Apps enhance iPhone videos without breaking the bank
I love shooting videos with my iPhone. And although I could edit video on my phone with iMovie for free, I often use one or more third-party apps to enhance my videos in ways iMovie cannot. I mostly rely on two iPhone/ iPad apps — Action Movie FX (free) and LumaFX ($1.99) — to create jawdropping videos entirely on my iPhone.
When it comes to having fun with the video I shoot, Action Movie FX, from Bad Robot Interactive, is my favorite thing — and has been since its introduction nearly a decade ago. It offers Hollywood-style special effects — explosions, aliens, natural disasters, spaceships and more — to video shot with your iDevice.
You start by selecting a scene — Alien Burst, for example — and the app displays a camera interface with a target indicating precisely where the effect will appear. In Alien Burst, that effect is a terrifying creature that tears its way out of whatever (or whomever) you target before it leaps forward and smashes the lens.
The video and audio effects, created by Industrial, Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, make every scene look and sound more theatrical than you expect.
While it includes eight free big-screen effects such as Bombing Run, Spider Strike, Car Smash, Demolition Rock, and Star Wars’ BB-8 Spark, the optional $1.99 FX Packs are even more fun. I’ve sprung for the Mega FX Pack (20 effects for $1.99) and most of the others — sci-fi, disaster movie, nukes, Star Trek and Star Wars packs — for 99 cents to $1.99 each.
I’ve had more fun with Action Movie FX for well under $20 than with perhaps any other app on my iPhone. Try it for free — you have nothing to lose.
While Action Movie FX is superb at creating short scenes with Hollywoodstyle special effects, I use LumaFX (99 cents) to add customizable effects layers to more serious videos. Its effects include blurs, pixel effects, distortions, color corrections and more, and it’s fast and fluid even with multiple video and audio effects layers. Plus, it can handle up to 4K resolution on my iPhone 12 Pro Max.
With myriad presets, styles and effects, I always get good results in record time. And, with keyframe support for most parameters, it’s surprisingly easy to animate both audio and video effects over time.
I’d be remiss not to mention that I also love LumaFusion ($29.99), the full-featured multitrack video editor I raved about here in October 2019. It includes all of LumaFX’s features and much more.
Finally, my favorite video camera is FiLMiC
Pro ($14.99), which provides superior manual controls and feedback along with many monitors and adjustments not found in the iPhone Camera app. Resourcess
Action Movie FX. Bad Robot Interactive. Free with in-app purchases. tinyurl.com/wje7u4he
LumaFX ($0.99) and LumaFusion ($29.99). Luma Touch LLC. tinyurl.com/d27pwu52