I’m a big believer in the best microphone being the one you have with you, and that getting it close to your subject is 80 percent of great audio. Since I always have my iPhone 4 with me, I always have a microphone. But can you really record great audio with it? Or even useable audio?

I decided to run a comparison. Beforehand, I ordered a great little device from KVconnection.com, which allows you to use a self-powered external mic with iPhone 4. It’s called KM-IPHONE-MIC and it costs only 18 bucks.

I did the test in my office, which is a fairly small 13×24 space without much wallcovering, hardwood floors with a throw run, definitely the kind of less-than-ideal recording environment that I have to work in all the time. Perfect for this test.

I ran three tests, reading the first lines from Origin of Species (which I’m currently reading in preparation for a December trip to the Gallapagos Islands). I held the phone and mic about a foot away from my mouth (except for the iPhone earbud mic, which I let hang in its natural position when worn in the ear, which is about 3″ from my mouth. Listen to the results:

1. iPhone with internal mic: Play

2. iPhone with earbud mic: Play

3. iPhone with adapter and Rode VideoMic: Play

4. For a control, I recorded my Tram TR50 recorded to my Zoom H4N. Play

Conclusion: The iPhone with adapter and Rode VideoMic sounds decent! (But as I discovered during this testing and posted previously, the Rode VideoMic suffers from horrible handling issues and so is only useful when I can mount it to a stand while recording). Bottom line is: I could actually use the iPhone with adapter and powered mic for a documentary project if I have to. The external powered mic cuts down on the brightness that’s picked up in both of the iPhone’s native recording configurations. In a pinch I could even use the built-in iPhone mic. But I’ll skip the earbud mics – they sound really tinny to my ear.

One of my Biznik buddies, Art Torelli, sent me an introduction to Seattle filmmaker Michael Maniglia recently, which resulted in us having coffee. Turns out we live less than 5 blocks from each other, we both shoot regularly with the Canon T2i, and we both need help on our various projects. Mike’s primary focus is on narrative film, while mine is on documentary, but I’m keenly interested in getting some narrative experience because I want to make films that blur the line between the two. So when he offered me an opportunity to operate camera on a short film he’s making, I jumped on it.

The shoot took place in an elevator, in a Seattle office building after work hours. Luckily, we found one elevator out of four that didn’t complain when we stuck a sandback in the door, to lock it open, which allowed us to shoot. In the shot above, sound engineer Kelsey Wood places a small HD camera into the elevator for a shot that mimics a security camera in the scene.

My biggest take-away from this experience is just how VERY different narrative work is from documentary. Narrative is all about careful planning ahead of time, having a great script, and then deadline-driven production. Since nobody was getting paid on this project, it was even MORE deadline-driven: you have a limited amount of patience from everyone involved.

I picked up a few tricks from Kelsey on how to get great audio: use one of those hidden wallets that strap around your waist to hold the wireless lav transmitter to hide the mic on people who are wearing t-shirts.

And a lighting tip as well: we were using LED lights, and you have to really watch out for the obvious reflection signature they leave on anything glass or metalic. Once we covered the light’s face with paper to diffuse things, the reflections softened and the lights were usable.

It was my first experience using a really nice fluid head, as well, and the difference between the Vinten Vision 10 head we used and my Manfrotto 503 fluid head is unbelievable. Expensive fluid heads like the Vinten really are worth the money you have to plunk down for them: they make panning and tilting dreamy smooth.

I learned recently that SHINE: The Entrepreneur’s Journey, the short documentary about entrepreneurship that I made with Ben Medina, didn’t make the cut to screen at SIFF this year. But SIFF came up with a great consolation prize: an invitation to purchase a heavily discounted Seattle filmmaker pass, which for 75 bucks provides local filmmakers access to all press screenings, as well as some other benefits like a full year of SIFF membership. I’m a big believer that watching as many great films as possible is the best foundation for making great films, so I’m thrilled to have this outstanding opportunity. I picked up my pass this morning, and will hit my first press screening tomorrow morning. I’ll be posting about my favorite films here. Thanks SIFF!

I feel deeply honored to be among the 60 participants selected to attend Werner Herzog’s second annual Rogue Film School, which will be held just outside of New York in mid June. More than any other filmmaker, Werner Herzog embodies the spirit of independence and lifelong dedication to craft that inspires me to make films. Herzog has made more than 60 films during his career, films that cross the line between documentary and narrative and push the genre forward in pursuit of what Herzog calls “ecstatic truth.” If you asked me who my living heros are, I’d say Barak Obama, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, and Werner Herzog. Roger Ebert once called Herzog “the most curious of men,” concluding:

You and your work are unique and invaluable, and you ennoble the cinema when so many debase it. You have the audacity to believe that if you make a film about anything that interests you, it will interest us as well. And you have proven it.

I spent the better part of last weekend virtually attending the 3-day CreativeLive video dslr workshop hosted by Vince Laforet. This workshop was different from any other workshop of its kind that I’ve attended in two ways:

1. I was able to participate live, from my couch, viewing the workshop happenings on my 6-foot projected screen and posting questions via chat.
2. It was FREE.

