the indicator, but once I got the hang of it I was zooming. Plus, the feature where you can tap the screen with two fingers to enter into a menu of abilities, chief among these being copy, paste and cut was a godsend. It was intuitive, worked where I needed it to, and didn't bite back too many times. I say too many times because I found myself cursing after five minutes of getting exactly the right selection, only to skip the drag and drop stop and insert the entire clip into my timeline. Aligning sound was also a cinch, although something weird was going on with my leveling. Still, I took to it with the attitude that, if I repeated my command enough times, the program would eventually become agreeable. A little tyrannical, maybe, but overall effective.

Review: ReelDirector

ReelDirector: Manufacturer - Nexvio’s ($3.99) for 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4 & iPad

There are a lot of reasons why this video editing application is not on par with traditional video editing, but it is not all bad. The main problem I found with ReelDirector was the extensive amounts of time it takes to perform a task. When selecting a video clip to add to your movie, it must compress, which ranges from fairly fast to a few minutes. To view the piece as a whole (and not just individual clips), you must render the video which takes anywhere from 5-22 minutes for a 2 minute finished product. This defeats the purpose of mobile journalism. Mobile journalism should be fast and easily edited for the web.

Another reason applications such as 1stVideo and iMovie, as well as traditional film editing tools, blow ReelDirector out of the water is the should-be simple action of cutting clips. You cannot watch the clip while editing – you have to just guesstimate and hope that you didn’t cut off something important. I was forced to memorize the raw videos and look for visual cues.