Believe it or not, the iPhone Film Festival requires that your film be shot entirely with an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Many other contests make it very clear what the general restriction is for the contest, and while these confines won’t reach Android users, the work that iPhone users put in is exceptional. The real prize in any film festival is the screening of your film and being able to see those of your competitors. Prizes are still nice though, and so far, the iPhone Film Festival has awarded prizes that are valued less than $1,500, but the 2012 festival is scheduled for at least one prize at $2,000. A win here certainly offsets the cost of production, even a third place prize from the iPhone Film Festival equals the cost of an iPhone 4.

There is plenty of space for big film festival ideas if you want to push the limits to earn a win – the rules are simple and leave a lot of room for creativity. The categories are also fairly simple, including cinematography, documentary, feature, series, short film and  music video. There were five awards in each of the previous iPhone Film Festivals with cinematography and music video being the only separate categories – all other videos, feature, short, documentary, and animation competed for first, second and third. For the third iPhone Film Festival, the categories have been shuffled to join cinematography and documentary, then feature, short and series make up a second category, with music video holding up a third.  Ruben Kazantsev and Renata Rinyu are the founders of the festival and love to  focus on community. The festival is still quite young, and counting down to the appearance at MacWorld, and maybe next year’s winners will include an animated film or Siri.

If you have plans for your own entry,  Oct. 1 is the cutoff for IFF4.

It’s no secret camcorders are getting smarter with embedded metadata like geographic location tagging and even wicked fast face detection for super crisp shots! What about other cool features like instant language on-the-fly video translations? Enter Word Lens, a new iPhone app that translates between English and Spanish in real-time which is displayed on your iPhones video feed allowing you to read the world in your desired language!

We’re hearing a lot of buzz about the capabilities of the new iPhone.  I think it was fun that Steve Jobs, in his public release announcement, said, “stop me if you heard this…” in reference to the Gizmodo fiasco where Giz revealed the secrets of Job’s new toy before he was allowed to. But I was “wowed” by Job’s next announcement – that Gizmodo DIDN’T find one new revolutionary feature that Job’s did announce – FaceTime Video Chat. Job has big plans for the iphone video chat software, and will be shipping millions of the new iphones soon.

Since the 1930s and Dick Tracy‘s cool video wrist-phone, we’ve all waited for a portable live video phone that we could interact with friends and family and see them while they can watch us. We saw them on the Jetsons cartoons, Star Trek and an actual living example was revealed in the 1964 World’s Fair – but, alas, its glory was short-lived. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are like me or my sister, one of the first things you do when you wake up in the morning is turn your computer on. For me, it’s to check the weather for the day and to turn on music, for her it’s to check the news. This morning something was different; as I’m trying to multitask between making my bed and turning on music I hear “Apple has released its new iPhone 4!” Busy and slightly frustrated I mumble something sarcastic like, “Cool!” Thinking it’s not a big deal.

However, later on when I arrive at Videomaker I am informed that I will be writing my first blog (“Yikes!”). While trying to think of ideas for the blog, the buzz at Videomaker is on the release of the iPhone 4, what a coincidence! As soon as the words “iPhone 4” is mentioned a conversation instantly begins on the camera and editing capabilities available on the iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4 allows you to shoot HD video with the camera located on the back. If you run into a low-light setting, the illumination sensor, also located on the back, will help. There is also a VGA-quality camera, which is located on the front, in case you want to take a video of yourself.

The iPhone 4 also offers a tap focus feature that allows you to simply tap on the part of the screen where you want the camera to focus. Once you tap on the area it immediately focuses on that area and adjusts your exposure. Once you’re done simply tap on the next area you want to focus.

When you’re finished recording, you are ready to edit. However, there’s no need to whip out the laptop or wait until you get home, because the iPhone 4 now lets you use iMovie on the phone, utilizing the 960 x 640 resolution, with 326 pixels per inch on the 3.5-inch screen. After that, you can send your video to friends and family via MMS or send the video to YouTube. The iPhone also gives you the ability to sync the video that you have recorded and edited to your Mac or PC.

Now what does this mean for the video producing world, you may ask? It was pointed out to me that the iPhone has the potential to overtake the pocket video camera world. Meaning, you may see people start to trade in their pocket video cameras for the iPhone 4 which lets them record and edit all within the comfort of one highly portable device.

The iPhone 4 is available June 24^th but the pre-order starts June 15^th.

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Alicia McCoy is a student at Butte College majoring in Multimedia Design with an emphasis in Digital Audio and Video.

Storyboards are a valuable production tool, but creating them is such a pain. Why is it so hard? Well, filmmaking is hard, and when you storyboard you are essentially “writing” the visuals of your film. Many creative decisions come into play. You’re acting as director, director of photography, and editor all at once.  You’re deciding what shots, with what lens, and in what order tell your story best. No easy task. And when you can’t draw your way out of a paper bag (like me), spontaneity and creativity gets stifled. Wondering what that shot might look like from a bird’s eye view? Sure, just give me…20, 30 minutes or so. And I’m going to need a couple more erasers. Enter Storyboard Composer (frame left).

Storyboard Composer is a mobile storyboarding application for the iPhone. Instead of tediously drawing each panel, you use photos. This is a no-brainer for me. I’m already using my iPhone camera for location scouting. Now I can have a working storyboard before even leaving the location. The process is simple. Launch the app and import photos via your photo library or shoot photos straight from the camera. Each picture becomes a “panel” in your finished board. You can rearrange panels, set their duration, add characters (silhouettes), add markup arrows and text, record audio, keyframe pans and zooms. Wow. But by far the best feature of this app is that it gives you an animatic of your board. At any point you can hit play and see how your shots cut together, complete with recorded audio and camera moves. This is an invaluable feature for anyone storyboarding with time constraints (like a :30 commercial spot for example). When you’re finished, you can export the whole thing to a PDF and email it to the client or crew.

