Five Video Editing Apps For The iPhone

Since getting my iPhone I’ve enjoyed creating short clips and posting them on my Facebook account, but never really did any editing on the device.  So, I blew some cash in the App Store to try out video editing apps for the iPhone and post my findings here.  Like many, if not most App Store junkies, I download based on positive feedback (no fewer than 3 stars), and secondly, on the screenshots – UI design is very important to me.

With all that in mind, I downloaded five apps that are all very slick and easy to use.  I have categorized these five based on the level of editing and features you may be interested in: Simple (few features, speedy rendering), Intermediate (additional features but not what I would call feature-rich), and Advanced (deep mobile editing, feature rich, offers more tools than the previous two categories).

Simple Editing

Videolicious
Developer: The Talk Market Inc.  Cost: Free
Orientation: Landscape only.

Provides 25 ideas for your video at the default screen, but ideas only in text – no additional content.  All options provide the same interface to choose the video either from your camera roll or video shot on the spot, however you do have options to upload your finished video to several magazine sites in Standard Definition only (the HD option does not present upload options for sites so you’ll need to do that manually if you wish): Lucky Magazine, Martha Stewart, Self Magazine, and ReadyMade Magazine; you also have options to upload to Facebook, YouTube, and email the video.   The end result is pretty slick and the render time is so speedy that you’ll be producing different flashy videos in very little time.  Step One > Choose your shots from camera roll.  You can choose multiple shots highlighting each vid, which includes photos.  Step Two > Tell your story with the front camera (default camera view) or switch to the rear camera.  This story telling provides the background behind your art work and is mandatory.  The thing to keep in mind - recording less than 5 seconds can result in a very short movie, so the longer you record telling your story, the longer your overall video.  Step Three > Choose theme music either from the stock selection provided or your iTunes library on the local device.  Step Four > Process your video and then watch it, share it, or create a new project.  The compiled result is a flashy, quick video that is fun to produce and definitely one of the unique apps for editing video.  If you want to share your masterpiece then you have options to send it to Facebook, YouTube, or Email the video.  Below is a sample of what to expect:

Result from Videolicious:

Video Edit
Developer: Kevin Hnatiuk  Cost: $2.99
Orientation: Portrait and Landscape.

This app is a very linear and simply strings video together.  The key point to remember is that each video must be of the same resolution to be part of the final result.  Therefore, front-facing video and rear-facing video cannot be matched.  There are no features or extensive help, however if you are looking for quick results to combine clips then this app might be for you.  Your result can be rendered to the iPhone, or as an Email attachment, or pushed to Facebook or YouTube.

Result using Video Edit:

Intermediate Editing

iMovie
Developer: Apple.  Cost: $4.99
Orientation: Portrait or Landscape

Apple’s iMovie has been stripped down to the minimum.  You have eight project settings as a presentation for your movie poster.  From the project lobby, you can add theme music, loop background music, fade in/out to black, and record microphone audio.  iMovie help is extremely detailed with step by step instructions.  Once you have compiled your movie you can preview the result before exporting it to the camera roll, YouTube, Facebook, vimeo, CNN iReport, or iTunes.  Interestingly, you also have the option to save the project to your iTunes library, which is a helpful feature if you plan to do much mobile editing over time.  The export option allows for medium 360p, large 540p, and HD 720p resolutions.

Result from iMovie:

Advanced Editing

Splice
Developer: Path 36, LLC. Cost: Free / $1.99  (Ad Free)
Orientation: Landscape only.
Its called Splice, but you can do so much more than just join clips.  Firstly, there are two versions of this app.  The free version with iAds and then the purchased version for $1.99.  Purchasing the app will remove the ads, though personally I don’t think they interfere with the user’s experience -AND- they don’t appear on the exported result – thank you, Path 36.  Now, this app is fairly involved, but thankfully the developers have included an online YouTube video tutorial and a general FAQ.  Starting a new project prompts the user with a choice of High Definition vs Standard Definition, Border options for the video (w/ option to buy more), orientation landscape vs portrait, and a series of transitions like crossfade and slide-left.  A different approach from some of the other apps, but many of the same building blocks nonetheless.

Now comes with the fun – adding video allows you to trim the video, adjust the speed, crop the size, or duplicate the instance video for a second instance in the same project.  In parallel, you can add multiple audio tracks of music from the app’s library, from your iTunes local library, or record your own audio via the microphone.  You can edit tracks to fade audio in or out and trim it to meet the length of your video.  Bonus – audio and video tracks can be dragged on their own respective timelines to align start and stops of clips.  When you’re done, export to medium resolution of 540p or high resolution of 720p.

Result using Splice:

ReelDirector
Developer: Nexvio Inc. Cost: $1.99.
Orientation: Portrait and Landscape

ReelDirector is like Splice in that is has advanced features, so thankfully they too offer a detailed help with a video tutorial.  Unlike the other apps though, ReelDirector offers the option of an opening title and closing credits to make your movie more presentable.   You have the option of adding video, photos, and audio from your local audio library.  You can edits clips, add audio and then align the audio track with the video – as a bonus, you can scrub the video by frame as you drag the audio to find the best location – very nice.  Video clips also have drag and drop for reordering them in your library.  Transitions can be added in-between clips; the feature has a convenient preview screen to illustrate what the transition looks like before you apply it to your project.  Another unique feature missing from the other apps above is subtitles.  Combined with the subtitles, you can create a very sharp video on the fly for presentation, although you may need to be careful because there is nothing to prevent the opening title and the subtitles from overlapping.  To avoid collision, I recommend adding a 3-5 second clip of video at the beginning meant to host the opening title only, then add your other clips of video that would be support the subtitles.  As a result of the subtitles and opening title text, render times were extremely slow though – 10 minutes of render time for a 52 second video.  Nevertheless, I think you will be pleased with the result and forgive the longer than usual wait time.

Result using ReelDirector:

In closing, here is a feature matrix as a summary: