iMovie for the iPad
Couple of years ago I posted this, pre iPad 1 release:
So, first of all, awesome prescience, Addabox, if I do say myself.
But seriously, I think we're looking at the future of film editing. I'm old enough to have had a previous career involving actual celluloid-- cutting it, watching it on a flatbed or Moviola, looking at individual frames against a light.
Video editing, and later non-linear digital editing, brought enormous power to the editing room, but at the sacrifice of tactile relationship to the actual stuff of the film. The easy flow of data on a screen, manipulated by a keyboard, changed not just the way films are edited, but the style of editing. There's something about actually taking a frame of film and butting it up against another that makes you think differently than just choosing an edit point on a screen (there's also something about not being able to just endlessly toy around with every possible edit that makes for a bit of discipline, but that's for another post).
I think iMovie (and the more professional applications for touch that will follow) is the first stirring of the next wave. And it will change the style of editing again. Moving clips with your finger, zooming to fine tune edits, tapping, pinching, drubbing, using your hands-- it's not just a different way of achieving the same thing, it's a different process that engages different parts of your mind. I believe iMovie for the iPad is a revolution. It may not look like it now, but just wait.
Quote:
You know, I was watching the iMovie guided tour movie, and it hit me: all of the featured behaviors, from drag and drop editing to skimming to pop-up windows and skimmable palettes, are very well suited to a touch interface.
I tried to imagine using this iMovie on a tablet, and, guess what? Totally works. In fact, I would think there would be something of the feel of editing film on a bench, moving and dragging and cutting clips with your fingers, with the skimming thing replacing holding up a length of film to a backlight. The size of the precision edit window would make tracing out cut points a snap, you just tap clips to get windows with adjustment sliders, toggle the good sized icons for sound, fx and titles, drag, drop, tap again, skim some options, watch it play.
I'm starting to wonder if Apple isn't planning on making iLife the big differentiator for a touch tablet-- these apps are the least "keyboard-y" around, and the latest revision seem to really be pushing finger friendly UIs.
Could Apple be optimizing apps for multi-touch in plain sight? I have to say, it really looks to me like they are.
You know, I was watching the iMovie guided tour movie, and it hit me: all of the featured behaviors, from drag and drop editing to skimming to pop-up windows and skimmable palettes, are very well suited to a touch interface.
I tried to imagine using this iMovie on a tablet, and, guess what? Totally works. In fact, I would think there would be something of the feel of editing film on a bench, moving and dragging and cutting clips with your fingers, with the skimming thing replacing holding up a length of film to a backlight. The size of the precision edit window would make tracing out cut points a snap, you just tap clips to get windows with adjustment sliders, toggle the good sized icons for sound, fx and titles, drag, drop, tap again, skim some options, watch it play.
I'm starting to wonder if Apple isn't planning on making iLife the big differentiator for a touch tablet-- these apps are the least "keyboard-y" around, and the latest revision seem to really be pushing finger friendly UIs.
Could Apple be optimizing apps for multi-touch in plain sight? I have to say, it really looks to me like they are.
So, first of all, awesome prescience, Addabox, if I do say myself.
But seriously, I think we're looking at the future of film editing. I'm old enough to have had a previous career involving actual celluloid-- cutting it, watching it on a flatbed or Moviola, looking at individual frames against a light.
Video editing, and later non-linear digital editing, brought enormous power to the editing room, but at the sacrifice of tactile relationship to the actual stuff of the film. The easy flow of data on a screen, manipulated by a keyboard, changed not just the way films are edited, but the style of editing. There's something about actually taking a frame of film and butting it up against another that makes you think differently than just choosing an edit point on a screen (there's also something about not being able to just endlessly toy around with every possible edit that makes for a bit of discipline, but that's for another post).
I think iMovie (and the more professional applications for touch that will follow) is the first stirring of the next wave. And it will change the style of editing again. Moving clips with your finger, zooming to fine tune edits, tapping, pinching, drubbing, using your hands-- it's not just a different way of achieving the same thing, it's a different process that engages different parts of your mind. I believe iMovie for the iPad is a revolution. It may not look like it now, but just wait.
Comments
I have little experience with video editing beyond working with iMovie, but it seems to me that any type of activity that has a tactile component to it can work if not benefit from a touch interface. I'm wondering how musicians will react to strumming an iPad. Either way I doubt it will be long it before a live band is formed that plays entirely on Garageband instruments.
It's a bit ironic that the "big iPhone" that's "just for consumption" and which is alleged to be soon eclipsed by much more robust and hardworking contenders is the one with the heavy duty creative applications. Who's going to write the iMovie or GarageBand equivalent for Android or the Playbook or HP? Or Pages or Keynote for that matter? When you're done looking at widgets and reveling in being able to see Flash, what do you do with your tablet? Somehow, that question, which was so broadly and persistently directed at the iPad at its introduction, is now no longer operative. The iPad gets more and more serious functionality, and I'm supposed to be worried about notifications and specs.
I'd pat you on the back if your hands weren't in the way.
I have little experience with video editing beyond working with iMovie, but it seems to me that any type of activity that has a tactile component to it can work if not benefit from a touch interface. I'm wondering how musicians will react to strumming an iPad. Either way I doubt it will be long it before a live band is formed that plays entirely on Garageband instruments.
That was one of the first things I thought when watching the event.