HowTo: Use iPhone “Tallscreen” Video With Final Cut Pro

Leander Kahney ()

iphone_porno

Porno director Matt Morningwood, who shot the first adult scene on an iPhone 3GS, made the mistake of shooting in portrait mode, or “tallscreen.”

The vertical video format presented Matt with problems when it came to displaying the video at 16:9, but here’s how he figured out how to use iPhone video with Final Cut Pro.

Says Morningwood:

“I decided on ‘portrait’ orientation to maximize the ‘shot on iphone’ effect.  However, I had not tried the workflow out yet.  I assumed video shot on an iphone could be exported and imported easily.  This is not the case.

iPhone video is treated like a photo during the export process.  It goes into iPhoto and then can be viewed with QuickTime.  The problem arises when you try and put that video (or maybe another video shot on another iPhone) back onto the phone.  The native compression of the iPhone video is not the same as the iPhone codec used through iTunes.

In addition, the iTunes sync doesn’t handle the vertical content correctly.  I had to rotate the video -90 degrees for playback on the iPhone via iTunes sync.

So, long story short… I learned plenty from it and will be shooting ‘landscape’ mode from now on. It was pretty cool to see the clip vertically though… just probably not worth the hassle.

If anyone is interested on how to use FCP with iPhone footage, I’ve included my workaround.

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Here’s the workaround I had to do with the vertical footage:

I created a new project and imported iPhone vids. I dropped first clip into sequence and allowed sequence settings to match clip settings.
Edited as usual.
Exported sequence to QuickTime movie ‘current settings.’
Used resulting .mov file to create new FCP project using my standard sequence settings (16:9).
Rotated clip 90 degrees.  (Scale as needed depending upon your sequence settings).
Exported using quicktime conversion for iphone.

Since this is the rotated version for the iPhone, it should only be used to be downloaded to an iPhone.  Any other use of the clip should be the first .mov file (use this as a source for other compression schemes) for playback on a computer.

Regards, Matt Morningwood
Director/General Manager
BlueMoon Productions

9 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in How-To, iPhone |

  • Whiner

    This “reporting” does not belong here. It’s (1) obvious to anyone who works with video (except, perhaps, moronic pr0n producers who have more pressing “technical considerations”), (2) nothing more than free advertising for a company playing up a gimmick, and (3) fraudulent– “Matt Morningwood,” really? Slow news day, eh?

  • DGF

    Seems we’re turning into The Cult of Pink here.

  • Will

    I must agree with the other posts.

    This story isn’t news. Its juvenile voyeurism.

    Be careful what ye covet lest ye ….. you get the picture. Enough said.

  • Red Raider

    Prudes…
    I found this technically useful.
    I’m sure many others did too, though they probably won’t admit it, lest they be found guilty by the moral majority here.

  • DGF

    Red: It has nothing to do with prudes or morality. It’s just boring. Find any other vendor that gets three mentions in such a short period of time.

  • CaryMG

    I’m with everyone else on this.
    NO MORE STORIES LIKE THIS, PLEASE.
    Thank you.

    Ya know how fuckin’ *embarrassing* it is to call up Cult Of Mac in a very public place with children around & to have shit like this pop up?

    C’mon guys.
    You’re waaayyyyy better than this.

  • Pustoolio

    CaryMG, when you have to fall back on the “think of the children” schtick, you know you’ve given up on rational thought.

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  • Richard Hertz

    Is this is all the intelligence it takes to be a porno director and general manager of a adult production company.
    I love the excuse he used when he realized he screwed up.
    “I decided on ‘portrait’ orientation to maximize the ‘shot on iphone’ effect”
    Thanks Leander, I love the article