Desktop editing met its match? Don’t count on it.

As pocket filmmakers are becoming like spare change, the mobility of technology becoming available is on the increase and the demigods over at Apple have jumped on the bandwagon with the release of their iMovie app for the, ‘this changes everything. again’, iPhone 4.



I have the new iPhone. I love the new iPhone. I like to consider myself a filmmaker, or a fledgling one at least. So the arrival of this app to accompany the iPhone’s dazzling new HD video camera made me a bit weak at the knees.

The main purpose of this app seems to be to create a video postcard for you to send to a friend/relative, not to edit any sort of narrative video. With options to choose a theme, including; Modern, Bright, Travel, Playful and News, each theme includes a matching set of titles, transitions and its own soundtrack. There is barely any room for tinkering with these set themes, pretty much destroying any glimmer of creativity for the end-user. The actual ability to ‘cut’ footage is a fairly simple touch and drag technique that compliments the phones multi-touch technology, but this can become quite fiddly. The best feature comes in the shape of the export feature where you have the choice of Medium, Large or HD video sizes, and from there one can go on to upload to Facebook or YouTube or just simply email the video to a friend.



Although never blown away by the features of the full iMovie in OSX, I can appreciate its use in the right hands, hands ranging from beginners to parents wanting to chop together ‘home movies’ of their offspring taking their first steps.

So I can only assume that Apple are trying to cater for the same users, not those of us wanting a Final Cut Pro Studio in the palm of our hands. Which is fair enough. I just wont get my hopes up next time.