Apps for Making Amazing Videos with Your iPhone

Your iPhone is a great video camera… Period! (Update 2015 now with 4K)

If you are still asking which video camcorder is the best buy, stop asking because it is in your hands.

As a video production professional myself, I dare say I have shot and edited a complete business event with an iPhone 4 (now iPhone 6S)… including audio interviews.

Some filmmakers are even making movies with the iPhone. Some of my own public talks were filmed with the iPhone. The only camera I brought to my one-week Hokkaido Japan Holiday trip was the iPhone.

With the iPhone, the desktop computer is totally unnecessary. I can shoot, edit and upload high definition videos to YouTube right on my phone anywhere with an Internet connection.

In this post, I present to you the top seven apps I use often to produce amazing videos with my iPhone.

1. iMovie
Price: US$4.99
iMovie is free on the MacBook but costs $4.99 on the iPhone. However, the iMovie app is a must-have for quick and easy video editing. You can cut, trim, add transitions, add text, add music and sound effects. There are two drawbacks though. iMovie cannot select clips in batches. Picking photos and video clips is a tedious task if you have many of them. The music track is too rigid and does not allow you to move music clips to any part of the video.

2. Splice
Price: Free with ads, US$3.99 without ads.
Splice is a more advance video editing app than the iMovie. With Splice, you can save time by selecting clips in batches. You can place music on any part of the video. The best feature is its ability to speed up and slow down a video clip. You get THREE audio tracks which is great for a combination of background music, voice narration and sound effects. The greatest drawback is its inability to overlay text on a video clip which the iMovie can do. So actually I use both the video editing apps to complete my videos.

3. Movie Stiller
Price: US$2.99
If your hands are naturally shaky, you can save your trembling shots with Movie Stiller. This amazing app really does its work. I tried it on my worst shaky video clip shot while riding a snowmobile in Hokkaido and the result was fantastically smooth. The drawback is not the app itself but my obsession to stabilize every handheld shot.

4. PhotoShop Express
Price: Free
This is the mobile version of the famous Adobe Photoshop. I use it frequently to enhance my still photos. Most of my mobile video production include photos. The crop function is perfect for zooming in to a particular section of an image I want my audience to see. Exposure and contrast features can brighten pictures with backlight problems. You must download Photoshop Express, it’s free.

5. Movie Frame Grabber
Price: Free
There are times when you captured a great video shot but wished you had taken a photo instead. With Movie Frame Grabber, you can select a specific frame from your video clip and turn it into a photo. For those that want to create a freeze frame effect from a motion shot, now you know your iPhone can do it. Another way of using Frame Grabber is to create unique thumbnail images of your video for your blog or website.

6. Doodle Buddy
Price: Free
Doodle Buddy is my favorite app for adding text to images. I can place text in any position, rotate it and change font properties. This is one way I overcome the text overlay limitation in the current video editing apps. Good for captions, quotes and sub-titles.

7. Extras for iMovie
Price: US$0.99
Sometimes I want to make videos totally with just pictures and texts. These are usually instructional, sales or motivational videos. The pictures I want are scenes that may take a lot of time to recreate. Extras for iMovie app contains hundreds of images that is searchable with the right description. Beware though, I have discovered some images that infringe copyrights. So if you find a nice picture on Extras for iMovie, go to Google Images to verify that it does not belong to anybody.

There are more amazing apps which I use for shooting, editing and uploading videos on the go. In this article I showed you just seven of them.

Like my Facebook Page for more reviews on iPhone apps for photo-videography and more.

In the mean time, check out this complete course on How to Shoot Amazing Videos with Your iPhone.

Adrian Lee
iPhone addict
http://AdrianVideoImage.com

PS:
What’s your favorite iPhone camera app and why?