iPhone SE - A Lot To Like

So the 4" screen iPhone SE is here, retailing in the UK for £439 with 64GB storage onboard.

The real kicker? It has the guts of the latest iPhone 6S inside in terms of A9 processor and 12MP iSight camera with focus pixels.

For an airninja like me that is very very tempting. Why? Apart from the fact it is simply light and powerful and strips away a lot of the flimflam.

Over the years my iPhone usage has matured, much like my iPad usage - which has fallen away completely. I'm old, I'm boring, I don't play games (at least, I have played my favourite genres to the point of boredom) - the idea of having an understated - yet powerful - iPhone appeals.

And I've had extensive use of all the public iPhone form factors at this point.

I started using big screen phones with the Dell Streak, believing that I would soon be able to get real meaty work done with the occasional attachment of a keyboard. It's never really happened though - my usage pattern has basically reverted to iPhone for comms/navigation/camcorder and any heavy lifting done on my 2013 13" MacBook Air - if that computer is tied up doing a heavy render I reach for a ChromeBook to do stuff.

I think this is a result of failed mobile UX paradigms as much as my own brain calcification. Which ever way you look at it, editing a video is fiddly on a small screen (I attach my 13" MBA to a 24" display for proper narrative video editing sessions - though I did edit my first feature film on the 12" screen of a PowerBook).

There are a couple, and only a couple, of reasons I will resist pulling the trigger on a 64GB iPhone SE purchase:

1. My current 128GB iPhone 6S Plus has 61GB storage free - this tells me that 64GB max storage just isn't going to cut it for me without additional admin/habits.

2. The size of the iPhone 6(S) Plus means it has a huge battery relative to smaller models. I am just not concerned about shooting video all day whilst powering a microphone on the lightning port. Take that battery away and it becomes a choice of lightning microphone or an external battery pack - and, that's right, potentially a whole bunch of admin.

It's a case of iPhone SE at £439 (still a significant chunk of change) vs my iPhone 6S Plus at £789 though - and the airninja movie method has always been about grasping value propositions early on. For my actual usage, I suspect the iPhone SE with 64GB would do just fine (after all, I have made feature films using iPhone 4S - albeit with onboard mics and an external battery pack).

Remember, zig when they zag. Avoid the mushy middle. It is tempting.

Economics of Filmmaking & Finding Your Audience

Hands up if your film has made a net or gross profit.

OK, anyone with their hands up, they can leave the room. You have nothing to learn here (although you are welcome to stay and gloat).

If you want to give up the day job and earn a living through the business of show, you have to have your content make money, right? I mean sure, "do what you love and the money will follow" is something people say to the aspirational but at what point can you make a profit from passion?

I'm not sure I have any answers, but I do have research. Data. 18 months worth of data.

I present to you, Exhibit A - an award winning short film made by a team of dedicated filmmakers with much care and attention - and a passion for storytelling. It was shot over a few nights in November 2014 and cut into its final form and uploaded to the public in January 2016. The film has been marketed to festivals across the world (as well as a lot of admin time this costs real money in terms of entry fees - arguably tax deductible as part of the marketing budget). It's now on Youtube with appropriate metadata tags for SEO.

208 views at time of writing.

Here I present to you Exhibit B - a genre and brand exploiting short video made in a few minutes by a single hack of a filmmaker with a focus on delivering an experience for a defined audience - and a passion for stereo sound. It was shot realtime and uploaded with no editing. Tagged in Youtube within minutes. The film has had no active marketing; only passive metadata tagging for SEO. Arguably someone had to buy the product in this video which is a negative cost - however, it is a tax deductible line item from the marketing budget, right?

423 views at time of writing.

I said I don't have any real answers. I don't. There can be no absolutes when markets are fluid.

Which movie would you rather watch, and why?

Which movie would you rather make, and why?

What I will say at this point is that both of these movies have generated revenue on Youtube - and at time of writing one of them has generated almost 400% more revenue than the other.

My First Doco Shot on iPhone 6 Plus

It's less than 15 minutes long and was created entirely on the iPhone. And if that wasn't enough, well, you'll see what happens at the end.



My observations about using the iPhone/iMovie combo:

1. When watching this on my 50" Panasonic TV, it seems to gamma up the low-light stuff which otherwise can look very dark on the iPhone screen or laptop screen. Weird. Very 20th century, all this TV gamma. I keep my other screens intentionally dimmer (including iPhone) so as not to tire out my eyes, so that may be one explanation.

2. iMovie for 64bit iOS on iPhone really would benefit from the advanced edit mode - to enable easy J- and L- cuts.

3. iMovie for 64bit iOS really needs to allow me to do other things whilst uploading the finished movie. Keeping iMovie in the foreground and tying up my phone just reminds me of the patience needed when your desktop computer was tied up rendering with Adobe Premiere 4.2 fifteen years ago or so.

4. iMovie for 64bit iOS would benefit from a better way to scrub through longer form projects. Although the Pinnacle Studio for iOS Storyboard view would be an improvement, that's not perfect either.

5. The iPhone 6 Plus video camera performs very well with all its Focus Pixels and stuff.

6. The audio on the video recorded by iPhone never ceases to impress me. On playback I was able to hear speech that I wasn't able to discern intelligibly in the live environment. Wow. I hope Apple keep on top form in the audio area. It may go unnoticed by the vast majority of users, but not by me.

