You may have worked with or are currently working with a professional videographer or film crew to do an interview or even an entire documentary about some aspect of your science. If so, you may be thinking that this is the only way to incorporate this type of media into your program. However, that is not necessarily the case.
In this series of tutorials, I’ve tried to illustrate how you can use equipment you may already own plus inexpensive software to develop your own videos that highlight your research or to augment your lectures, if you teach. In part 7, I show how to use the iMovie app for the iPad to create a movie trailer for your iMovie project (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window).
I decided to try out my iPad and iMovie app in a real world situation this week. I wanted to make a video about some aspect of a conference I attended (SWS/INTECOL) this week in Orlando. There were several options, but I settled on a video about the SWS Undergraduate Mentoring Program. I was participating as a mentor and was able to do a few interviews with my iPad and additionally shoot some of the events and activities.
Here are my observations regarding the iPad and iMovie app. I found it convenient to use my iPad to shoot video and stills because I also used my iPad to take notes during sessions as well as carry the conference schedule (electronic version) and have access to the Internet even when there was no wireless available. I did not have to lug around a camcorder plus computer plus notebook plus meeting schedule book. It was all on my iPad.
If I ran into someone I wanted to interview, I was able to whip out my iPad and shoot away. It was also convenient to shoots clips directly into the iMovie timeline. The trick was to shoot short clips that could more easily be manipulated or deleted later without having to scrub through long clips looking for a specific section.
The downside was that I found it awkward to hold the iPad steady and position the camera lens where I was comfortable and could see my subject. See these brief clips illustrating what I mean:
I found myself yearning for my Sanyo Xacti, which I can handle with one hand like a pistol (in fact that’s what it looks like) and can hold as steady as a rock. Granted, I did not practice much beforehand with positioning my iPad for doing interviews….compared with the time I’ve spent shooting interviews with a camcorder. Although I did not try this approach, I think a possible solution would be to set up your iPad on a stand on a table with the lens facing the subject. You could then be in the scene I if you chose to without worrying about a wobbly camera. Of course, you may be going for that unsteady effect and want some camera movement.
In upcoming posts, I’ll continue my critique of the iPad camera and the iMovie app as well as conclude my series of tutorials.
As a scientist or student of science, you likely already have the necessary equipment to shoot video and still images that can be woven together to create short videos illustrating your research or a school project. In this series of videos, I’m showing how easy it is to create professional-looking videos using just your iPad and the iMovie app for the iPad.
In this tutorial, I tie up some loose ends, showing how to do freeze frames, rotate images, and modify transitions between clips (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window).
You may have seen a fellow scientist using the iPad to shoot video, but wondered how they were going to turn those random clips into something useful. In this series of tutorials, I am showing how to use the iMovie app for the iPad to edit video clips and produce a movie that follows a storyline.
In this tutorial, I show how to shoot video with your iPad and insert the footage directly into iMovie as well as how to import footage you’ve taken with other devices such as a camcorder or digital camera (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window).
Much of what we do as scientists is visual, yet our traditional means of communication, scientific papers, consist mostly of text and perhaps a few figures or diagrams. What if you were able to film every step of an intricate technique you’ve developed so that others could truly replicate it and avoid mistakes?
In this series of posts, I’m describing how easy it is to use your iPad to document your work and create a visual record of an ongoing science project, a particular method, a study site, or some other aspect of your research, which you can then use to enhance lectures or to submit as supplementary material to a journal article.
In this video, I continue with instructions for using the iMovie app for the iPad to create professional-looking science videos. In this tutorial, I finish up with the audio instructions: how to add music and sound effects to your video (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window).
