Alternatives to IMovie?

By Robert Lee Brown, 28 May, 2021

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Good afternoon everybody!

Does anyone know of any good alternatives to IMovie for the IPhone? I'm looking for an App, service, whatever, that will allow me to extend the duration of photos so I can slap some audio onto them and make a video from this process.

My vision has finally gotten to the point that trying to fiddle with camera setup and adjustment just isn't possible, and I don't have anyone sighted around to help me keep up with setting things up and adjusting things on the fly. And while I'm focusing more on podcasting and audio content than anything these days, I would still like to post things up on Youtube, my Facebook page, and Tiktok from time to time.

Sadly, IMovie for IPhone seems to not be able to do what I'm wanting to do, in an accessible manner, or so that's what I learned from the tech support people from Apple (both in the Accessibility and IMovie departments).

I currently have a Windows laptop (I also have a new Mac laptop, but I'm slowly learning how to use it and I have a feeling it's going to take months for me to get up to speed with it), and while I could just use Windows Movie Maker to edit videos like this, the quality of anything I make with it is kind of sub par in many ways. Plus, I'm already recording and editing all of my audio on my phone, I'd like to be able to do the same for the photo end of the video process, if at all possible.

Just in case the identity of my phone is important, I have a SE20 IPhone.

Thank you!

Rob

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Comments

By Wenwei on Friday, June 25, 2021 - 08:33

Hi, Rob.

I know that you specifically indicated in your post that you'd like to do all your editing on your phone. But I'm not sure that you will be able to accomplish what you want using just a phone. I would consider using iMovie on the Mac in conjunction with Aira.

When you say that everything you make using movie maker is sub par, what do you mean by that? Do you mean that the content looks or sounds choppy? Again, you could use Aira to assist you with that. Install a cloud service on your phone to make accessing your content much easier.

By Winter Roses on Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - 08:33

Download Clips from Apple here https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clips/id1212699939

Import the photo that you would like to extend for the duration of your project into the app. I would recommend using a landscape photo, and setting the aspect ratio to 16 9.
To convert the photo into a video, hold your finger down on the record button. Voiceover doesn't announce this option, but you can swipe up to lock the recording. Hold for about a minute, and extend the duration of the photo to The length of your project using the right trim feature in the effects menu.
Ensure that you mute the audio that is going to be recorded while you're extending the duration of the photo.
At this point, you're going to be left with a silent video. You can choose to share this to your camera roll, or import this footage directly into iMovie.
If you have The audio file, save that to the iCloud Drive, or any other folder in your Files application.
To import The audio file to your project, go to your import settings in iMovie, select audio, and choose the file tab. After locating your audio file, this is where you insert it into your project.
If you're recording a video, but you want to strip the audio from it, I would recommend that you save this video in your camera roll and add it to your favorites album. When you go to iMovie to insert this section into your project, it's going to be easier for you to locate it.
After following the steps outlined above to import the original photo clip in the form of a video to iMovie, go to insert, albums, favorites, and select your footage with the audio that you would like to extract.
In the more options menu, you will be provided with the overlay choices such as picture in picture, split screen and a few others. Choose, audio only, from this list. This will add the audio from the video to your project.
When you complete all these steps, you will be left with the still photo extended over the audio of your project. Export the finished product to your camera roll on your iPhone, and share it to YouTube using the app.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them here, or use the contact form on this website to send me a message privately.