Miami Device - Make Marvelous Movies

Miami Device, November 2014

Today it's possible to film, edit, and publish movies all on an iOS device. There’s no more importing video into a computer, and apps are making the process easier than ever! See a demonstration and examples of how to create excellent educational films by using a variety of iPhone and iPad apps to film, edit, enhance, and publish videos. Learn about tips and tricks for helping students memorize lines, improving sound quality, changing camera angles, improving lighting, and much more.  We’ll even produce a short film together!

Explorer Interview by 5th graders are examples of framing and changing camera angles. 

Recording in short clips and changing the camera angles has many benefits:

• Visually interesting
• Rarely zooms and pans
• Illusion of multiple cameras
• Shorter lines
• Script just off camera

Slowing down and turning video black and white can completely change the tone of a video. Use Video FX Live to film black and white video live and save to the Camera Roll. Convert video you already filmed to black and white using Chromic.

Character Counts Clips from Willowdale Elementary School uses the black and white technique to show non-exmaples.

Remember, your Camera Roll is an album in your Photo Library, which you can access using the Photos app. Many apps and import from and export to you Photo Library.

Want to add music you find on the web to iMovie? Install Documents 5 and open its Browser. You can click and hold a link to download an MP3 file. Then from the app’s Documents section, you can click the MP3 file and and click the Share icon in the top-right corner of the screen. Choose Open in… and select iMovie. iMovie will open and ask which project you’d like to copy the MP3 into. Find great royalty free music at incompetech.com/music. Be sure to give credit Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) if you use the music.

Don’t have iMovie? Splice is a great alternative. It’s an iPhone app that runs great on an iPad. It’s simpler than iMovie and fantastic for combining videos and photos from your Photo Library. You can add titles, transitions, and voiceovers. There’s even an option to change the speed of your clips.

A common filming mistake is fire hosing. Moving the camera quick from item to item can be too crazy to watch.

Using a tripod can steady your shots. Tony uses a ZipShot Instant Tripod because of how fast it is to set up.

Use a tripod to keep the camera in the same place so you can do appearing, disappearing, and transforming effects. 

Action Movie FX added movie-quality special effects to your clips.

Beware of backlighting! Try to have your light source in front of the actor, not behind.

Here’s Tony’s 60 second video about the importance of good audio in your movies. It was make using Adobe Voice for iPad.

The iRig Mic has a very long cord and can really help your sound. It’s made for iOS devices.

Don’t suffer from Vertical Video Syndrome! Watch the PSA (warning: crude humor).

Ensure that you always take vertical videos using the Horizon app.

Use Pic Collage to make movie titles and and images. Pic Collage does not support making your collages horizontally, but horizontal images look best in a video. You can arrange your work sideways in Pic Collage and export to Photo Library. View the image in the Photos app and click Edit and then Rotate. Save the image and it will look great in your video.

Students can upload videos to your Dropbox using Dropitto.me. You need to Dropbox account and then you link it with a page you get from Dropitto.me. Make the password simple so students can easily type it.

Here’s a great sampling of iMovie curriculum trailers. Download iMovie trailer storyboards to help make better trailers.

Want to do some green screen video on iPad? You can with Green Screen by Do Ink.

Videolicious enables you to make a video where you cut to other clips and photos very easily. The time limit is 60 seconds.

No go make marvelous movies!