I’ve just gotten some new gear to assist with making solo science videos with a Smartphone….for those times when you don’t have anyone to help you. In the following video, I introduce some accessories (microphone, cable, monopod) that will facilitate filming alone with your Smartphone and will also make your videos look and sound much better.
If you like the tip, please leave a comment!
Links to where you can purchase this equipment are given below the video.
Scientists and students: How much time would you invest to learn how to produce an informative and effective science video, requiring only an iPhone or other Smartphone that shoots video? In this new 15 minute tutorial, you can learn how to plan, shoot, edit, and share a professional-looking video that describes a research project, an important science topic or research finding, or a new method.
Such videos can then be used to meet the Broader Impacts criterion of the National Science Foundation or other funding agency, as supplemental online information for your journal publications, or just to enhance your website and show off your work.
All you need is an iPhone or other Smartphone that shoots video and supports the necessary software to edit the footage. Note that this tutorial is different from the one I previously posted, which used the Videolicious app. In this tutorial, I use the iMovie app for the iPhone (download from the App Store) and briefly show how to navigate the program to create a movie project.
Check it out:
There are other movie-editing apps and, of course, professional editing software that provide more bells and whistles, but these take more time to learn and are more expensive. The iMovie app for the iPhone is designed to use video shot with the iPhone, but you can also import media shot with a camcorder or digital camera (I use iTunes to transfer files from iPhoto to my iPhone camera roll). You will also notice that I included some animations that I created with PowerPoint and Photoshop, exported as movies, and uploaded to my iPhone. See previous tutorials for more information about doing animations in Powerpoint here and here.
Even though most of my videos are shot with a camcorder and edited on my computer with professional software, I increasingly find it easy and convenient to use my iPhone to capture video on the go and to quickly edit the footage and upload to a video-sharing site. As the cameras on these smartphones have improved, the quality of the images has gotten better and better. There has even been a full-length movie shot with a Smartphone (Nokia): go here to see the trailer and behind-the-scenes footage.
I hope you find this tutorial helpful and inspires you to use your iPhone or Smartphone to produce videos about your science projects.
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.
