Video Editing first experiences

By Marco, 19 April, 2020

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi everyone!

I just finished my first video project on iOS and thought I‘d share my experiences. This is not a guide, rather a set of observations and some questions. Perhaps some of you have tried similar things and have ideas on how to make some of these easier in the future.

The project I wanted to do was a small tutorial video that shows how to add alternative text to photos on Instagram and Facebook. It consisted of three parts: An introductory selfie video, and two screen recordings, one made in Instagram, the other in the Facebook app. I recorded the first in the Camera app, the latter two using the Screen Recording feature in iOS. All was done on my iPhone 11 Pro Max.

First thing I noticed when I wanted to cropthe videos: The video editing feature in Photos does not have a scrubber. So I cannot just play the start until the point I want, then find out what time index that is and adjust the beginning slider. Likewise, I cannot play until the point where I want the clip to stop, and find out its time index. I have to find the approximate times outside the editor, in the video playback, and then adjust the start and end points from memory or written down notes. This is not an accessibility problem, since sighted people also don‘t seem to have an indicator where the current playback is time-wise.

I also found that in screen recording, first I could hear the VoiceOver speech in my recording as I intended. I then used dictation in one of the recordings to more quickly insert text. That was not recorded, and moreover, after my voice came back and the text was inserted, VoiceOver speech was no longer recorded aloud.

I then decided to stitch everything together in iMovie. And this is where the fun started. IMovie itself is largely accessible, with the exception of one thing: When selecting a clip, I can do all sorts of things, but not rotate the video itself or adjust its size. I had the problem that iMovie insists on producing the resulting movie in landscape format, but Instagram and Facebook on iOS are both portrait apps, so the screen recordings, as well as the selfie video, were in portrait. The result was that the video became square, with half of the bottom and top edges being cut off. One can fix this by zooming out the clips so they become smaller in height, then fit in the viewport with black bezels on either side, but only without VoiceOver and when one is sighted.

All the rest worked, like defining transitions, adjusting their length, and some other bits. The video I made was without background music because I didn‘t want it to distract viewers/listeners. But this one part actually made me upload a messed up version of the video to Instagram and YouTube first, and some sighted viewers then notified me. I then had to go back and ask my partner to adjust the video clips inside the iMovie project to fit. We first tried to turn them 90° and do a full portrait video, but Instagram, a portrait app, insisted that it wanted either a square or landscape video. Fun times!

Does anyone else have another iOS app they use for video editing? I have both an iPhone and iPad, so can also be an iPad app. And secondly, is there an easier, more straight-forward way to crop either ends of a clip? The only way I found, and described above, is really cumbersome.

Look forward to your thoughts!
Marco

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