iMovie

iMovie Review

by on June 10, 2011

The new iMovie app for iPad 2, a slightly scaled back version of the Mac version allows videos to be shot, trimmed, voiced-over, subtitled, sound-tracked, exported and uploaded in a completely self-contained package. The app was a five star winner on the iPhone 4 when it launched last summer, so how does the larger screen version, complete with new themes and exporting options, perform on the iPad 2? Let’s find out.

Launching the iMovie app presents you with a completely blank canvas. Anything you want to include in the app has to be recorded, imported or added into the timeline, so it’s essential to have access to the iPad 2’s new video camera from within the application.

The only problem here is that the iPad 2’s 720p HD video camera isn’t nearly as good as the iPhone 4’s, so footage often appears grainy and bereft of life and vitality. Shooting video with this device isn’t exactly the most natural experience either.
Once you’ve recorded your footage, the clip will appear in the video roll pane. From there you can trim the edges with tenth-of-a -second precision and drag and drop it into your timeline.

The interface is extremely easy to master thanks a simplistic design and the iPad 2’s magnificently responsive touchscreen. This entire operation could have been extremely fiddly, but editing is a quick and easy process.

Clips can be separated by a cross dissolve or a transition unique to your theme. You can also fade in and out at the start and end of your movie. A double click on the clip will offer the chance to add text, change location information and the volume, while dragging it out of the timeline removes it.
We loved the fact that you can easily drop in any track from the iPod application and place it into the timeline. Unfortunately you can’t trim or move the song around your timeline and we’d like to be able to fade it in and out, but iMovie doesn’t allow that either.

While reviewing this app, we had to keep reminding ourselves that it only costs £2.99, although there are a couple of additions we’d like to see to bring the mobile version in line with the desktop app, there’s enough here to create a great looking video project and it’s so easy to use, even video editing novices will have it mastered in no time. Download it as soon as your iPad 2 arrives.

Best iPad apps | Apple iPad 2 review