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Name: V.I.K.T.O.R.
Quick Pitch: V.I.K.T.O.R. is an automatic video-editing app.
Genius Idea: The free iPhone app makes movie making and sharing mobile clips quick and easy.
Built-in cameras on smartphone and tablet devices make it easy to record videos of experiences anywhere we go. But how often do we go back to watch these videos or share them?
V.I.K.T.O.R., an automatic video-editing app, provides a simple and convenient way to cut and edit video clips and turn them into short movies. The app allows users to make short movies — either 20 seconds, one minute or two minutes long — that actually look professionally edited. For now, it’s free to create a movie, but in the future, the company plans to charge $0.99 for 1-minute movies and $1.99 for two-minute movies.
“We all have special moments that we want to remember,” Evgenia Bogdanovich, co-founder of V.I.K.T.O.R., told Mashable. “This video editing app offers a way to recollect your memories and turn them into a video presentation that feels emotional and looks professional.”
Developed in June, the idea of V.I.K.T.O.R. was inspired while two of the four co-founders of the app were traveling in Hong Kong. Sergey Nurmamed and Alexander Didenko saw tourists taking pictures and recording videos with their phones, and wondered how often people actually go back and look at these memories. When Nurmamed and Didenko returned to Russia, the V.I.K.T.O.R. team decided to create an automatic-editing app to make it easier for people to create movies from their experiences and share them with friends and family.
To start making mini-movies, download the app onto an iPhone and choose one of the following video-editing options:
Automatic: The app randomly chooses video footage from your phone. Semiautomatic: Users manually select videos. Controlled: Gives users more control by allowing them to sort their videos by different sections and shotsAfter you select an option, users can also add in their own themes and soundtracks. Browse the list of categories (travels, sports, family, events, lifestyle or moods) and select a theme that suits your movie. Then create a movie title and select the mobile clips that you want to include.
Select an unlimited number of video clips to include in your movie.
Finally, click the “Magic Up!” button to see your own personal edited movie and instantly share it on Facebook, YouTube or via email.
Hit the “Magic Up!” button to see your personal mini movie.
“V.I.K.T.O.R. is a new way of communication because it makes it easier to have a presentation of your experiences to share with your friends and relatives,” says Bogdanovich. “Sharing your own movie is much more emotional than sharing a photo.”
Unlike video sharing site TwitVid, V.I.K.T.O.R. automatically edits your videos, does not allow you to include your own songs in the soundtrack and does not have an option to directly share your videos to Twitter.
V.I.K.T.O.R. currently has over 400 users and will soon be available for Android devices.
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
