Video Blogging

Blogging with video.

Step 1: Obtain Video

Ways of getting movies on iPhone:

• camera
• 8mm app

Other sources of video:

• videocameras
• camera built into computer

Step 2: Importing Video Files to Computer

Import using Image capture, Picasa, or Preview

Create/Edit Video Using iMovie

Import iPhone Movie into iMovie

You've got two options for importing videos from your iPhone into iMovie. The first is to transfer all the videos onto your computer, then import them into iMovie as needed. The second is to import movies from the iPhone directly into iMovie.

Option 1: Dump, Then Import

File > Import > Movie

Pick the movie file (.mov format)

Drag the movie from the "Event" portion of iMovie (bottom right) into the "Project" portion of iMovie (top left).

Edit the video as needed (see below for crash course).

Option 2: Import Directly

This method relies on having iMovie 11 or newer.

First, attach your iPhone using the USB cable. Now open iMovie, and pick the camcorder icon just above the "Events" library. This should open an "Import From..." window. Your device should appear in the drop-down menu of sources, and you should then be able to select clips from your phone to import into the Events library. You can pick "Import Selected" or "Import All."

See also: http://www.macworld.com/article/1155619/import_iphone_imovie.html

Basic Video Editing in iMovie

See iMovie page.

Exporting Video From iMovie

Once you're happy with your video, pick Share > Export Movie.

The best format to pick, if you're doing video blogging, is Medium, since it is the smallest format that is still flexible enough to meet the needs of a video blog.

Give it a few minutes to finish exporting, then you will have your finished product in m4v format.

Processing the m4v format into more useful formats is covered below.

Format Video Using ffmpeg

You can visit the ffmpeg page to see how to install the ffmpeg library/program.

Once you've installed ffmpeg, you'll also have ffmpeg2theora installed. To convert an m4v file to an ogg video file, you can issue the command:

$ ffmpeg2theora my_movie.m4v

which will convert my_movie.m4v into a file called my_movie.ogv.

Muxing audio and video:

ffmpeg -i short.mp3 -i fcrunched_IMG_0076.m4v -sameq -acodec copy output.mp4 -map 1:0 -map 0:0

Converting mp4 to mov, with super crappy audio:

ffmpeg -i output.mp4 -sameq -f mov output2.mov

Converting mp4 to mov:

ffmpeg -i fcrunched_IMG_0076.m4v -sameq output2.mov

Unfortunately this all screws up the video, so that stuff can't be streamed or put on the website. 
Handbrake outputs stuff just fine, it's only ffmpeg-outputted stuff.

Troubleshooting

I had problems getting movies off of iPhone using Image Capture, Picasa, or Preview.