I love how easy it is to make family videos these days. Gone are the huge camcorders you had to plan ahead and pack if you wanted to catch an event on video. Back when LJ was an infant, we had what was then considered to be a small camcorder – which now looks huge compared to a Flip or other pocket recorder. Half the time, I would miss out on recording something because I forgot to bring it or didn’t whip it out and get a tape (remember those??) in the machine in time. Now catching a moment on video is as easy as pulling out my iPhone.
But I’ve still been having issues with sharing my videos – especially wen I’m on the road. I either take them with my Flip which requires me to load them to my PC to edit and then share or I take them with my iPhone and have to share them in their raw form. (And anyone who knows me knows I like to add music and transitions and make them all pretty!) I even loaded iMovie onto my iPad hoping to edit a few videos on the go and share them, but it was still a lot of extra work and the videos wound up sitting on my phone until I got back home from vacation.
When Mom Central invited me to participate in a sponsored campaign that featured Magisto, a new way to edit and share videos from your iPhone, I thought it might be the perfect campaign for me to participate in. First, I downloaded the app (which was super easy, of course). It’s available for both iPhone and Droid phones. I loved that there was a video explaining how the app works and another example video that shows what you can create. Even though I had never used it before, I went into creating my first video feeling pretty confident.
First, I selected a theme for my video. I chose the Mother’s Day theme.
Then I selected music to accompany my video – you can pick one of the app’s recommended songs or use one of your own.
Then I picked how long I wanted the video to be.
Next, I selected videos from my phone that I wanted to include. Since the theme was “Mother’s Day”, I decided to create a video about why I love being LJ’s mom and highlight some of the fun times we’ve had over the last year. My only challenge here was that a lot of my videos were recorded on my Flip, but I still had enough to choose from to make a good movie. I need to remember from here on out to use my phone more often!
So here it is:
My only real complaint is that I often forget and hold my iPhone the wrong way for shooting (too many years with the Flip, I guess) and there wasn’t an obvious way to correct for that. Maybe there is an easy way to rotate a video in the iPhone?? (I’m not sure. The video didn’t appear sideways when I viewed it on my phone.) But the easy fox for that is to get intot he habit of holding y iPhone sideways to take videos!
Overall, I loved how easy the whole process was and that I could complete all of the steps right on my phone! Through the end of May, you can use the code “MomsRule” to get three free downloads to try Magisto out yourself!
But wait – there’s a contest too!!
Details About the Magisto Mother’s Day Contest and Charitable Partnership with Joan Osborne:
Magisto has teamed up with multi-platinum selling recording artist and seven-time Grammy nominee Joan Osborne to celebrate Mother’s Day with a new form of music discovery that brings together powerful user-generated video production technology and musical artistry. Joan’s new song “Born To See You Through”, which celebrates her role as a mother, will be featured as a musical selection in the Mother’s Day challenge when participants create their movies that tell “Why I love being a Mom” or “Why I love my Mom.”
From now until May 13, 2013, all Magisto-created movies that include the hashtag #MagistoMoms in their title will be entered to win special prizes. Videos will be shared and available for viewing on a Mother’s Day-themed social scrapbook that will be hosted on the Magisto website. The users whose Movies get the most Likes on Magisto will win the following prizes:
- Grand Prize: Samsung Galaxy Note Tablet
- Second Place: Joan Osborne’s new CD + handwritten lyrics to ‘Born to See You Through’
- Runners up: 50 runners up will receive 1-year Magisto Pro upgrades
Magisto’s Mother’s Day challenge coincides with the first annual Mother’s Day benefit concert hosted by Osborne with special guests Ollabelle and Elizabeth Mitchell at NYC’s City Winery on May 12th. This concert will help benefit these two charities: Somaly Mam Foundation and Save the Children.
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