I saw a news item the other day that got me to thinking. It was entitled, "BBC to give reporters custom iPhone app to broadcast live news". I then went on to read a posting by good friend in the PR industry, Jon Newman of Richmond's Hodges Partnership, saying that this technology's time had come.
I have the UTMOST of respect for Jon. He's a visionary, a deep thinker, and one of the best people I know in the PR industry. But I don't think we're there yet. Maybe it's inevitable. But not now.
First off, there's the logistics of editing video, voice-over, and graphics on a phone interface. Anyone who's bought iMovie for their iPhone is aware of the limitations that the limited screen real estate and current audio capabilities put on the edit timeline. Add to that the fact that the onboard camera, while nice for a consumer device, has no real optical zoom feature (the digital zoom makes things look like they're in a very jerky witness protection program). This creates a scenario where the phone-based correspondent will be rushing the stage to be within 3 - 5 feet of anything needing a close-up. There's also the "rolling shutter" issue, a common problem with inexpensive CMOS sensors shooting video that leads to objects in motion (or fast camera moves) having the appearance of being made out of jello -- essentially the image lower in frame is scanned perceptibly later than the top of the image, and so moving objects become warped.
The temptation to use these devices handheld will lead to a plethora of "Blair Witch" style stories -- and the more intrepid who try to use better mountings will find that the lack of heft will lead to a lack of stability in the shots. Yes, electronic stability controls will develop and no doubt improve as time goes on, but as the state of the smart phone motion video camera exists right now, they're outperformed by any number of reasonably priced point-and-shoots.
There ARE technical solutions for almost all of these problems, but will it be a priority for smart phone manufacturers to pursue those remedies? They're making a consumer level product.
Thirdly, if you want your news (or PR) product to stand out, you're going to have to find a way to differentiate yourself from the millions of consumer-level videos competing for your online attention. Yes, great and compelling content can help you to overcome lesser visual quality -- we've watched camera phone images of global events many times and been happy to have the first person perspective. But not every news item, or every product demo, or every on-the-scene interview is going to be of earth-shaking proportions. That's where good, old-fashioned production values can refocus viewer attention on a message that may be more subtle and complex than a Benghazi firefight or a Vancouver riot. Can we agree that camera phones are still a "court of last resort" for image gathering on the professional level for now?
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