Documenting the 2014 Trapper’s Rendezvous with iPhone Video

By Wesley Fryer On January 19, 2014 · · Add Comment

This weekend my son and I camped near Hutchinson, Kansas, with several thousand other Boy Scouts and Scout leaders at the annual “Trapper’s Rendezvous” campout. I created a 14 minute video yesterday afternoon with footage I captured at the event, and edited it together with iMovie for iPhone.

The Trapper’s Rendezvous campout is an opportunity for Scouts from Kansas (and some surrounding states, like Oklahoma) to swap goods like the mountain men of the 1820s. Enthusiasts and historical re-enactors dress up like different mountain men and tell about the lives of their characters, cook meats over open fires, operate a blacksmith’s mobile shop, provide opportunities for Scouts to create different handicrafts, and more. The weather was relatively balmy (especially compared to our recent bout with the “polar vortex”) and we didn’t receive any precipitation.

This year, like I did in 2012, I used my iPhone to create a single video documentary of the Trapper’s Rendezvous. In 2010, the first year we went, I uploaded separate clips of different re-enactors and scouts talking about their experiences. I’ve got all of my 8 different YouTube videos to date included in a “Trapper’s Rendezvous” YouTube playlist.

Two of the videos I shot in 2010 have been seen quite a few times, relative to other videos in my YouTube channel. “Making Lead Bullets” has 28,882 views, and “Making Indian-style Flutes” has 22,440 views. My favorite of all time remains “Trapper’s Rendezvous 2010: Trading an Alligator Tooth for a Laptop.”

This year I uploaded my combined video from the car during our 3+ hour drive home, thanks to upgrades in the 4G/LTE cellular network along I-35. I ended up having to upload it twice, however, because I forgot I’d uploaded a video for my youngest daughter to her channel awhile back. I have found the free YouTube Capture app for iPhone is the best option for uploading to YouTube for several reasons. If your connection to the Internet gets interrupted (as sometimes happens on car trips) YouTube capture will resume your upload when connectivity is restored. It’s also great because it allows you to upload to different YouTube channels using different Gmail accounts, and (if you want) can save/cache your login credentials. Just remember to select the account you want before uploading by tapping SETTINGS in the upper right corner of the app window.

The YouTube Capture app was recently updated so if desired, you can combine and edit video clips before uploading them. Previously it would just upload clips “as is” saved to your iPhone camera roll.

At the end of this year’s Trapper’s Rendezvous documentary, I included about 60 seconds of still images which I wanted to set to music. The problem with doing this in iMovie for iPhone, however, is that the app only allows songs from your iPod Music Library to be inserted AND the app doesn’t let you specify the start time of the music. The app currently starts the music you select at the start of your video and plays the entire thing. To get around this, as well as eliminate the chance of getting flagged by YouTube for uploading an excerpt of a copyrighted song, I asked one of our guitar-playing dads in our group to play some instrumental background music for my video. I used the microphone recording option in iMovie for iPhone to record that music/audio like a voiceover, and that way I could use it just for the closing 60 seconds. I couldn’t figure out how to add an audio fade transition to that clip on my iPhone, so it quits abruptly instead of fading out, but I am fairly pleased with the results.

I uploaded the 73 iPhone photos I took during the weekend to a new Flickr set. Here are a few of my favorites, including some collages I made using Diptic for iPhone. ($1) The continued march of technology was felt at our campout not only thanks to the continuous 4G or LTE cellular coverage on I-13 during our drive back, but also in the 1 or 2 bar 4G connectivity available at our campsite which permitted some Instagram photo sharing during the weekend. It was great to be largely disconnected during our campout, but also fun to be able to share a few photo moments “on site.”