Videolicious for the iPhone and iPad is a free app designed for those of us who aren’t professional video editors but still want to have our important moments preserved in quality video. By walking people through the step by step combining of video footage, photos and music, Videolicious lets users create their own documentary style clips and share them to Twitter, Facebook and email.
Users who want to create a video simply choose the already existing shots or footage they want to include, in the order they want them to appear. Then the app records the user telling the story behind the photos or video, then asking them to select accompanying music from either within the app itself or iPhone playlists. Once all elements are selected, the Videolicious technology analyzes and fits together the components, taking less than a minute to process. The quality of the finished product is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
While the format definitely doesn’t have the versatility of customizing and editing something with Final Cut Pro and can get cookie cutter after awhile, the system is meant to provide discrete units of video for users who want to create something good, quickly. Founder Matt Singer tells me that the app is designed specifically for those that want to “get the best possible result in the least amount of time.”
On launch Videolicious has partnered up with Martha Stewart, SELF magazine, Lucky Magazine and ReadyMade who are using the app to further engage with readers by letting them upload custom Videolicious video content. Stewart, for example, will be asking viewers a question every month and culling some of the best Videolicious responses for MarthaStewart.com.
“A lot of media companies are looking for a way to get their audiences involved with editorial,” says Singer “This empowers readers to participate.”
We shot a Videolicious video in the TechCrunch offices (below), and head of TechCrunch TV Jon Orlin was into it. “It’s impressive. It’s not going to put professional video editors out of business. But, for videos you shoot with your phone and don’t want to spend time to bring into iMovie or Final Cut, this software is great. By the time you imported all the clips into a separate editing program, Videolicious would have a finished video,” he said.
The Videolicious app is an outgrowth of Talk Market, a company that built custom automatic video editing systems for Fortune 500 retailers and media companies. Talk Market has $2 million in seed funding from former Bloomingdales CEO Marvin Traub and Amazon.