Video editing and videos in general are some of my favorite subjects, My iPhone really isn’t something to use when I edit. Even when I heard about Apple moving forward with the iPhone iMovie application, I didn’t get too riled up about it. I did, however, give the app a shot after I purchased the iPhone 4. I was at an event for my daughter and didn’t think to bring a camera, so this posed a good time to check out the application. I got some different forms of footage. Because I knew I needed to write a review, I powered the iMovie application up to edit footage that I had taken. The first experience using the app was certainly unnerving. Splitting a clip wasn’t an option on iMovie. This is one of the “no-brainers” on the other movie editing applications. Anything that has ever edited has a clip splitting feature on it. The entire clip was limited to only one title. This one title is shown throughout the whole movie, even if I don’t want it to. To make a long story short, I made the movie smaller and then later, trimmed up the front of the clip and just sat back and prayed it worked out alright. Without the knowledge that this app didn’t even have clip splitting, I would have shot the video completely different. The other problem I had was primarily the iOS’s fault. There is absolutely no HD being shared on the iPhone 4 (WiFi or otherwise). It has got to be located on your computer . What’s the point of editing on my iDevice if I have to have it on my computer anyways? To be honest, I have not been looking at all forward to doing this review. It’s a total downer.
iMovie 1.1
I don’t think I, myself would ever use iMovie 1.1. When Apple put out iMovie for its fourth generation iPod, it (low and behold) added clip splitting, scrubbing and music looping all at once. AND you can now share it all over wireless internet! I now am impressed enough to begin a normal review for this application. iMovie 1.1 is a great tool to start an easy movie and finish it using those tools. You don’t get any special benefits like special effects that other editors may have on their apps.
The four choices you have on the UI include adding media, capturing stills and video playing and also viewing current projects. Using your fingertips, editing is a snap. Picking your music accompanying the film is fun to do because you can pick something straight off your iPod or use some of the apps media music. You can have different effects when you go through the films transition. There is also a wide variety of themes you can add as well (but you have to pick them from the app). Geotagging is an automatic feature on the app. Zooming on the photos is something you have to manually fix if you desire to do so.
The Split. If you need to split a clip, you won’t be prompted by any buttons, but will manually pull apart the areas you want split yourself. A transition is put in between the portions of the movie that you clipped. You have your choices of 360p, 540p, or 720p that you can have your video formatted into. You can then share with all kinds of devices that allow sharing.
If you like to shoot movies, but your a novice at editing, then iMovie is a good choice app for you.
The Conclusion
When I am in desperate need of a video edit, I may consider suing my iMovie 1.1 application. The cost of the application is $4.99, so in reality, you get what you pay for. It’s a good app for people who quickly want to get a good looking video out for everyone to see. There are a few things that could still use a little shaping-up on the application, Videos are the only things that can have titles, not photos. That’s a bit silly to me. A control board for the audio would be a nice addition as well.