High tech that looks and acts like low tech is hot. The retro and vintage camera effect app craze is in full swing. How about vintage video? You may have seen the Vintage Video Maker app featured in our Appisode 172. If that piqued your interest, then read on to learn more about this fun little app.
Features
Load your own videos from your Library or your computer via FTP. Or, shoot videos from right in the app. Choose your effect of choice: Black and White, Sepia, Vintage Sepia, 20’s Movie, 60’s Home Video, or None. You choose the quality as well: Low (192x144), Normal (480x360), High (640x480), or HD (1280x720).
Select a sound: From Video, None, Piano 1, Piano 2, or Movie Projector. Piano 1 and Piano 2 are both jaunty, 20’s style tunes. Movie Projector sounds like those old movie projectors from before the days of VCRs, DVDs and digital. Alternatively, you can load a custom sound by adding files via local ftp connection.
Next, choose your Video Time Scale. In other words, do you want your video sped up or slowed down? Old-fashioned movies were always sped up a bit, so for a real vintage look you’ll want to speed it up a bit. The 2.0x speed is checked if you do nothing; and that strikes me as pretty authentically retro. Choose between 1.0x (regular speed), 0.3x (slowest), 0.5x, 0.7x, 1.5x, 2.0x, or 3.0x (fastest).
After you take your video, it will be automatically saved to your camera roll. You have the option to e-mail it from right inside the app if you wish.
If you like, you can purchase the Silent Film Maker functionality in-app. This allows you to create silent films like Charlie Chaplin, complete with title cards, transitions, and soundtracks. This add-on gives you the ability to edit within the app.
The Breakdown
The Good
Vintage Video Maker is whole lot of fun. If you have seen and admired early films and television, like the Cecil B. DeMille classics, the original Dracula, or The Little Rascals, you will enjoy duplicating that look on your iPhone. If you remember watching family movies set up on a big screen and projector in your parents’ (or grandparents’) living room, you will get quite a kick out of mimicking the the mid-century look on your oh-so-modern device!
This app is really easy to use; you don’t have to be Cecil B. DeMille to create an old-fashioned masterpiece of your own. The user interface takes no time at all to figure out.
Since you can mix and match film speed, look, and sound, there are a lot of possibilities for different retro looks. It's nice that you can load movies you've already created -- you're not limited to what you film in-app. This means you can try different looks on the same movie, and keep tweaking it until it's exactly how you want it.
The Bad
I would like to see more filters than just the six offered. And even more importantly, there ought to be more soundtracks and sound effects. The moods of many different eras can be evoked with just a few simple measures of music and other sounds. Hopefully, future updates will include these. I would also like to have the ability to do some simple editing within this app, without having to make a separate purchase.
The Verdict
If you’re into the retro iPhone app camera movement, if you are into film or videography, if you like old movies, or even if you just want to amuse yourself, friends, and family; this is a must-buy app for your collection.
