Magisto sharpens its AI video editing algorithm, adds themes, albums and group editing
Sure, Magisto's automatic video editing algorithms are great for social media mashup clips, but what if you want to use the service's robotic sense of cinema to tell a story? CEO Oren Boiman says it's just what social video is missing, and has tweaked the service to fill the gap. Users now have access to a collection of themes to change how their footage is handled. The idea is to tip the algorithm in on the emotion the user is trying to convey, selecting "so cute" or "street beat" to cue it to select appropriately adorable or aggressive song suggestions, special effects or title treatments. The service also added a new video album feature, making it easier to organize and share videos with friends and family, and hopes to implement a collaborative editing system soon -- complete with post-production tools to tweak the computer's direction. Of course, you could always do things the old fashioned way.
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MAGISTO DRIVES NEXT GENERATION SOCIAL VIDEO
BY ENABLING PERSONALIZED VIDEO STORYTELLING
New Research Informs Feature Launches that Simplify Turning Raw Footage
into Professionally Produced, Individualized Movies
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2013–Magisto-winner of the 2012 CES Mobile Apps Showdown-heralds a shift in focus of social video from a light sharing and viewing activity, to full-spectrum storytelling with sophisticated editing and production features. Magisto–which has more than 3 million users one year after its launch at CES 2012–enables the transformation of everyday experiences into unforgettable movies.
New research from Magisto and PlayScience found that more than 80 percent of parents want a timesaving, simple video editing solution. Based on this and other findings, Magisto has launched Groups, Video Albums, Themes and an updated algorithm that automatically produces and edits personal videos. Additionally, Magisto has overhauled the design of its website to include a simplified design and user interface.
"There are plenty of apps that help the average user create professional looking photos but nothing has done that for video," said Oren Boiman, CEO of Magisto. "We dove deep into the art of editing and production and have given people the ability to truly tell their stories. We've fully automated and simplified an extremely sophisticated process to a few clicks, and believe this will solve for what's missing in social video today."
More than half of parents (57%) surveyed only share videos with family or close friends. Magisto's new video Albums enable people to organize their movies according to subject matter and to share them with corresponding Groups to ensure that personal movies are finding the right audience. Groups can range from "Family Members" to "Skate Buddies" and users can create any number of them. Video Albums contextualize users' video stories and are a brand-new way to simultaneously share collections of videos.
With a click of a button, people can choose from new Themes to inform the look and feel of their movies. From "So Cute" to the edgier "Street Beat", each Theme includes custom special effects, title treatments and song suggestions.
Using Themes as a guide, Magisto's new algorithm adjusts its editing style to inject the users' intended emotion. The result is a keepsake purposefully designed for storytelling, sharing and remembering those life experiences.
In the near future, Magisto will introduce other incremental features including collaborative storytelling where multiple users can contribute to one movie, and post-production features to further tweak the edited videos. The company will also support television and other connected devices in the coming months.
"A recent Business Insider report said that 'mobile video is becoming a mass consumer phenomenon, much as digital photos were earlier in the smartphone adoption cycle'," said Magisto's new Chief Marketing Officer, Reid Genauer. "Our research confirms that and suggests that mainstream adoption is right around the corner. It's a nascent market waiting for a one-click solution that yields professional quality movies; Magisto is just that."
