Basically, I am trying to record as many videos as humanly possible for my daughter (who is now 6), but the videos will be for all stages of her life, from kid to teen to adult. I know I won’t be there for her, so I’m hoping that through these videos I can still “be there for her” at least somewhat and also teach her life lessons and such. Basically, I’m kinda trying to do what Superman’s dad did for him, like where he puts in the crystal and the AI hologram of his dad appears and talks to him and teaches him lessons or just hangs out with him. Well, I don’t have a fortress of solitude or an AI hologram crystal, but I got this IPhone 15 Pro Max. Hopefully that will be enough.
I just recorded my first video on this phone for my daughter. I used 4K at 24 fps, to see if I could give the video more of a cinematic type feel. The video was a few minutes over an hour and was like 14.5GB! I’m using “Apple ProRes” video format with HDR as the “format encoder”.
I really want to film the videos for her in 4K if I can, because I am trying to future-proof the videos as much as humanly possible. I am thinking she could be watching these videos 50 plus years from now and I feel like 4K should help them hopefully hold up better.
I just wanted to ask you guys if there is a good way for me to film these videos in 4K, but maybe use some format that helps save a bit on file space. Because I believe the videos I have recorded in 4K 60fps on my PC (I have an elgato facecam pro with a SM7B mic), that are all about an hour long only came out to 1-2 GB’s or so, where as this iPhone video is 14GB! Although it is appealing to use a format that allows for the best editing options in the future, I cannot justify the storage space usage and over all extra cost this would bring upon me in the future trying to find ways to store these videos. So I definitely need some kinda 4K format that maybe has some compression or something, but will hopefully get my file sizes down to about a GB or two for an hour of footage.
If y’all have any tips for me on this I would be really appreciative! Thanks so much!
Shit why am i crying 😭
Hey dude - 4k without ProRes will be perfect and will stand the test of time. In future the only real enhancement will be the medium I.e. a more VR like experience because the human eye can’t detect pixels beyond a certain point. While 4k will be great / good enough it will take 10GB for a 1 hr film there isn’t really a way around that.
I love what you are doing for your family; especially your daughter. I have a professional camera and, were you in the UK, I’d have been happy to come record some of the videos in super high res 8K for you.
I’m sure anyone in Kentucky hearing of your story would do the same 🤞💚
To add on to what everyone else said, I strongly recommend you make sure that there are multiple backups of the videos somewhere so that in the small chance a drive gets corrupted in the next few decades/an account gets deactivated, your family will still be able to play the videos from a different source.
Turn off pro res, use the least proprietary technologies to make the videos universally playable, save the videos on at least two external SSDs, to be sure the archives are safe and don’t get corrupted, and everything doesn’t get lost if one of the drives gets stolen or broken, preferably SSDs with USB-C connectors cuz it’s the future.
Save them in folders separated by age, and on each folder put the videos you record plus some photos of you and her, text files with tips or anything you want to add that you think will be important in that moment of her life, without passwords or encryption just in case.
Good luck and enjoy your time to the maximum, wish you a lot of happy moments bro.
I see a lot of comments but I suggest a thunderbolt 4 drive, it works to record directly from iPhone to the drive, and then it being thunderbolt 4 and being compatible with older usb generations and thunderbolt 4 devices like Mac or iPad, there it’s future proofed and can use a ton of storage if you get like a tb or 2 and it’s backwards compatible
Aw man…heartbreaking
First off I’m so sorry for your situation, and I think this is a really awesome and loving thing to do!
I would stick with 4K and whatever frame rate you feel like. I personally prefer higher frame rate but if you’re going for a cinematic feel then stick with 24fps. I wouldn’t record in apple ProRes since it’s proprietary. While it’s unlikely, it’s possible apple (or apple ProRes) may not be around in the future, so not using it keeps it as compatible as possible. As for file formats, mp4/mov is the most compatible right now, but HEIC SHOULD become the standard in the future. I don’t think you need to worry too much about that.
I don’t have any tips, but I wanted to tell you that I really appreciate your plans. Your daughter will love it and I think you are a wonderful parent. I am sorry for your situation.
This is heartbreaking to read and I am so sorry. Please make sure you assign a legacy contact so someone you assign has access to your account. All the best.
One thing to consider is High Efficiency (HEIF/HEVC encoding) vs Most Compatible (jpeg/H.264). The former will have smaller file sizes, but may have to be converted to be read on some systems. The option is found in Settings:Camera:Formats, and specifies the one format used for Most Compatible. The High Efficiency setting has a range of options for recording formats.
Trust me, she won’t care about whether you’re in 4K or not.
If it’s that big of a concern, save them on an external hard drive.
You should have the link to this post saved too so she can read it eventually.
Sorry for the situation. Do you think you can record yourself with each letter separately. Technology is not ready yet but with AI , it can be used to generate new videos for the future. I would also read entire book and record it. No matter what you will be remembered.
I find 4k60 to be very realistic and it really puts you in the place. At least for nature shots! Also I like the idea of spatial video for Apple goggles coming out. Hoping to film some before my dad leaves us.
The biggest problem is, where to store it?
SSD can and will fall over time
As do all hard drives/CDs DVDs eventually
You will have to find a solution to this, I don’t have it
On cancer: have you read into fasting + zero carb? It is supposed to help since the body will then “eat” the cancer. Read up on it, I’m no doctor but I heard it prolongs the life tremendously. Good luck my friend