Most of the world’s video is now shot on smartphones, but hardly anyone shares their videos widely. That’s partly because it takes too many steps and results in too many error messages, but also because many people aren’t convinced their hand-shot clips are worthy of the Internet.
Viddy [1] is a relatively new free app for iPhone and iPad (and Android later this year) that spices up mundane video clips of 15 seconds or less with video effects and music soundtracks. The app also makes it easy to share those clips on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr or a blog, as well as sending them around via e-mail or SMS. Or you can bypass the social networks and post directly to a personal account page on Viddy.com that anyone can see.
Viddy’s not-so-secret weapon is its production packs, downloadable sets of video effects and background music that can be tapped into a video clip to make it much more intriguing. Internet diva iJustine has a clip that instantly demonstrates Viddy’s power. A 15-second shot of iJustine standing before her phone, turning left and right, would be boring. But with a tap of Viddy’s Glam effect, she slowed the video to half-speed, colored it a retro blue-grey with occasional flashes of light, and added a dramatic guitar-and-trumpet jazz track. She looks like she’s in a Quentin Tarantino film. [2]
Another popular effect, Crystal, blurs the edges of a scene and brightens the object in the center, making talking-head shots—the most popular genre on Viddy’s site [3] —more personable.
To keep Viddy clips from becoming Internet clichés, the company keeps adding production packs with new effects and new music. The rock band Incubus created a pack that lets users add a snippet from their latest single “Adolescents” along with special effects. Viddy plans to add more celebrity packs, as well as premium packs and extra features like longer video lengths, for which users will hopefully pay.
The app works just fine on an iPhone, but it really opens up on an iPad’s bigger screen despite the lack of an iPad-specific app yet. You can better see what you’re shooting and editing, and watching other people’s clips is more enjoyable. If you’ve seen what Instagram has done for phone-shot photos [4] by making them more appealing and easier to share, Viddy may soon do the same for videos.
Links
- ^ Viddy (viddy.com)
- ^ has a clip (viddy.com)
- ^ the most popular genre on Viddy’s site (viddy.com)
- ^ If you’ve seen what Instagram has done for phone-shot photos (www.nytimes.com)
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