Last week, along with their announcement of Cartoonatic (which is a great app, by the way), MacPhun LLC released version 2.0 of Silent Film Director — a video effects application that helps you interesting retro silent movie films. Some call it the Instagram for video. Today, I’ll be taking you on a short tour of the app, in case you were thinking of purchasing it.
Ever wondered how to how to make a silent film? Here it is.
Silent Film Director has the look and feel of most apps produced by MacPhun LLC. They’re easy to use and navigate. It costs $0.99 from the iTunes App Store. The purpose of the app is to add retro movie effects to your video clips or recordings. There’s actually a YouTube channel dedicated to video clips made using Silent Film Director, so check it out in case you’re wondering what kind of effects the app has to offer.
On the app’s front screen, you’re given the option to dive straight into business of movie making or to have a look at the works of others. You’re also provided with the option of upgrading to the Pro version via an in-app purchase of $0.99. The Pro version will allow you to add images into your video, introduce title cards and add transitions. The standard version will simply take any video and apply the chosen effect.
Here’s where the magic happens.
The app holds 6 effects: Black & White, 60′s Home Video, 20′s Movie, Sepia, Vintage Sepia, 70′s Home Video. Unlike Cartoonatic, you cannot preview these effects live.
You’ve also got the option of selecting from 4 quality levels: low (192×144), normal (480×360), high (640×480) and HD (1280×720). The fact that Silent Film Director (a $0.99 app) can process and output HD video is quite impressive.
Then you’ll need to select a soundtrack. You can either select one of the preloaded sound effects, load any track from your iPod library or forego any music altogether.
This is where Silent Film Director pulls away from the mainstream video effects app — by allow you to select the rate at which the video is played back, you can create unique and interesting video clips.
Depending on the quality selected, the output video can actually be rendered in real-time i.e. a 3 minute clip is processed in 3 minutes.
When it’s all done, the clip is presented to you, along with the usual sharing options and the ability to save it to your camera roll.
Although I’m partial to Cartoonatic, Silent Film Director is a very powerful, yet simple to use video app that allows just about anyone to create lovely short film clips that are not only artistic but nostalgic. At $0.99, it’s definitely a handy app to own.
Buy Silent Film Director from the iTunes App Store.
