Apple IPad 2 video shot and edited with new and great Ipad 2. One of the technical problems was mounting the Ipad 2 on a tripod.  We solved this problem by building a makeshift frame that we attached to a tripod.  I will try to post some pictures of the project later.  Pizza for lunch!

Getting one of Apple’s first Ipad 2’s wasn’t easy. The line was out the mall entrance. When I arrived at the Galleria Mall in Roseville, California, I almost turned back. I am so happy I waited on line for three hours to get an Ipad 2.

Little did I know that waiting on line would turn into a very pleasurable experience.  It was a big party!  Everyone around me was so excited about the new Ipad 2 that it created an atmosphere of enthusiasm. There were five of us who got to know each other fairly well during those three hours.

The final moments were getting near and the line started to move.  I was actually starting to enter the Galleria mall doors. Was this really going to be worth the wait, I thought to myself, as I sipped my Earl Grey tea. Free tea or coffee was given to anyone compliments of Apple.

The moment finally arrived. I had in my hands on an Apple Ipad 2.  It was strange to think that this very small device was packed full of computing power.  My plan was to use it the following day to shoot a pizza making video with its new HD quality camera.

The script for the video was written weeks ago and all the props were ready to go. When I got home late that evening, I read through the user manuals and downloaded the Apple imovie app so I could edit the video also on the Ipad 2.

This was quite a challenge for me, since I had no experience with an Ipad until I bought my first one.

My cameraman John arrived early Saturday morning and we discussed all of the technical challenges that we faced to produce a fairly professional video. The first challenge was how to stabilize  the Ipad 2.  In order to put it on a tripod we built a cardboard frame with foam core,tape and cardboard.  After many hours of seat of your pants engineering it was finally complete.  Many hours had passed and we hadn’t even started the shoot.

The second challenge was audio. Good quality audio is one of the more important aspects of film making and I didn’t think the microphone on the Ipad 2 was up to the job. I had a fairly decent wireless microphone that couldn’t be used because of no microphone jack on the Ipad 2. We then decided to use the wireless microphone hooked up to a good quality digital recorder and I would sync the sound in the editing process.

It seemed like a very big challenge for me to sync the sound to the video since I had never done this before.  My deadline for completion of the entire project was only 2 days. Lucky for me the microphone on the Ipad 2 produced very decent sound and I didn’t have to sync the video and sound.

It was 3 pm and the day was almost over and we hadn’t even started shooting any video yet.  We finally set up our lights and tested our audio and video.  The production began.

It was 7 pm before we finished shooting the last scene and I had finished making my last pizza.  We were all starving by this time and gobbled up most of the two pizza’s before calling it a night.

The next day I was up at 3 am again to learn how to use the Imovie app to edit the movie we shot the day before.  It was about 3 pm before I finished the editing and had something fairly decent.  The project was complete and my plan was to put the short movie on “How To Make Pizza” on my website on Monday morning.
When Monday rolled around I faced my biggest challenge. The video did not want to upload to Youtube and would freeze up during the upload process from the Ipad 2.  I had kept everything within the parameters required by Youtube, but it still would not work.  After spending half the day on the telephone with Apple tech support, I finally realized that this was not an Apple problem but was a Youtube problem.  I googled the problem I was having and discovered that I was not the only one who had this kind of problem.

My solution to this was to upload the video to Vimeo and embed the code from there to my website.  I’m glad the project is over but my sleeping schedule is truly out of sync.  I’m still getting up at 3 am.