My Review of iMovie for the iPhone

It’s obviously a 1.0 product but an amazing one at that. There are a few bugs and a few features that I’d like to see. On top of this the user interface could use a little work as I was left confused a number of times and much of the interface is hidden behind meaningless  icons or non-intuitive touch gestures. Luckily MacWorld has a good Hands on of iMovie for the iPhone.

Bugs

• Exporting crashes often, especially if you are exporting at HD. Others are also having this problem. Seems it many happens with videos longer than a minute or two that are composed of several photos or video clips. Annoyingly I was able to export the above video at medium size but not at HD.
• Importing photos from your photo library can be laggy.
• Changing the titles can also be laggy.

User Interface Issues

• Most of the interface icons are generic and meaningless. Even after several minutes of working with it I kept forgetting what each icon was. (See example: I mean what the hell is the difference between the down arrow in the box and the one in the folder? The one in the box on the left is import and the one in the folder on the right switches you to the video camera so you can shoot a new clip—shouldn’t that icon be a video camera?!?)
• I kept having issues with accidentally hitting the wrong button or control as there are a lot of too small interface elements and other too elements that are too big for their limited importance.  (See example: not how close the trim icon is to the down arrow folder icon. I accidentally hit that folder icon several times while editing.)
• Trimming the video clips is confusing as you are trimming blindly: trim then move head to where you trimmed; if wrong, try again; repeat. Ideally, to make this easier the head position should lock to where you are trimming so you can see what the hell you are doing.
• The controls for changing the Start/End of the “Ken Burns pan effect” is confusing. I finally figured out that grayed out was the active state but that was counter-intuitive.
• Took me forever to figure out how to delete a clip or photo. Dragging to the video area to delete is counter-intuitive. While you can double tap to delete video clips, when the iphone is horizontal the delete button is hidden—you can scroll to it but there is no indication that it is there.

Feature Lack

• While you can import photos from your photo library and music from your music library, you can annoyingly only import video from the camera roll.
  • This means that if you download the video and delete your camera roll, the video in your project is now missing. So make sure you finish your movie and export before deleting video off your camera roll!
• You can only add one music track even if your video is longer than your music
• There is no control to fade in/out music in added audio track
  • iMovie automatically lowers the music volume of your added audio track if you leave your video audio on so that you can hear the video, but I would like to control fade out when the video is ending.
• Titles only can be added to video clips not photos
• Titles last the entirety of a video clip
• Cannot create a text only titling slide
• Photos are forced to use the “Ken Burns pan effect” (though you do have control over the start/end points of the “Ken Burns” pan)
• Limited number of transitions: One global Cross Dissolve and each theme has it’s own special transition.
• There is no way within the app to split one clip into two or more clips.
  • This can be done in the Camera App before importing into iMovie, but it should be part of iMovie.
• No way to publish directly from the app—you must export to the camera roll and then you can publish from there or download it to your laptop
  • Worse publishing from the Camera Roll (to youtube/MMS/email) automatically compresses the movie into ugly-digital-artifact-landia! You have no option to publish an uncompressed full res video even if you are over wifi!

Conclusion

I still think it was worth the $5 as it’s great for what it is—though I seriously hope they fix the export bug soon. Also, I really dislike the lack of the ability to upload at full res. The fact that I can shot and edit 720p video all on the iPhone but still need a computer to publish online at full resolution is annoying. Secondly, the fact that it only works with video in the Camera Roll seems like an artificial limitation and I hope they fix that soon.

I’m also happy that Apple is charging for this app as it encourages 3rd parties to create their own video editing apps. I’d gladly pay money for a more functional and easier to use app.

One last thought that is a comment on the iOS in general: The fact that this app exports to the camera roll seems kludgey and really underscores the need for some sort of simplified universal file repository.

All you slackers who didn’t make it to Dismal’s Heathen Stomp surely missed out on a rip roaring wooting and hollering good time! One Man Banjo put on an amazing show as did The Mighty Lynch-Pins, and  Creamed Corn Thumb Wrestling has to be the best worst invention in the history of sports! Though that’s not to knock the skills of those who played Jackalope Ringtoss or Pin the Finger on Danger Ranger. For those with patience to sit for a spell there was some high quality portrait art happening—or should I say poor-traits.

All in all it was a fine group of folks who showed up and spend their hard-earned money to support the creative works of The First Church of The Buzzard’s Holy Whiskey Missionary! If you know Dismal than you know the hard work they put into their creative missionary work.

If you would like to show your support for Dismal’s upcoming creative mission, you can donate to Dismal via PayPal.

