I sometimes wonder how I managed without my iPhone. It wakes me up, it connects me to all my friends across the globe, it reminds me to have a haircut and it tracks my fitness.
So when the iPhone 6 was launched in October, I fleetingly thought all the talk about how brilliant the new camera was would make it indispensible for work and within a week we’d be shooting videos for clients on it.
The camera is good. It shoots fabulous, high quality HD images – it even has a cool super-slow Mo feature on it. It can do time-lapse video (which these days seems to be essential) – all while still reminding me to get bread and milk on the way home.
However, just because you have a tennis racquet, Roger Federer need not loose any sleep. A Nike fuel band doesn’t make you Mo Farah. And, as demonstrated here, the word programme on a computer, doesn’t make JK Rowling quake in her size 6 Louboutin shoes.
Making a successful video that people will watch consists of two things – the content and the way that content is translated into pictures. An effective video will hold the attention of the audience, it can make them laugh or it can make them cry. You need the experience to work with a client to understand the story and re-tell it in the language of the audience and the skills to use a camera to interpret the story so it appears on screen.
The iPhone 6 camera in the hands of an expert is a great tool. But it is just a tool – it won’t make you into Quentin Tarantino. JK Rowling does write on a computer programme just like you and I – but she starts with the imagination to take us to Hogwarts and beyond. A great video needs to start with great content and then the expertise to use whatever tools are available – and the iPhone 6 could just feature in something Tallboy will do next.
Related article: 7 top tips for using the iPhone as a video camera
