IPhone video to .mov HELP!

Question

I have uploaded, edited and exported a bunch of videos shot from iPhones. They were told to use the cameras in landscape position so all of the video would be the same size. I'm new to this and when I exported the video to .mov the video images are distorted (they have tracers). Everything gets blurred with the tracers. How can I fix this?

Answer 1

Harm,
Please understand I admire you greatly. This is merely a technical and social conversation about the concept of shooting with a cell phone. If it makes any sense. You say it doesn't. I say it can. And has. And does.
I have to admit I have never shot video with an iPhone but the video specs don't look all that different from my Android (Samsung Galaxy SII).
My phone is much larger than an iPhone. In fact, so much larger that I had to modify the iPhone holder that sits on the tripod to handle how much bigger my phone is.  So the odd stuff you see is the results of Gorilla Glue that I didn't wipe off in time.
Now, I don't know anything about variable frame rates. Never shot them, never edited them, never saw anything shot with them to my knowledge. That said, let's discuss the tripod. I was too lazy to dig out the quick release plate for my Bogen Manfrotto sticks so please just accept that the fact that the cell phone holder will fit on the quick release plate. Therefore, I can use big heavy sticks with a decent head on them, just to shoot cell phone footage. Crazy huh? (Trust me when I say if I have my sticks I have my good camera!)
I am not saying that anybody but me would do something that silly, but before I got my new camera, I had a cell phone and I didn't want to carry my big huge, out of date, HDV camera around much anymore (Sony HDR-FX1). Heck, the camera shoots 1440X1080 with rectangular pixels and the cell phone shoots full HD. HDV camera is 1080i, cell phone is 1080p.
Anyway, that takes care of the tripod issue. By the way, there are other ways to steady an iPhone shot. Check out these pictures.
As far as white balance goes, I have Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Incandescent and Fluorescent. Not great, but generally adequate for anything I might shoot in with a cell phone.
I can adjust the exposure value, the ISO, set up guidelines to help with the rule of thirds, shoot in Sepia, grayscale, all manner of other things.
Of course the video is not professional grade. Certainly not. But sometimes the quality of the picture is not the most important thing. Sometimes capturing the event is the main goal. You use a cell phone to make telephone calls, right? Does it sound as good as that old phone that used to be hard wired into the hole in the wall? You know, the big heavy phone that had a cord just long enough to reach the little shelf they used to build into houses for the phone to sit on. No. The cell phone quality is not anywhere near as good. (I can tell you exactly why but believe me when I say you really don't care to hear the reasons.)
But you use the cell phone. Why? Because you have it in your pocket. Well, it is also a camera. And almost everyone has one. Our President is credited for giving them away along with the free service to poor people in America.
As for audio... use an external recorder just like you would for almost any decent movie. Why would you expect the audio on a cell phone to be any better than the audio on a good camera. But recording the audio with the video makes it a LOT easier to sync it up.
As for YouTube, I use it to learn things. I also use it to listen to my favorite music. There is an appeal to seeing the lyrics scroll by. My ears are not what they used to be and I hate wearing my hearing aids. There are lots of good videos on YouTube. Way more bad ones, but you have to learn to pick your channels properly.
I loved the movie The King's Speech. I like high quality photography and film that allows me to fall into the story instead of jarring me out of the story with short jerky camera shots. But I'll bet I could make a terrible movie with the finest of cameras. And a great movie with a cell phone. Well, if I hired a great director, and lighting guys, and had a story to tell - you know what I mean.
I'll bet Lucas, or Spielberg, or Kurosowa (if he were still alive) could make a great film with a cell phone camera if they wanted to. Or, at least a short for proof of concept. I have never seen iPhone footage properly color graded. Or have I? Would I know for sure?
In any case, the OP has iPhone footage and probably needs to edit it with Premiere Pro and may or may not even need to transcode it and therefore would not have the original problem if we were concentrating on the problem rather than the philosophy held by people who have decent video cameras. And yes, I consider my Panasonic DMC-GH3 a decent video camera.
For all we know, the OP normally shoots with a Red Epic but is doing someone a favor at the youth group.
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