HowTo: Use iPhone “Tallscreen” Video With Final Cut Pro
10:55 am, August 3rd, 2009, Leander Kahney
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.
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
Posted by Leander Kahney in How-To, iPhone | Comment on this article
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?
Whiner, on August 3rd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Seems we’re turning into The Cult of Pink here.
DGF, on August 3rd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
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.
Will, on August 3rd, 2009 at 4:09 pm
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.
Red Raider, on August 3rd, 2009 at 9:36 pm
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.
DGF, on August 5th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
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.
CaryMG, on August 6th, 2009 at 11:08 am
CaryMG, when you have to fall back on the “think of the children” schtick, you know you’ve given up on rational thought.
Pustoolio, on August 11th, 2009 at 8:01 pm