Can the iPhone Revive the Home Movie?

Posted in iPhone News by admin. Published April 5th, 2011

Can the iPhone Revive the Home Movie?

On Saturday evening, I, along with thousands of other fervent music fans, was jammed into Madison Square Garden in New York, helping bid LCD Soundsystem adieu when I noticed a fellow concertgoer filming part of the show with his smartphone. I stopped bouncing for a few minutes to watch him record when I realized that the application capturing the action on stage was using a filtered lens, much like the ones that help give photos snapped with Instagram and Path their vintage veneer.

Later, after spending some time on Google, I came across a handful of relatively new smartphone applications with names like 8MM Vintage Camera and iSupr8 that aim to recreate the nostalgic effect of a Super 8 camcorder by digitally adding the weathered look and sepia tint to cellphone videos.

Photo apps like Instagram, PizPlz, Path and Hipstamatic that add cool effects to amateur cellphone pictures, transforming them into bite-size pieces of art, have helped catapult mobile picture-taking and sharing into a big business.

Is video the next medium to follow suit?

In addition to the “Super 8″ applications I noticed at the LCD Soundsystem show, Vimeo, a video sharing site that attracts an artsier aesthetic than found in the typical fare seen on YouTube, recently released a mobile application to let people upload, edit and post videos on the site. In addition, new apps like SocialCam are emerging as a way build a mobile social network around video sharing with friends.

It’s also possible that video is an entirely different beast. After all, it is much easier to scroll through a series of photographs than a slideshow of video snippets. Video may not ever be as ingrained in our daily documenting habits. I can see how it makes a lot less sense to shoot a short of your supper or of the festivities at a dinner party than stills that can be easily shared.

But seeing the Super8 application in action convinced me to download several of the vintage video recording lenses, and I can’t wait to test them out, which may be a sign of things to come.

[Thanks: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com]