Reasons to buy Storyboard Composer:

• It’s Mobile. You never know when and where inspiration will strike.
• It’s intuitive. If you know how to work your iPhone, you can work this app. I love the tactile feel of positioning characters and rearranging panels.
• It’s cheap. If $20 is too much to spend on a tool that will likely enhance your creative process, well then maybe filmmaking isn’t your thing. Twenty bucks is how much I used to spend at Starbucks scribbling with a pencil for three hours trying to finish the shading on that upper lip.

A few things I’d love to see in the next version. An export-to-video feature so I can email myself the animatic. I don’t know how the guts of the iPhone work but I’m guessing this might be an OS limitation. Also, the ability to add a music bed would be sweet.

Here’s an example of a Storyboard Composer being turned into an actual spot. Check it:

This app is a valuable tool that every filmmaker should have. Do yourself, your productions, and your clients a favor and check it out.

Visit Cinemek.com for more juicy info on Storyboard Composer

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Jesse Rosten is a filmmaker and photographer currently based out of Northern California. He’s a fan of creativity in all its forms.

The number of cell phone produced videos hitting the web has increased significantly. While this is great and all, it has become painfully obvious that something needs to be done to improve the quality of these videos. Fortunately, that’s exactly what the OWLE bubo has set out to do.

The OWLE bubo is a camera mount built specifically for the iPhone 3GS, in attempt to increase the video capabilities already existing in the phone itself. Its features assist in improving picture, sound, and stability, while it’s ability to support third-party accessories promotes customization and versatility.

The Goods

Crafted from a single piece of solid aluminum with a smooth, black finish, the bubo feels good in the hands. It has a nice, sturdy weight without being too heavy or burdensome. Hand grips are located on either side of the body allowing for a more comfortable hold. The bubo comes with a silicon protective case for your iPhone, which holds your phone in the back of the bubo while you shoot. When you’re finished, a square cut-out located in the center of the aluminum body aides in releasing your phone from the bubo’s grip.

It’s hard not to notice the 37mm aluminum .45x wide-angle/macro combo lens positioned in the upper left corner of the device. The lens begs for attention and makes the bubo more than just a mount to grip. In addition, the lens is interchangeable with other 37mm threaded lenses.

The bubo supplies four ¼” threaded female mounts, one on each corner, for a vast array of tripod and accessory combinations. It also possesses a cold shoe mount for battery operated lights and additional microphones. The included VeriCorder Mini Mic is an omni-style microphone with a flexible arm that rotates 180-degrees enabling the user to point the mic towards the desired audio.

Out of the Box, and Into Our Hands

Putting the OWLE bubo to use is a fairly easy task. There are no batteries, no buttons, and no extensive instructional manuals to thumb through. All that is required of the user is to slip the iPhone into the protective casing and then into the back of the bubo, making sure both the iPhone and the bubo’s lenses match up.

Though this task is relatively easy, we did have to fidget with the protective case to keep it from covering the iPhone’s lens. There was also the issue of the phone’s power-off button being activated while trying to fit it into the back of the device. With a little practice this problem became easy to avoid. Despite the minor hiccups, putting the OWLE bubo into use was a snap and we were ready to test it in no time at all.

The Test

In our tests we compared video stability, picture and audio quality between the standalone iPhone and the OWLE bubo mounted iPhone.

The bubo won hands down in the stability test. Whether capturing a hand-held static shot, trucking shot or dolly shot the bubo’s added weight and hand grips allowed us to record a much steadier picture than with the iPhone alone. The hand grips also helped in keeping our fingers out of lens, which tended to be a problem with the standalone iPhone.

The VeriCorder Mini Mic is a nice addition to the overall device. The iPhone’s 1/8” jack made this mic easy to use, with the only required action being to plug it in. The addition of the mic increased the audio quality significantly. It was more robust than with the iPhone’s built-in mic, and dialogue levels were noticeably improved. The only drawback was the mic’s placement. Since the jack is located beneath the lens and in the middle of the left hand grip, it left us searching for a comfortable place to grasp the device.

The included 37mm wide-angle/macro combo lens was the frosting on the cake. Not only were we able to get almost twice the information in our wide-angle shots, we were able to capture an unmatched clarity in our extreme close-ups, as well. The bubo’s lens, without a doubt, is superior to the standard iPhone lens. The picture quality was equal to, if not better, when considering saturation and white balance.

The OWLE bubo Is No Pocket Cam

There’s no doubt about it, the bubo has some weight and it’s unlikely you’re going to get it to fit in your front pocket. However, if you shoot a good amount of video on your iPhone and you’re looking for a fun, easy-to-use gadget to improve the quality of your cell phone videos, the OWLE bubo does a great job. With the ability to add accessories and to use the iPhone’s plethora of camera apps, there’s no telling what you’ll be able to capture.

Specifications

Lens: 37mm aluminum .45x wide-angle/macro combo lens

Mic: Omni-style VeriCorder Mini Mic, with a 180-degree rotating arm

Accessory Shoe: Cold shoe

Threaded Mounts: Four 1/4” female mounts

Pros:

• Increased picture and sound quality
• Improved stability for smooth shooting
• Supports third-party accessories and iPhone apps

Cons:

• Some images have distortion due to the wide-angle lens
• Mic placement
• For the iPhone only

Owle bubo

www.wantowle.com

MSRP: $130

Summary:

The OWLE bubo provides the iPhone’s camera with stability, versatility and increased picture and sound quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_WsG5FqRcg

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Julie Babcock is one of Videomaker’s Associate Multimedia Editors.