In the last post, I began describing my experience using the iPad to shoot and edit video.  This was my first movie project with the iPad in a “field” setting.  The previous videos were done in a controlled setting (my home office).

So, how did things go in the real world where you don’t have so much control over your surroundings and subjects?  You never know whether there will be problems with background noise or shy interviewees who are self-conscious on camera.  Well, it went better than expected.  There was quite a bit of background noise to contend with, as you might imagine at a conference. However, I got around some of that by scheduling interviews in quiet corners away from the crowds. Of course, I wanted to capture some of the noise and activity surrounding the meeting events, so I did try some interviews in the midst of loud crowd scenes.

I was surprised at how well the microphone on the iPad picked up my subject’s voice in spite of the background noise.  However, I ended up having to import those clips to my full iMovie version on my computer to decrease the background noise and enhance my subject’s voice.  These expanded options are not available on the iPad version of iMovie.  All you can do is raise or lower the audio on the clip, but this will raise the volume of the background noise along with the desired audio track. I may do a tutorial later to show how to enhance an audio track (e.g., someone’s voice) while dampening the background noise (using iMovie 11).

Another thing I noticed with the iPad is that it was easy to accidentally cover the mic openings with my hand, especially when my attention was diverted toward dealing with my interview subject.  So I had to be careful how I held the iPad while shooting video.  If you make this mistake, it will definitely muffle your audio, rendering your interview useless.  This has never been an issue with my camcorders, which are designed for capturing video and audio.

In the next post, I’ll continue my critique.