iMovie for iPhone 4 Example (updated)

Written by: Adam Christianson

Categories: Cool Stuff, Reviews

Update: Added HD (720p) version below for comparison.

Above is a sample movie I created 100% on the new iPhone 4. I used the iPhone 4’s built in front and rear facing cameras to capture stills and video. I used Apple’s new iMovie for iPhone App to edit and assemble the clips and add the transitions, titles, and audio. Finally the video was exported to the Camera Roll and uploaded directly to YouTube via the device. The whole project took about 2 hours or so to complete and was actually quite simple to put together. As you can see the final results are pretty good, but there is room for improvement. First. I don’t have steady hands and I think a tripod or something to stabilize the phone as I shot the video would have been a great help. As for the audio, I used the built-in “theme” track. In the app there was no indication of the length of the track. When enabled it simply created a green “tack line” under my video timeline and the line extended the full length of my video project. I naturally assumed it was long enough or would loop to cover my whole project. When previewing in edit mode in the app it even played the audio throughout the project. It was only after export that I discovered the track simply faded out at the end, around a minute or so in. There is no option to loop the track and you can only have one such “background” track per project. You can however also include the recorded audio from each clip over the background audio if you choose and it will even auto-duck the background track. Finally, the video exported to the Camera Roll on the iPhone is output at 720p (1280 x 720). Unfortunately, uploading to YouTube directly from the iPhone only yields a maximum resolution of 568 x 320. I assume this is why the YouTube above maxes out at 360p. Even so I think that all of this can be done on a phone. Just so you can get a comparison, I do plan to upload a 720p version polished up in iMovie on my Mac so you can see what the iPhone is fully capable of. Stay tuned.

Here is the 720p version as promised. It is still exactly the same version produced and exported entirely on the iPhone. The only change is a new music track I added in iMovie on the Mac since the iPhone version couldn’t be looped.

There are 5 comments on iMovie for iPhone 4 Example (updated):

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  1. Jim | Jun 25 2010 - 04:04

    Very cool that you can do this 100% on the phone. Looks great on my iPad too.

  2. macjim | Jun 25 2010 - 10:22

    Are you not able to record sound or does it record sound?

  3. dancmos | Jun 27 2010 - 12:22

    Looks very good. I shot some video of the USS Texas the other day and was blown away by the quality, particularly when I watched on my 24″ monitor in full-screen and it lost no quality. The only issue is the videographer because it was jiggly and I moved too fast.

  4. Brian | Jun 28 2010 - 11:55

    Very nice. Here’s one I shot and edited yesterday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy7O9KCZHcI Keep up the good work. Let me know what you think.

  5. William | Jun 28 2010 - 04:24

    Steady state 720p video is very impressive; however, the transitions seemed a little pixelated. I’m no expert on video, so I would allow that this may be more of a YouTube consequence rather than the hardware or iMovie. Adam, I’m glad that you didn’t drop your new phone in the carp pond!