5 things I like about Reeldirector

I’ve been trying to edit video in ridiculous places lately being so busy; in the car, at the movie theater (TED isn’t worth watching anyway). My friend and I have even planned to take our laptops to the Rockies vs Pittsburgh tomorrow if it doesn’t rain (no doubt we’ll become the subject of someone else’s blog then, we probably deserve to be made fun of).

That’s why I decided to try Reeldirector – a video editing app made for the iPhone. Here’s a few things I really liked about this app, and some I didn’t.

Cheapness
The app cost $1.99 from the iTunes store and took literally seconds to download.

User friendliness
It’s really intuitive, as soon as I opened the app I knew exactly where to go to do what (the + button to add video, the “T” to add text). It probably helped to have some familiarity with Mac video editing programs like iMovie.

Not skimping on the extra features
The text editor for example. There were about 60 different fonts to chose from (which I think may be more than iMovie?) I also like the overall clean modern look of text placed on screen. You also get placement options. You get 30 different options to transition between clips which is also huge for such a small device (in iMovie you only get 24 so on the whole this seems like more of a professional product).

Lots of import options for material
You can import movies and photo still images from the phone only (I doubt you would need to import from another device, otherwise wise why would you be editing on the phone). You can also grab music from iPod or record your own soundtrack. No upload from another video though.

Two drawbacks
My only criticism of this app for professional editing purposes is that you seem to only be able to trim in silent mode, whereas it really helps to be able to scroll through sound while you’re cutting so you’re not chopping out important pieces of information and editing to what you want to convey. In addition, ot would be nice to have a very immediate easy to use social sharing function to post to Facebook, Twitter etc.

Murderess and media magnet: coverage of the trial of Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox on trial (BBC News)

Coverage of the trial of Amanda Knox is a saga that continues to gain criticism for over reporting, sensationalism, poor quality tabloid journalism and straight up unethical representation. And there’s no doubt the emergence of new mediums like blogs have added to the problem.

Since her arrest in 2007 for a role in the murder of British roommate Meredith Kercher while on a study abroad trip to Italy; Knox, a University of Washington student has left both European and American press and public enraptured with the prospect that someone so young, successful and attractive could be a sexually motivated murderer, and  spawned coverage which could be described as obsessive. The sheer volume of coverage alone has made Knox a household name across Europe and the US.

Once upon a time, if you wanted crisp, accurate facts you headed straight for the broadsheet. These days, the news streams at you from all angles, complete with opinion. Since the birth of social media there’s no doubt we’ve seen the lines between traditional factual news reporting and opinion and tabloids blurring.

British tabloids labeled Knox a seductive middle class monster, repeating the words “smoking pot and having sex” in article after article, dubbing her “Foxy Knoxy” and using words like “narcissist” and “liar” in their own character analysis.

In 2009 at the conclusion of the trial a search for Amanda Knox broadsheet The Observer’s website yielded 134 hits while a search for her largely ignored accomplice Rafaelle Sollecito yielded just 2 results, indicative of the British public’s obsession with Amanda, fed by media.

As if that wasn’t enough to influence the trial of Amanda Knox, sadly new media presented the perfect platform for sensationalism in the form of hundreds of multimedia clips of court room sessions and TV reports, often focused on her choice of outfit and demeanor.

Support or distaste for Knox has spawned hundreds of blog sites and movements. Try searching for Amanda Knox or Meredith Kercher on Facebook and watch literally hundreds of groups appear from “Free Amanda Knox” to “RIP Meredith Kercher” and “Boycott Hollywood movie…”

A Google search for “Amanda Knox blog” yields 5,110,000 results and ongoing posts four years later continue to spawn  a war of words between Amanda Knox supporters and those who believe she’s guilty.

A photo by TheImpressionist.co.uk, representing the trial of Amanda Knox

The photo above by TheImpressionist.co.uk – a website calling itself ‘News through the lens of art’ accompanies a story titled ‘Foxy crime, beauty & the human psyche’, and goes a long way in demonstrating how a previously non-credible news source can pose as such today.

Accuracy is compromised, harm is often done to the stories subjects, distaste and subjectivity creep in and worst of all, people read sites such as this and they think it’s news.

At what point does Freedom of the Press become  freedom of the person posing as the press?

First vacation in a year

Today is the first vacation I’ve taken in a year.

Well okay, there was the two weeks over Christmas I went home to see my family, in Scotland, and of course the 4 days I spent on the river in Michigan earlier this summer, and maybe the odd Friday I took off for wedding season travels. I call this the only true vacation day I’ve taken in a year because it’s the first I’ve used to do absolutely nothing, pure, unadulterated mooching around, tidying drawers, a bit of homework here and there, a cup of tea. Bliss.