I could add a third item: I actually learned something from the workshop. Stuff that will immediately begin making me money on my next commercial shoot, which begins Wednesday.

The folks at CreativeLive have such a great thing going, that I felt terrible about NOT paying, because I was worried about them not making a financial success of their endeavor. So I opted to pay the $79 class fee, not because I necessarily need access to the materials, but because I want them to succeed. I want to see a LOT more workshops of this kind on topics like Final Cut editing, film lighting, creativity workshops with masters, and many more.

If you’re someone with a photography background looking to get up to speed on filmmaking, save yourself months of hassle and just take this workshop right now. Because oh yeah, if you didn’t make the live event? No problem – you can still take video DSLR workshop the same as if it were live – only more tightly edited – for $129. Deal.

Master DSLR filmmaker Vincent Laforet will be in Seattle to teach a 3-day introduction to DSLR cinema that starts on April 30. If you’d like to participate live, there’s room for only 5 participants at $600 each, quite a value in itself. But what’s really cool about this workshop is that the entire thing will be streamed live, FREE. As tempting as live attendance is, I’m going to save the $600 and put it towards some of the amazing gear that Vincent will be demonstrating during the workshop, and listen in online.

Sign me up for that: http://creativelive.com/courses/vince_laforet/

I can’t wait to see this film. It’s coming to Seattle’s Harvard Exit theater on April 23. This film is especially interesting because it’s being self-distributed, sort of, as much as that’s possible for someone whose identity is a secret. In any case, it’s coming to a theater near you, and if audience reaction at Sundance was any indication, it’s going to rock. Here’s the first 5 minutes:

Last night I invited 40 members of the cast and crew of Shine, my first short doc made with Ben Medina, as well as the biggest financial supporters of the film, to a private screening at Fremont Studios. It was also the first time I’ve seen the film on a biggish screen (30 feet or so), and the first time I’ve had the experience of showing a film to the people who are actually depicted in the film. I was a bit nervous, and I expected a wide range of responses. I wasn’t disappointed.

The good news is that by far, nearly everyone liked the film. The entrepreneurship experts in particular, like Connie Bourassa-Shaw and Steve Brilling, and Mark Lacas said they felt we struck just the right balance between hope and dreams vs. realities and failures of entrepreneurship. Chris Julian, who teaches film editing here in Seattle, said that at 24 minutes, we got the length just right for a film of this kind, too, and complimented me on the color grade, which I did myself with a lot of help from a handful of Red Giant Software plugins.

The theater screening revealed that the audio mix still needs work. What sounds great on my Sennheiser 280 headphones actually sounds VERY different on surround sound in a theater. Chris Julian tipped me off to using a good pair of external speakers when editing beats phones every time. Lesson learned.

Another reason I’m glad we screened the film to as many of the people featured in the film is because we were able to catch one huge mistake – I misspelled Connie Bourassa-Shaw’s last name! I can’t believe that made it past all of our rigorous checks. Luckily it’s easy to fix that before the film gets out.

One woman featured in the film objected to her face being shown so large (the film is built around close-up interviews with people looking directly into the camera). It was a little too intimate for her. And the fact that it was in HD meant that there’s no place to hide any blemishes. I really like that level of intimacy, and that’s not something I would change. But it’s an interesting observation about HD vs SD – HD can be a little TOO good for some people.

One of the entrepreneurs in the film sent his publicist to the screening, and she objected to the color grade I did on him, which really surprised me. I spent a lot of time making him look good, and in fact, Ben shot his interview to look positively glowing very intentionally. Film is a subjective medium, that’s for sure. Luckily for me, Chris Julian was standing nearby when she cornered me and backed me up on how good it in fact looks.

But the biggest revelation of the night came when someone who will remain unnamed here threw a temper tantrum after the film, in the hall outside the theater, objecting to not receiving a larger credit. That one really caught me by surprise.

Ultimately, making a film is a deeply subjective, personal process, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to have collaborated with so many talented people in its making. It’s a true film. And I’m proud of it.

No word yet on whether it’ll get it’s public premier at SIFF – they have until the end of April to notify us. Fingers crossed!

I’ve had my Canon T2i dslr for just over two weeks, and I’ve been absolutely blown away by the video it shoots. However, I picked up the camera yesterday and noticed some strange, lava lamp-like formations on the LCD screen. At first I thought it was actually recording them, but I soon realized that they are only affecting the display, not recording to video. Clearly, the LCD pixels have been damaged or corrupted somehow.

Anyone ever seen anything like this before? Googling “damaged pixels” doesn’t show anything like this, though. I’ve taken good care of the camera, and I’ve got a Zacuto Z-Finder attached to it all the time, so I can’t imagine how anything might have damaged the LCD directly by striking it.

I’m already so in love with this camera that I can hardly bear the thought of sending it to Canon for repair.