So I’m a self proclaimed Apple fan boy like all good geeks. Here are a few of the apps I have been using regularly on my iPhone 3Gs that has taken my phone from, “Nice” to “I can’t live with out it.”
Hitchcock Storyboard$19.99
Brought to you by the good folks at Cinemak who brought you the G35 adapter. This is a tool for filmmakers by filmmakers, aimed squarely at bringing creative tools to the indie crowd. Hitchcock is a unique little app designed to use the iPhone’s camera to build storyboards. It has a very slick interface and very comprehensive tool set. You can take a photo and ad markups, like traditional boards. Hitchcock also allows you to drop in stands ins, ad voice and audio notes, as well as create virtual camera moves and slide shows. This one is fun to play with guys and allows you to quickly test what will or won’t work on camera. Read More…
I See 4K FREE
If you are a red user than Isee4K is a great app and for free you cant beat it. It features a full set of calculators for Red One users including:
-Depth of Field
-Field of View
-Storage Requirements, Space and Time
-Max Framerates and Timebase
-Workflow Throughput Calculator
Pcam $39.00
Pcam existed back in the day for Palm OS on the old PDA. It has now been updated and released for the iPhone. It has a great interface and a vast range of tools and calculators no cinematographer should be without. At $39.00 its definitely at the the upper end of most apps price range but I think you will find the feature set is worth the price. It offers settings for cameras ranging all the way from 1/3″ ccd to 70mm IMAX and covers everything in between. One of my favorites is the field of view calculator utilizing the multi-touch feature of the phone, which is very handy to select comparable lenses.
-Depth of Field & Hyperfocal Distance
-Splits-Aperture Finder
-Field of View (Image size) with Preview Illustrations & Angle of View
-Exposure (compensating changes in Shutter Angle, FPS Speed, Filters, Film Speeds & Light foot-candles or lux)
-Running Time to Length
-Shooting to Screen Time
-HMI (safe speeds & shutters)
-Color Correction (filters and mireds)
-Diopter
-Macro
-Time Lapse
-Underwater Distance (flat ports)
-Scene Illumination
-Light Coverage
-Siemens focus Star
-Includes all common professional Still Camera, Film & HD Camera Formats
-User-definable custom Camera Formats, CoC & Filters
Helios Sun Calculator $29.99
Helios is a relatively new find for me. I have been using it for several weeks now and found it to be very reliable. In my opinion it can easily replace SunPath, a compass and inclinometer, if you have the 3Gs with magnetic compass built in. With a normal 3G phone you will still need a good compass to find the correct bearing. All in all its a great, super slick app for predicting and calculating sun path and position, I love it. If you work many exteriors at all, or have been considering SunPath and an inclinometer the $29.99 price tag is an easy decision.
Action Log $5.99
Action log is a near automated shot log for your phone. Simply setup the project with the correct timebase and sync it to your camera in free run TC mode. Logging will now allow you to notate and log your shots while auto-advancing things such as scene and take numbers. Check out the “Pro” version to experiment with the XML export to pull the shot log data into FCP. The “Pro” version will set you back $29. Action log features the following:
-Unlimited number of projects
-One virtual recording device
-Synchronize devices that use time of day or free running timecode
-Quick to use logging system
-Incremental slate and take fields
-Easy construction of clip names from predefined lists
-Logging continues without the application running
-View and delete logged clips
-Built in SMTP email client
-Export to a HTML formatted log sheet
These are tools I find myself using on a pretty regular basis. One of the great things about our industry is the creative energy and the level of ingenuity that people have. While I’m certainly enjoying the benefits of that right now, I cant help but get excited about what toys, uhhh, tools we will have access to in the future.