Music Video: iPhone 4S + FCPX Multicam= iLike

Got cold in New Jersey so we drove to 22 hours to South Florida armed with an iPhone 4S an iPad and a boombox. Shot this video, hung out for a few days then drove back:

I used the iPad to free up space on the iPhone (its only 16GB), by transferring on the spot using the camera connection kit.

Got back and decided to tryout FCPX MultiCam...it was easy as JAX so now I want to do more music videos.

The technology is just so awesome today. From now on, don't tell anyone you shot it on an iPhone, tell them it was a Canon 5D, see if anyone calls your bluff. LOL!

Sounds like a cool idea

The girls look great, very marketable. The various styles of video, costume changes, etc, work well throughout the piece. Of course you're limited with lenses so you don't have any DOF (depth of field), so if you're forced to continue with that "camera" you might want to experiment with some of the excellent blur features in our Free Effects section. This will help move you away from the flat video look. I could have done with a bit more light leaks & lens flares too.

With that in mind there are several shots I don't like. The girls in front of the chain-link fence doesn't do anything for me. They're too close to it & the image is very flat. If you shoot them a few feet from a diagonal wall stretching off into the distance we have a greater sense of perspective. I like this kind of shot with them walking towards the camera while we're tracking backwards. The girls are pretty, the fence seems more suited to your thug dancers. What I would actually prefer is the girls walking towards the camera beside the fence, then those guys throw themselves at the fence from the other side, like junkyard dogs trying to get at the babes. But the girls don't even flinch. Like nothing happened. Then when we go back to that scene later the girls are dancing & posing, doing their thing in front of the fence, teasing the boys, making them crazy. That would be an interesting shot, AND then is the time you want your man to show his tongue hanging out, not in the other spot standing up on that riser.

There is one shot that I really love, that's the one with them in front of the big red wall, when it's overexposed. That shot really pops! A moment later I see the bottom of the wall & it loses some of its magic, but the section before almost looks like a studio shot with a green screen background. Wanted more of that.

The song still needs a bit of production polish, it doesn't quite have a hook yet.

Thanks for sharing.

Awesome feedback, I'll share with the girls, for the record I had more flares and light leaks but they didn't like em, perhaps I didn't execute them well enough.

I hear you on the music. The next step is to work with some seasoned songwriters/producers.

If you'd had used light leeks or flares, I'd have ignored the video. Just FYI. When you use an effect, ask yourself, "What information about the story does that give my audience?"

You have a story to tell. Sit down with lyrics, what is the story? Tell that story with your own words in only two sentences. Then decide what to shoot, how to shoot it, how to edit. And everything you do should be able to answer the same question, "What information does it give my audience about the story at that moment?" If you do stuff just "cause its cool", well, just don't. We are story tellers, not taking an acid trip in high school.

OK, that last comment dates me, but you get what I'm saying. Right?

Haha Ben I hear you and that is a sound approach to story telling. I appreciate it.
Regarding being dated, I subscribe to ____ is the new ____. Fill in the blanks as appropriate

iphone 4S? nice... that reminds me of my first video, shot with a nokia n93... sadly after that 1 video i never had the opportunity to shoot another video until recently, because work just kept me too busy.

i thought it was really nice work considering what you were working with. the girls are cool, got their moves and everything. do the girls really have such nice skin because it looks smooth as hell? the biggest downpart to me was the music, i'm sorry i just couldn't feel the song, but something else... uhmn... i didn't quite get the video in parts. the first time the guys are holding the girl back, it's hard to get why. you should try to build the storyline a little better. plus with kissing scenes in videos you have to watch out they often look like too much too fast, which makes the artists look cheap, in that sense less is usually more. also one last thing, something major i think was really missing here, were closeups... and still-life... like in scenes where the 2 are sitting at a table holding hands... that would have been so much more with way less camera movement.

but honestly good work, looking forward to more from you.

i didn't know what multicam was until i googled it just now... wow... i can't believe i just shot an entire video with so much material and i didn't know about this feature, this could have saved me tons of work.

yes Good points all around...with regards to closeups I think thats one of the biggest disadvantages of iPhone videography - to get a close up you have to be all up in their grill. Perhaps its time to investigate some of those lens add-ons.

They'll definitely get better songs thats our priority for next time around.

may I add some comments too, although no 'pro'?

personally I don't like shakey-cam (=wasn't able to watch Cloverfield in a single piece). I differentiate btw hand-held and jittered:
• hand-held means (to me!) all axes free BUT used 'intentionally'
• jitter means: I get sea-sick :blink:

What I like to express is: using such a tiny device seduces to point here 'n there - you don't record a football-game, and a DoP has a different job to do. In German we call it 'squaring the picture', means, keeping a composing of elements in mind, Rule of Thirds etc etc

consider usage of some sort of 'tripod' or 'holder' to give your 'cam' more weight. And think of pointing direction BEFORE pushing the red button.

not my kind of music, but it looks like a 'video' ... :lol:

funny I hate shaky cam too, but I see it everywhere even on TV...I thought maybe I was out of step with the new generation. But Dollies and Glidecams are definitely on my wish list. Still looking for my place in this world :woohoo: