Last week I was invited to Firhill for a Partick Thistle press conference. I decided to take my iPad and see if the filming and editing capacity on it could work for blogs and online news sites.

Well I was pleasantly surprised. The whole process was very easy to use and in the end the quality was good enough to use on site.

Here is the video again.

Now the final article was not perfect but that helps with this preview. The first attempt was always going to be trial and error. The sound with Jackie McNamara was low… That was my fault as I was concentrating too much on the picture, I wanted Jackie with the macb sign in the background. Having no mic and headphones proved problematic but I have since found out that their is a mic available for the iPad. Plus on the editing side of things you can improve the sound slightly too. From a technique point of view indoors is better than out for sound and you should get the subjects that you are filming as close to the camera as possible while containing them in the shot.

Now to edit, I bought iMovie app from iTunes for £2.99. It is very easy to use and it took me around ten minutes to edit the piece together. I simply put both interviews on to my timeline, cutting the tops and tails off (the start and ends off the footage). Then uploaded the finished article to Vimeo… you can also upload it to YouTube and Facebook. Be warned this will take up most of your time and you will need to take your iPad off your cellular data and have Wi-Fi connection. Also on an editing side you can add titles, voiceovers, graphics and fades.

As you can see in the above photo and during the second interview, there was a lot of interest in what i was doing… quite a lot of the press took a photo of me using it which was very surreal.

Ok this rig was actually made for a prompter which my smart father managed to fix onto the iPad… It gives a more stable hold of the iPad and gives you the chance to use your other hand to hold a mic, dictaphone or light. It also adds to the impressiveness of the look to other journos and the people you are interviewing.

The Rig also means that I can attach my iPad to a tripod which gives the whole thing more stability, plus frees you up to focus on other things like sound, lighting or even on your questions.

Now we have all seen press conferences on Sky Sports News and been to games where we turn up early or been in a room waiting for the person we are interviewing to turn up. Well the big thing for us all, is what to do with our spare time! Well the iPad is a gadget when all said and done. Why not keep up to date with the footballing world either online or on Twitter. Or get the Football Manager app for £6.99. Then there is the CoachPad app (£2.99) and impress the football boss you are about to interview by showing him what tactics he should be employing!

The main benefits to using an iPad for football bloggers and online news sites are simple… It is easy to use, quick and the quality is actually pretty good. You can have an interview filmed, edited and uploaded inside half an hour. The space you save is great too, In my man bag I managed to take my iPad on its rig, a notepad, dictaphone and a photo camera.

So for me this is a great tool that any blogger or online journalist could use and benefit from.

Posted on June 20th, 2011 by scott
Filed under: Product Review