I’ve just finished having a play with the new Vimeo iPhone/iPad app. And it’s more than a little bit good.

It does 2 jobs, really; giving you the ability to administer your Vimeo account on the go, but more importantly, shoot, edit and upload videos just from your mobile.

I’d used Reel Director before for mobile video editing but was frustrated with the lack of proper timeline editing – you can’t see your whole movie until it’s rendered and the splitting and trimming is time-consuming. The results, however, were good.

Using the Vimeo app is a lot more pleasing although the finished product won’t be hugely different. Here’s something I threw together last night.

 

You can either shoot video using the app or upload from the camera roll but once it’s in the project you’re presented with a recognisable timeline. Clips can be reordered using click and drag and trimming is just a case of dragging the end points of each clip. Trimming requires a bit of guess work to get spot on but if you want frame by frame accuracy you won’t be using a mobile app.

Vimeo timeline

Vimeo's timeline

You have tracks for adding a limited but tasteful selection of transitions, basic titling and audio. The audio track has a small library of multi-purpose tracks that won’t make you want to stick pins in your ears but you can also import your own tracks or record voiceover. Voiceover again requires guess work as you can’t narrate a video while watching.

The results can be rendered and uploaded to Vimeo pretty easily over wi-fi so you can go from filming to sharing in a matter of minutes and without ever having to transfer your clips to a laptop.

Possible uses

  • Digital storytelling tool.
  • Capturing evidence of of learning, skills, etc.
  • Creating records of field trips, lab work or similar.
  • Creating rough drafts of shots before committing to a proper, expensive shoot
  • Developing framing skills (while shooting you can overlay a grid on the screen for judging rule of thirds).

You’ll never get everything you want out of a mobile app for something as fiddly as video editing, but this is a great compromise.

Pros

  • It’s free.
  • Timeline-based editing.
  • Links well with  your Vimeo account.
  • Flexible sound options (including voice recording).
  • Combines the editor with account management.

Cons

  • Importing clips from the camera roll has to be done one clip at a time.
  • No clip split feature that I could find.
  • Limited music library.
  • Fiddly on an iphone. Might be better on an iPad.
  • iOS only at the moment.

One tip; make sure that you allow the app to use location data. This just gives it access to your camera roll and won’t, they say, actually track your location so there’ll be no unnecessary battery drain.

And, if you haven’t already done so, visit Vimeo’s extensive Video School; a fantastic range of video tutorials for everyone from novice to expert.