Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
I make videos for a living. So it should be no surprise that I’m moderately obsessed with video apps. Like way obsessed. And with the new iPhone 6 about to be mine (only a few more days!) - I fully intend to use all these apps within days.
Best for Editing: iMovie
Yes, it’s $5, which is annoying, but if you’re serious about being able to do EVERYTHING in one app (meaning cut clips, add music, add text) then iMovie is the answer. Otherwise, you’re going to be using pieces from the apps below. For me, I tend to use iMovie when I have multiple clips I want to splice together and not so much for when I have one clip I just want to perfect.
Best for adding Filters: Instagram or iSupr8
Obviously I love instagram and the whole world knows what it is, but if you want to spend a little coffee money and you have an appreciate for film, I recommend spending the $1.99 on iSupr8.
Best for Slow Motion or Adjusting Frame Rates: SlowPro
iPhone 5s brought a 120fps video recorder to our smartphones. iPhone 6 is going to double that. So just imagine the super slow mo awesome stuff you’re going to create with this app. Plus, it’s free. No excuse not to download it.
Best for adding Text: TextonVS
A lot of the other video editors will allow you to add text, but not necessarily attractive fonts. Gotta love TextonVS for this. It gets bonus points for also being the Best for changing Hue and Saturation on video.
Best for Stabilization: Hyperlapse
They just changed the game when it comes to creating awesome stable video with the iPhone. Can’t wait to see it on iPhone 6.
Best for Time lapses: Hyperlapse or Lapse It
For longer videos or for people who just prefer traditional time lapse or stop motion to that of Hyperlapse, I can’t recommend Lapse It enough. The on screen functionality for adjusting ISO, f stop and aperture are pretty spot on as well. For $1.99, you can go PRO and unlock a bunch more cool features.
Best for getting 16x9 video on Instagram: CropVS
The free version of this awesome little app allows you to scale and rotate video. AWESOME. It’s especially handy when you consider the workflow for the Hyperlapse app. If you create a landscape Hyperlapse (and why wouldn’t you, because DUH, this is video we are talking about) - you NEED this app. It will allow you to rotate crop into a square shape for the Instagram sharing awesomeness. So yes, it gets bonus points for being the Best for creating and sharing landscape Hyperlapses.
Best for adding music: FLY
Many of the apps I mentioned above will allow you to add music, but I have found that the built in automatic fade in/fade out function of FLY has made it my favorite. Just pick the song and the second marks you want for in and out points and it does the rest.
That video above was created with the following workflow: Hyperlapse for stabilization > FLY for music > CropVS for rotating and adjusting to 16x9 within square. Just a word of warning: currently if you try to import a video that was shot in landscape from Hyperlapse to Instagram, it won’t let you rotate it, so you have to add this step in your workflow.
Every part of my body is sore this week. I’ve been exercising like a mad woman. And no, it’s not because of some wacky New Year’s Resolution. It’s something else entirely. Here’s to:
1. Trying things again.
I live in Minnesota and it would be entirely embarrassing if I wasn’t a good skier and skater. The problem is that the last time I went skiing (6 years ago) I broke my thumb. I built up in my mind that I couldn’t do it, because I might fall and this might happen all over again. To my wonderful surprise this week, I wasn’t nearly as bad at traversing those hills as I thought I’d be. In fact, I only fell once and had a blast.
2. Conversations that surprise you.
I love WTF with Marc Maron. I get him. I empathize. I rely on him for twice-weekly distractions from being a working girl. (You know what I mean.) Every once in a while a guest comes on and totally surprises me. I’m behind the times, because technically Michael Keaton’s episode was last week, but his discussion of Batman and books was truly enjoyable.
My phone isn’t busted after a nasty fall. And it looks hot. Double win.
4. Getting things done early.
I turned in a major grant application for a film EARLY. Do you know how insane that is. I feel like a real grown up who takes care of bizness. Now, fingers crossed this leads to being awarded the grand.
This week, I scribed these lovely posts for Apartment Therapy:
Remember when I told you that I had never seen Doctor Who? Well, with temps over 100 in Minneapolis much of the last month I’ve been taking in LOTS of Doctor Who in the air conditioned comfort of my home. Slowly, I’m falling in love with the Doctor and his adventures. Mostly, I’ve come to appreciate the Doctor’s attitude. It was this quote that really stuck with me:
Rose to alien: “If you’re an alien, how come you sound like your from the North?”
The Doctor: “Lots of planets have a North.”
It such a simple throw away joke, but it stuck with me. Our universe is bigger than us. If you can get out of your head and appreciate that fact, then you can always escape into the fun of fictional universes.
I decided I’d like to remind myself of this more often, so I’ve created an iPhone and Android background with the quote on it. And some TARDIS love too.
To download the iPhone background, click here.
To download the Android background, click here.
Want other free iPhone and Android backgrounds? The full list of downloadable freebies can be found here.
I love me some faux bling. Oddly, the cutout shape of a gem is more appealing to me than the actual gem itself. Which means I would make terrible royalty.
Anyway, remember this DIY I did a while back? It’s the one where you can interchange the look of your iPhone cover for basically $1? Well, this is another design to add to that family of changeable designs. If you want to download the other ones I’ve designed, check out this post.
You can download the background here!
You can watch a video on how to use it here!
I made this design for Teej’s mom for Mother’s Day and thought some of you might also like the look of it. What do you think?
Happy Friday, friends. Thank goodness for a long weekend ahead!
I’m still bitterly fighting a cold, which means I have no energy to create a craftastrophe in my office. Instead, I’ve been catching up on BBC/PBS’s Sherlock before the last episode tomorrow night.
In Irene Adler’s words:
I am Sherlocked.
So, I started screwing around on Photoshop to see if I could create a new lock screen background for my iPhone that matches the screen at the end of A Scandal in Belgravia. I think I’ve gotten pretty freaking close and it looks super cool. Now I’m sharing it with you!
You can download the iPhone background here!
EDIT: You can now download an Android friendly background here!
Happy weekend, my friends!
