I am a prime target for mugging. I carry a lot of stuff around and it is all because I am a mobile content creator. So today I thought I would tell you what I carry about to make me into a mobile content creator and how this is used in my business.
Tools
iPad
The iPad is the base for the content creation along with the iPhone. I write blog posts, record audios, edit photos, take skype calls and conference calls and answer emails and messages too.
This is done using a variety of apps of which I will talk about in the next post. What it means though is that wherever I sit down to have a coffee, when I have a little downtime or even when I am standing in a queue then I can actually be producing content that is relevant to my market.
iPhone
The iPhone repeats some of the things that can be done on the iPad but is easier to use at times. Producing a dictated article is initially done on the iPhone then sent to Dropbox in order to edit later before publishing using the iPad. I find that for audio production and content consumption then the iPhone is more comfortable when on the move but when sat down I use the iPad. I only have an original iPad so I do not do video with it, the iPhone does video at times. However the iPhone is not my preferred video source as you will see.
Kodak Zi8
Kodak no longer make the Zi8 and that is a huge shame, especially now that the Flip is no longer made either. Both have suffered due to an obvious reason, everyone has a video camera on their phone now. However the Zi8 makes brilliant quality videos and having the SD card as memory and an input socket for a microphone made it a brilliant storage device. Even better was the fact that it could be easily connected up to the Mac through the built in USB port. However that is now not needed. It can be done into the iPad using the following device.
Apple Camera Connector
The Apple Camera Connector allows you to connect up an SD card to the iPad to import photos, not as important now that the iCloud syncs automatically with your devices. However it also allows you to connect up a USB device if you know a little bit of technical stuff (I don’t) therefore the Zi8 is actually easier to get the video into the iPad for later editing (for which you can use iMovie) than the iPhone, despite the iCloud which is good for photos but not great for video due to size constraints. (also that is just too many i things involved)
Tripod
The Zi8 has a screw hole for a tripod. Therefore I have a mini tripod for holding the Kodak steady when videoing. (I used to have a gorilla pod too but a leg fell off) all I need is a flat surface if I am not holding the camera. It was used in the 100 videos I made about moving to Spain 100 times on 100 different flat surfaces and only fell off about three times.
Microphone with wire
The main advantage of the Kodak is taking an external sound feed through a microphone jack. However I am limited to 1.5m away from the camera as I do not want to carry too much wire around and I still haven’t managed to find a decent wireless mic.
There is a workaround to this using the iPhone. It can be used as the microphone using the voice recording facility and then you can sync the sound track and video in iMovie. To do this just start with a couple of sharp claps so the peaks of the sound can easily be found with the movements of the hands on the video. Then you have automatically synced the mouth which is slightly more difficult.
Headphones
For Skype calls in crowded and noisy places I find it better to use the headphones of course. Once you get past the feeling of sitting in a coffee shop talking to yourself, which is what you do on a phone anyway, there is no stigma attached. People just think you are the local eccentric and very rarely will the police be called to come and take you away in a van with padded walls.
Apps
In the next post I will talk about the apps needed to create and store the output from all that mobile content creation. Hopefully this post will help you see how it is possible to Always be Creating.
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