7. I'm now used to the size of the iPhone 6 Plus. It is tricky to use one-handed when reaching on the homescreen or typing, and in landscape mode I find typing even less accurate and more uncomfortable. Swype is great, when it's working. Fortunately I missed the iOS 8.0.1 update. I tend to cup with one hand, use Swype with one finger on the other hand. Swyping one-handed for me is close, but no cigar. Can't do it consistently.

iPhone 6 Plus, Youtube, and Me

Just trying out some new filters in iMovie iOS 8:



And a quick test recording with my iPhone 6 Plus (source is 60fps, not sure it will survive the transcoding to Youtube but it did take an absolute age to upload):

Manfrotto Pixi - excellent mini-tripod

The Manfrotto Pixi drew me in with its dual use hand-held design, easy-lock head, and brand reputation. Not disappointed. (Oh and I bought it at a reduced price from Amazon.co.uk).




The video above was just a bit of fun, getting to know the cuts in Corel's Pinnacle Studio for iOS (formerly an Avid branded product). I like the Pinnacle iOS software a lot in terms of actual editing vs iOS iMovie. However it appears to have glitched somewhere between final render and Youtube presentation. So I will proceed with it on future projects with caution. Could be a iOS 8 bug since that's newly released. There's no easy-peasy way to add royalty-free music for commercial use either (unlike iMovie - OK not many tunes to choose from but some music can sometimes be preferable to zero music).

I really like the Pixi too - makes it easier to grip the iPhone in a more tactile manner, and put it down somewhere to record/rest. Quick levelling, great. Obviously if you want any pan and tilt you will be the human tripod relying on digital signal processing and optical image stabilisation for effortless professional results (shhhh - don't tell the professionals!)

It's really come down to this - one man and his smartphone at one end, and a minimum 60 man crew and video village support and rider winnebago logistics at the other end. Everything else? The mushy middle.

Stay remarkable. Stay frosty.

10 Reasons: iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus or Something Else?

Short Version
Let's say if the rumours of a 5.5" iPhone turned out to be false I was going to move forward with an iPad Mini purchase (having previously evaluated the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom). But Apple have announced UK pre-ordering for the iPhone 6 Plus starting Friday 12th September 2014.

I'm probably going to go for the white/silver colour.



Long Version
Remember I am framing my decision around compact capablities, clutter reduction, media acquisition and production - with an established baseline of a device with every-day communication and messaging capability. Convergence in a world of natural divergence.

Firstly, shooting video and then also recording digitial audio through the lightning connector is going to require power. The bigger the battery, the more shooting before recharging is needed. When recording using the Apogee MiC or other Lightning microphone, the port is not available for simultaneous charging. While workable on an iPhone 5s and prior comparable devices (I have shot an entire frugalwave feature film on iPhone 4S), having a bigger battery that lasts longer reduces admin and increases confidence. An iPad Mini is great in this respect, but just like the larger sized iPad, it does not have the compact capability to slip into a pocket. So the iPhone 6 Plus seems a good choice.

Secondly, when monitoring video I find the iPhone 5s screen is not an ideal size. It's fine for close-ups but more difficult for me to judge long shot compositions for focus points. Again, I find the iPad Mini is a great size for this, but yet again the call of pocketability sees me gravitating toward iPhone every time. So a 5.5" screen on the iPhone 6 Plus seems like the perfect middle ground.

Thirdly, continuing on the established theme of the iPhone 6 Plus, it has optical image stabilisation when taking video. Although the iPhone 5s digitial image stabilisation is pretty good (and apps like Hyperlapse co-ordinate with the device's gyroscope to make it even better), the iPhone 6 Plus will offer a definite, if incremental, improvement.

Fourthly, I am digging Touch ID on the iPhone 5s. There is currently no class of iPad that offers Touch ID (although they are undoubtedly coming).

Fifthly, I have already consolidated my wallet with my iPhone 5s using a Pack&Smooch. Getting an iPad reverses my personal minimalism trend by giving me "one more thing" to carry about.

Sixthly, the iPhone 6 Plus has a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 and supports shooting 1080P video at 60fps. The iPhone 5s can shoot 60fps, heck it can even shoot 2K and 4K but it is unsupported by Apple. That means those unsupported modes may not be as robust as I need it out in the field. The Plus fixes that concern.

Seventhly, editing video on the 5.5" screen of the Plus will be a dream compared to editing it on the 5s 4" screen. Secretly I'm also hoping that the 5.5" phablet will also unlock some of the 'iPad only' features of iMovie like L-cuts and J-cuts - then I might even consider editing something longer form on iOS (my aforementioned feature film was shot on iPhone 4S and edited on a MacBook using Final Cut Pro X).

Eighthly, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus 'focus pixels' that bring DSLR autofocus speeds to iPhoneography are a welcome addition. Considering this may be the last expensive thing I can buy for a long long long time, it makes sense to have as much useful capability packed into it as possible.

Ninethly, let's face it, that 5.5" screen will totally trump the 4" screen for gaming. When I had an iPad Mini I was totally into racing games like the Asphalt and Need For Speed series, but with my older eyes those games put me at a major disadvantage on a 4" screen.

Tenthly, I continue to be impressed with iPhone audio given the constraints on playback and recording. As far as I know, Tomlinson Holman remains an audio consultant to Apple. I expect the number of useful Lightning audio peripherals to expand over the next decade.


Conclusion
So for me, for the intended purpose, it seems like the iPhone 6 Plus would be a good buy. Since we're talking HD video acquisition and editing, it would be foolish to plump for anything other than the 128GB version in terms of storage.

But what colour?

I have given this some thought, as you might expect. I really like the black faceplates, I really like them, all Monolith-like. So I decided I will get the white and silver version.

Why?

As much as I like the black, the white faceplate makes it much easier to see the edges of the frame you are shooting and thus potentially aid in composition. That's the only practical reason. My other reasoning is purely psychological - white looks 'lighter' which somehow looks 'smaller' and 'airy' - so what other colour would the airninja choose?!