Last March I took part in Bath Spa University's 'Social Media Experiment' coverage of X Media Lab Conference in Bath using Social Media. X Media Lab Bath 2012 presented a great opportunity for Bath Spa University’s staff and students. A live, high-profile digital media event right on our doorstep. Event directors, Brendan Harkin and Megan Elliot, offered us a project that would enable students to use their media creation and publishing skills. I would support the students as Producer, helping them provide a variety of video coverage of the event. We went on to produce 3 'quick turnaround' videos. One shot during the VIP event launch at the Roman baths (Thursday).
One at the end of the main conference day (Friday).
One at the end of the mentoring weekend (Monday)
Later over the summer we produced a final 'overview' edit using all the material.
The footage was shot on Sony Z1 DV (tape) based cameras with some further material from Canon 7D. It was a relatively slow and traditional process of ingesting, logging and capturing and editing. The 'quick turnaround' wasn't bad but it wasn't actually very quick.
Today the Social Media Experiment was covering the ExPlay 12 event in Bath. This time I decided to restrict the video team to iPhone. How did we do? How would it compare?
The quickest turnaround is 'one step' publishing. We shot very short 'video bites'. Then with no editing uploaded to YouTube and then Tweeted the link. It worked but, perhaps having become used to having the ability to edit, I felt that the bites needed 'top 'n' tailing' - trimming, to tidy them up. The uploading and tweeting workflow wasn't smooth. Shot in Filmic Pro - uploaded to YouTube - tweeted. All the detail and hashtags were entered twice without a keyboard.
'Two step' publishing was easier in someways. Shoot on phone. Transfer via USB lead and Image Capture. Trim in QuickTime. Upload to YouTube. Tweet from YouTube. Naturally we needed a laptop. But the whole kit we used filled one shoulder bag. YouTube does take a while - not long but worth noting. Sadly when you tweet from YouTube the description doesn't automatically populate the tweet. Which would have been neat and sweet!
The iPhone worked quite well - a 4s. Problems with focus 'bubbling' and exposure meant that we used Filmic Pro which allows the frame rate to be set along with the focus point and the exposure. We also had a small LED light (TecPro 'Fillini') which worked really well and made a huge difference to the quality of the image. However the video quality wasn't high - not sure why we set it so low. The interview eyelines were difficult to bring around enough. Shooting video runs the batteries down quickly and we had to re charge at lunch time. It's awkward to hold, so some sort of grip would have been a good idea. Certainly a monopod would have helped. Even without support, the videos were shake-free as a result of the image stabilisation in the app. I had slight concerns that Interviewees wouldn't take us seriously with the iPhone - but this wasn't an problem. None were surprised. We used a shotgun mic (K6+ME66) with the phone - the built in mic would rarely have worked in the noise. I made the lead by following this tutorial.
We started at about 11am and finished about 4pm. All 15 of the video bites were up and tweeted by a leisurely 6pm. As well as tweeting them individually they were playlisted in YouTube as and drawn into Storify.
Lessons learnt? Don't leave home with a decent mic and portable light. Downloading the clips via USB and trimming in a laptop is the most sensible route to go. Maybe it might work better with an iPad and editing in iMovie. Tomorrow we'll give it a go. I have my doubts about the ergonomics of shooting with the iPad and Filmic Pro is not full screen on the iPad. But it will be interesting to compare with today's experience.