More photos of Heathen Stomp can be found at JackTrade’s Heathen Stomp Flickr set and Dismal’s Heathen Stomp Flickr set

Also this Friday head over to the Syzygryd Gala Benefit at Cell Space to show your support for the artists of Ardent Heavy Industries, False Profit Labs, and Illutron who are making life more awesome with fire, lights, and 2.5 tons of steel!

Tired ..Fed up? Friends, What You Need is a Good old Fashioned …

HEATHEN STOMP!

Help support the ongoing creative efforts of
1st Church of the Buzzard’s
Holy Whiskey Missionary!!!

Saturday June 5th 8pm

Dismal is proud to present the world premiere of “The Last Round Up!” a film showcasing Dismal’s 2008 fiery extravaganza!

Boot stomping music: Hobo Gobbelins, One Man Banjo, and The Mighty Lynch-Pins! Dj Cactus and momo on the needle.

Midway thrills: Jack-a-lope ring toss, Face painting, Whiskey sip’n contest, poor-traits, pin the finger on Danger Ranger, Creamed corn Wrassling with the Dismal Ladies, and more!

$5 gets you in the door and 1 free Midway ticket! Additional Midway tickets and Raffle tickets available at the door.

Raffle Prizes await :: get your very own Tombstone in the Dismal Graveyard, dismal t-shirts, Dvds, & some Fancy Art!

Saturday June 5th 8pm …till we get sick of ya Varmints!

The First Church of the Buzzard
2601 Adeline @ 26th st. Oakland

now go’on an tell al yer friends!

• Heathen Stomp Flyer (shorturl: http://bit.ly/HeathenStomp)
• Facebook Event Page
• Twitter Shout Out

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Listening happily to Bonobo’s latest album Black Sands. I don’t like all of it but the tracks that are good are damned good. 24 minutes ago via Tweetie

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I miss Bajka from Days to Come. Andreya Triana is a good singer but she’s almost too smooth with nothing to grab your ear and pull you in. 8 minutes ago via Tweetie

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1009 is my favorite song on the album. Chill, yet glitchy and always feeling as if it’s on the verge of rocking the house. [audio embeded below as a youtube clip] 3 minutes ago via Tweetie

BTW for those of you in the Bay Area, Bonobo is playing at the Mezzanine, April 23rd!

the CatBox, the nesting place for fearless birds, by the creative folks at Lapland Industries

CatBox - the nesting place for fearless birds

Cube the Cat doesn't seem hungry

I’ve added a Cube the Cat Adventures group photo pool on Flickr. I will continue taking pictures of my own Cube the Cat as he explores the world, but I would be overjoyed to see other Cube the Cat’s out there. If you are inspired to make your own Cube, please take pictures and add them to the pool!

I know there is already one other Cube the Cat out in Medicine Park!

Download the Cube the Cat, papercraft PDF (version 0.6 beta).

Robynne Winchester is perhaps most well known for her collaboration with Nifer Fahrion of NifNaks in the creation of the ingenious Carharrt-Inspired Work Corset.

Prior to the impromptu start of our game, maledictive was on an 80’s Jock Rock kick (I don’t know ask her) which led to the first song of our game…

1. Cypress Hill “Insane in the Membrane”
2. Cypress Hill feat. Fugees “Boom Biddy Bye Bye”
3. Cypress Hill “Illusions (remix)”
4. Dr Dre
5. Outkast – “Atliens”
6. Dr Octagon “Halfsharkalligatorhalfman”
7. Lord of the Rhymes
8. The Gothsicles “Hey I Got That Font”
9. Screamin Jay Hawkins “I Put a Spell On You”
10. Screamin Jay Hawkins “Constipation Blues”
11. Nick Cave “Mack The Knife”
12. Cab Calloway “Minnie the Muncher”
13. Oingo Boingo “Minnie the Muncher” (from the Forbidden Zone)
14. Max Reebe “Sex Bomb”
15. Max Reebe “Mambo No. 5″
16. Max Reebe “Tainted Love”
17. Coil “Tainted Love”
18. Coil “Who By Fire”

Hope you enjoy the odd set that resulted. Anyway, it’s a fun game which I highly recommend.

This video is hilarious. I love the color registration camo and gold cardboard bling bots!

Posted via web from CatCubed’s Random Snippets

via bob-basset.livejournal.com

I’ve been following the amazing art of Bob Basset for a while and this is the first doll I’ve seen‚Äîhe normally makes masks which are also amazing. This piece is in a whole ‘nother category of amazing though!

Posted via web from CatCubed’s Random Snippets