Cinemagraph App – A Revisit

I recently discovered that the Cinemagraph app had more to offer than I had previously noticed.  After you record with your camera you see a flawed video file.  You have to click through to get more options.  The still areas will be green tinted, while the motion will look normal.  You can then take your finger and “erase” the green to expand the motion.  It is a very flawed way of expanding your motion because you cannot possibly get as refined an area as you’d want by just using your finger.  Despite the shortcomings, the addition of some controls does help this software to look a little more natural.

DVD and Blu-Ray Dead?

It has come to my attention that professionals are considering delivering their wedding videos on flash media. This idea neglects the lack of a standardized codec that will play on any device. And in this oversight they prematurely report that optical media is dead. Thank you, Apple for creating delusion. I get it, really I do. The DVD will die someday and the Blu-ray market is stagnant. But, I do not see flash media as the answer, especially if your argument is that everything is going portable. I see two flash media options with the most compatibility: a USB fob or an SD card. Neither is going to be as fool proof as a disc. I have a phone that can play videos, but it lacks a card slot AND it does not have a full size USB. Even with an adaptor, I doubt that it has the ability to host a USB drive. Additionally, I have a tablet, which came with both USB and an SD slot; many are without one or both. The SD takes a micro and the USB is not full size. Yesterday,I loaded a card with an MPEG2 to show on the tablet. Nothing. I needed VLC to view the file and when it finally did work it stuttered. In order to access your videos you need more than a tablet and a phone (I know people that only own these). How about your entertainment system? That USB port on my TV is full sized, but it is only for service. My receiver has a media port, but that is not a standard household item. Many DVD/Bluray players do have a media port, but I have found this to be a very picky device. It fails to recognize my 320 GB passport drive. Many of the codecs are not available on the set top player and they cannot be added. The larger files that do work often stutter and freeze. We are left with a computer. Do you really want to relive your wedding on your computer? Can you and your spouse crowd around the screen and enjoy the memories in its 15 – 24” splendor? To have it on your phone or tablet you have to copy it over and trust that the files will scale properly. What about chapters or controls? Your video professional can create a web DVD and it offers the same functionality, but the web DVD is Flash encoded so the Mac users would be out of luck. The fragility of flash media is also a concern. My failure rate for SD and USB media is almost embarrassing; one bump and you break the stick.
After all this thought, I strongly advocate for supplying customer with either DVD or Blu-ray. The optical media is still the video answer for the time being. For the progressive client, offer a cloud download in a format compatible with their specific devices. The cloud is the future for video and offering any intermediary format is just going to inhibit future use and access. All this aside, I think we are forgetting the days when videographers had to include known working DVD players in their packages. We cannot offer known working phones and tablets as part of our packages and be cost effective. We have to be able to offer our clients an array of encoded files that fit their needs.

City Walks: 88 Chicago

I've talked about my little cameras for my walking pieces, but I haven't posted about the creation of the actual piece.  This past week I joined my husband at the SCMS Conference in Chicago.  While he worked I walked.  The weather during this trip actually worried me because I wasn't sure it was going to be warm enough for walking.  As it turned out only Friday was too cold to spend too much time outside; it wasn't temperature so much as the wind just cut right through me.  Here are the maps of the routes I walked:
 Day 1
 Day 2
 Day 3 Pt 1
 Day 3 Pt 2

 As always, my small cameras acted up and I was restricted to using only one of my two standard "walking" cameras.  I ended up making due with the HD camera that isn't quite the same in size or resolution. I still need to make a pouch so that I can continue to keep this extra camera in my arsenal.  I would also like to find a way to add straps to my GoPro so that I can use it during walks. For now I have to walk until one camera dies then use the HD camera until I can find a place to plug in. Not really efficient. The GoPro would add the ability to change the battery, but is not able to be attached in the same way as the smaller cameras. Luckily, for now, I have 180 cities remaining and each one is a learning experience.

When I started I didn't think about the rules that I later created. I also didn't know how the cameras would react. Now I have rules to not show people or cars and sometimes I choose to break those rules for the power of the image. Chicago may have to be one of those exceptions - so many people and cars that I don't know if I will be able to exclude them all. That will all be decided in the editing process.rocess.