Everyday Photography

iMovie for iPhone

9th September, 2010 - Posted by blazingcircle - No Comments

My iPhone 4 takes HD videos.  It is not a feature that was a deciding factor in getting the phone, it was simply a bonus.  The quality of the video was a factor in me deciding to use it regularly once I had it.

I liked the video option on the older models and used it, however I found the quality to be lower than I wanted to spend my time to take videos at.

Moving to 720p video made all the difference.  I take more videos than photos with my phone now and wish I would remember to take more than I do.  I still prefer a dedicated camera for overall photo quality and take far more photos than videos, however I find that occasionally I will take a video of a  scene that shows off that location better than any photo.  As an example, fountains benefit from the captured movement to show the flow of water.

To edit these videos I purchased the iMovie application for my phone.  The recent update added one major usability feature, I can now play a video, pick where I want it to begin and end, pause it and split the video into two or more parts with a single swipe downwards and delete the unwanted parts of the clip quickly and easily.  Previously to do the same required a “dragging crop” from the beginning or end of the clip to the starting or stopping point.  This was hard to do with long videos as it was drag, move the video, drag, move the video over and over and over.   To add multiple sections of a video the clip had to be inserted a second time and cropped again in the same manner.  The new method is 100x easier and the app is now that much better with the new feature.  It makes taking long clips worth it.

The next two features I would like is firstly, the ability to record voice-overs  for the videos while watching the movie and play them back with music faded in the background.  This would bring the app further into the professional realm.  Secondly, I would also like the ability to purchase what amounts to Karaoke music to use in the app.  There are plenty of hit songs that could be sold sans audio that would be outstanding background music but the vocals don’t fit the theme of family movies.  As well, I am certain there are artists who would jump at the change to make a large number of 30 second looping-friendly tunes and sell them in bulk.  Coldplay could take the music under the chorus of a popular song and sell it as a loop.  These could be a special iMovie audio type in iTunes and the iPod app.  As well, to push albums an artist could sell an iMovie version of every song only with their latest album for no extra cost.  These same songs could be used in the desktop iMovie program too.