Tag Archives: iPad

LumaFusion (2019) Tutorial: Video Editing on iPhone & iPad

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In this tutorial series, learn how to edit your videos on iPhone or iPad using LumaFusion 2019. In Part 1, I introduce the workspace and show how to trim clips and begin building your video. In Part 2, I cover various adjustments such as creating cutaways and picture in picture, modifying the audio, and adding text titles and transitions. These basics will get you started editing video like a professional.

I found the LumaFusion app to be fairly easy to navigate, and it worked well with the touchscreen on my iPhone. Although sometimes I found it difficult to see some elements in the timeline (e.g., transitions), I was able to make them larger by expanding the view (using the pinch-zoom gesture). (This would be less of a problem on an iPad.)

The various framing tools allow quick resizing and positioning of a video clip or photo.The ability to use multiple tracks is a big plus. I also like the advanced text titles tool, which lets you select font style, size, and color, along with other options such as outlining and opacity. Additionally useful are the galleries of presets, which allow you to quickly make routine adjustments. Although not covered in my tutorial, you can create custom presets and save them to a gallery for repeated use. Overall, the app seems to be well designed and has few glitches.

How to Make a Book Trailer: Part One

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clapper_klmckeeA hot trend in publishing these days is to make a media trailer to call attention to a book and its author. Whether you are an educator who’s written a textbook or a novelist, you may be considering a book trailer to reach a wider audience.

First off, what is a book trailer? A book trailer is a video that briefly summarizes what the book is about and what the reader will get out of it. Most people are familiar with movie trailers, which are used to advertise films. A movie trailer is typically composed of clips from the full-length film, which are strung together to give a preview of what the movie is all about. The whole point is to stimulate people’s interest and encourage them to go see the movie. A book trailer is very similar, except that it is advertising a written document instead of a cinematic product.

Why would an author need a book trailer? As a recently published author, I am aware of how difficult it is to get a book onto the radar of potential readers. A book trailer can be a very effective way to promote a book, along with all the traditional approaches of book marketing. A growing number of people are searching for information in the form of video. The public is already primed for visual advertisements such as movie trailers; so a book trailer is a form of advertisement that is readily understood by the public. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it can be expensive to hire someone to create a trailer for your book. Your publisher may not be willing to cover that cost, or you may be self-published and cannot afford it.

So what do you do?

Well, you can consider creating the book trailer yourself. It was a no-brainer for me to create a book trailer to advertise my ebook on how to make science videos. As I explain in my book, how we communicate has changed radically in the past few years, and having multimedia skills, such as videography, opens a whole new world of opportunity for anyone whose livelihood depends on getting a message out to end-users. In the past, one needed a trained film crew to make a video, but today we have inexpensive equipment that can capture high-definition images (even an iPhone can record 1080p video), powerful movie editing software that is cheap and easy to use (apps for mobile devices cost less than $10.00 US), and free video-sharing sites that make it easy to show your movie trailer to the world.

In this series of posts, I explain the process I went through to create a book trailer for The Scientist Videographer and then provide a tutorial to show an easy way to make one yourself with an iPad (or other mobile device).

Step One: Study Examples of Trailers. Watch a few book trailers and study what makes them effective and what aspects detract (ask yourself which parts make you want to buy the book and which ones turn you off). You want to peruse book trailers that advertise books in a variety of categories but especially those in your specific specialty. You want to know how the top sellers in your book category are structuring their trailers so that you can better decide whether to go along with the crowd or make a trailer that sets you apart from your competitors. By watching a variety of trailers for other types of books, you may get some good ideas for your particular book that will make it seem unique to potential readers. Oh, and you might also want to watch a few movie trailers as well. Hollywood has been successfully selling movies for decades; so you may pick up some good pointers from the experts.

Here are a few sites where you can watch some book trailers (and movie trailers). Note that I’m not saying these are good or bad examples, just examples to study:

http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/

http://www.quirkbooks.com/stuff-categories/book-trailers

https://www.pinterest.com/librarygerbils/book-trailers/  (you have to follow the links to YouTube to watch the videos)

http://www.imdb.com/

In the next post, I will explain step two: Hone your story.

 

How to Make a Science Video with Videolicious and Your iPhone

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In this post, I show how easy it is to shoot and edit a science video entirely with your smartphone.  With an easy-to-use app, called Videolicious, you can quickly create a one-minute video about a new or on-going science project, a recent laboratory experiment, a field trip, a class exercise, or some other aspect of your work.

Using your phone’s camera, you shoot some video footage. You can also download animations, photos, or other film clips from public domain sites to the camera roll on your phone or upload any footage you’ve shot with another device.  Then with Videolicious, you create your movie in three simple steps:

1) Select the video clips you want to include.

2) Record your narrative, again using your smartphone camera.

3) Select background music (optional)

Then Videolicious puts it all together for you.  You can then share your movie by email or social media or upload to YouTube.

Here’s a video showing how it works and an example of a video I created with my iPhone (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window):

In this video, I uploaded some footage I had shot previously, then recorded the narrative with my iPhone.  However, I could just as easily have recorded all footage with my iPhone.

The basic version of Videolicious is FREE, but is limited to one-minute duration videos, 10 shots per video, and 20 video storage.  For $60 per year, you can make 10-minute videos, use more shots and have more storage capacity, access to a music library and a few more perks.  I actually like the one-minute limitation because it forces you to really refine your message and your video clips.  If you want to make longer videos, you are better off using a movie editing program such as iMovie.

Tutorial: Avid Studio for the iPad (Part 2)

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In this post, I’ve added the second part of the tutorial on using the movie editing program, Avid Studio, for the iPad.  With this app, which costs only $4.99, you can shoot and create professional-looking videos entirely with your iPad.  Avid Studio has more editing options than iMovie, which I covered in previous tutorials, but is a bit more challenging than iMovie.

Both are fine editing programs….each has their advantages and disadvantages.  If you’ve learned how to use iMovie already, however, you’ll have no problem with Avid Studio.  I’ve covered all the basics in this two-part tutorial, but have left some options for you to discover on your own.

So here’s the second and final part of the Avid Studio tutorial (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window):

Tutorial: Avid Studio for the iPad (Part 1)

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Think you need special equipment, expensive software, and special skills to create a video about your work?  Well, if you already have an iPad 2, for just an additional $4.99 for a movie editing app for the iPad, you can shoot and create a professional-looking video. To help you along, I’ve also done a tutorial, linked below, showing how to use Avid Studio.

Previously, I did a tutorial series on the iMovie app for the iPad.  In this post, I talk about another excellent movie editing app for the iPad that you can use.  Avid Studio has more bells and whistles than iMovie, but is a bit more challenging to master and use.  But with this tutorial, you should be able to begin using Avid Studio immediately to edit your science videos.

Take a look at Part 1 (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window):