Video editing on iPhones, and what it may mean to filmmaking

Apple recently boasted that there are now in excess of 100,000 apps available for iPhones, and among them are video-editing programs that can organize clips, do time-lapses and slo- or fast-motion.

Redmond Pie writes abut some of them here.

Steve Sandy at Tuaw writes here about Reeldirector, saying,

ReelDirector is a powerful, easy-to-use, and fun iPhone app for creating videos with titles and effects. It’s perfect for putting together on-the-spot vacation videos to send to friends and relatives, making quick video podcasts, and teaching kids (or yourself) the basics of video editing.

For serious filmmakers, not very important. But the impact here is the number of people who are going to famliarize themselves with the basics of video editing before they ever hear of Avid or Final Cut; video editing will become second-nature, and storytelling through “processed” video is no longer the obscure pursuit it was a decade ago.

That might mean more and more younger people finding a gateway into the work; it will mean more entree into documentary filmmaking via YouTube or Facebook, and it might mean even more transparency to the process of filmmaking, and hopefully more emphasis on solid storytelling.

If you doubt what real artists can do even with simple technology, have a look at the much-talked-about New Yorker magazine cover done completely on an iPhone. Jorge Colombo used an app called “Brushes” to do the work.

Anyone ever edit a film with your thumbs?