For the Memory Keeper in Your Life….You!

by Lori Cunningham

Moms are the memory keepers of the family. Do you have tons of photos and videos but never seem to have the time…or inclination to put them together into a snappy video?

I took the opportunity to talk to one of the co-founders and CEO of Muvee, Terrence Sweene, while at CES. It was a great interview, Sweene is very passionate about his product and he understands well that moms have limited time to put together home  movies.   Muvee’s product, Reveal, helps you to make movies “automagically“ as Sweene says. For those moms who enjoy more customization, Muvee Reveal offers advanced features as well.   Muvee offered me a copy of the software to put together some of my videos from the Toy Fair and Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Here’s a quick slideshow I put together on the Toy Fair to show you the features of Muvee Reveal.  The slideshow took less than 10 minutes to make…most of the time stemming from finding the pictures!

In Just Simple Three Steps,

Moms can quickly create amazing home movies and slideshows by:

1. Uploading your photos and video
2. Clicking on one of the 10 styles to make your project look cool
3. Adding music from your music library

Groovn’ to the Music

With the included Music Trimming Tool, moms can choose the specific part of a soundtrack they want to use or they can create their own “remixed” music track from multiple songs.

The amazing thing about Muvee Reveal is that it accentuates pictures and videos to the beat of the music.  So the flow of the music enlivens the story line as it plays out.  Furthermore, video and photos are automatically synchronized to end when the music ends.

Take One!

If you are so inclined to edit your video, thus using the more advanced features, I have never seen video editing done more simply.  Just watch your video and select a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on various clips of your video.  All clips with the “thumbs up” are emphasized during your movie.  All clips with “thumbs down” are eliminated from the movie.  It can’t get any easier than this!

iPad Ready!

Besides “automagically” sprucing up your home movies, Muvee Reveal optimizes the output for different devices, adjusting the various aspect ratios, resolutions, and compression to make the highest quality video and audio playback for each device.

In a single click, Muvee Reveal optimizes your movie for the iPad or iPhone and lists it in iTunes so that it syncs and plays back flawlessly.

With millions of users, Muvee Reveal is playing a key role in the growing number of people who share personal/family videos on the Internet. Reveal’s patented technology makes creating videos and uploading them to the Web so easy, even first-time users can do it in just minutes. The software is most popular with moms who want to quickly post their videos but do not have the time to edit them.

With Muvee’s video personalization features, mom bloggers can make their movies stand out from the millions of videos posted on social media sites by inserting their own logos, watermarks, avatars or photos like a watermark. Simple editing tools and full-screen previews are also included to enable automatic brightness control, color correction, red-eye reduction, zoom in/out, rotate, etc.

Features:

• No training needed to edit movies
• Full HD Support for video
• Can trim music to fit your movie
• Ability to add voice overs
• Can preview movies in full screen
• Includes 10 different styles to make your movie interesting or dramatic
• Easy editing tools for your pictures
• Can save to multiple formats and devices
• Can adjust the file size/output of the movie to full HD or a smaller footprint
• Can upload slideshows/movies to Facebook and YouTube
• Muvee Reveal gives you tips as you work to help you maximize your pictures/movie creation.

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Pictures change according to the beat of the music
• Ability to put your logo and/or website address on the each slide
• Offers more customizable features for advanced users
• Allows moms to easily emphasize great video clips and edit out the bad ones (love this feature!)
• Easy upload to YouTube and Facebook
• Output to multiple devices including phones, iPod, iPad, iPhone, PSP, computers, DVD’s,  etc.
• Photo placement in the slideshow is very easy
• Ability to record voice overs to include in your movie

Cons:

• A bit pricey
• Although 10 styles are nice, more would be better
• The cost to buy extra styles is $14.95 for 3 of them.
• The tagline you put at the bottom of each slide appears grainy.
• It’s a little complex to adjust time total time of the slideshow so it plays out exactly to the time you want (but again, this features is for advanced users)

A Mom’s Perspective

If there were a reward for taking the most pictures at an event, I know I’d be a finalist.  I LOVE snapping pictures and want to get every angle, every unique perspective, every idiosyncrasy.  I’ll admit that I go so

overboard that I spend the entire performance or awards ceremony watching my child through a  2 1/2  x  1 1/2  inch LCD screen! And the crazy thing is that my husband is right next to me snapping the same footage!  What a pair we make!  In my mind’s eye, I’m replaying the awesome video I will make of my child’s monumental moment during the performance.

Then I get home and the reality of life hits me.  I’m lucky if I can even get the video and pictures downloaded…from both cameras!!!  I have since found a product called Eye-Fi, that greatly aids me in this endeavor.  I will write about it in the next month or so.  But taking the time to create the movie of my child’s performance or awards ceremony, well, that just hasn’t happened.  I know I’m not alone, are you in the same boat?

I know how much it would mean to my son or daughter to replay that special day through a nice homemade video that I crafted just for him or her.  How wonderful it would be to show the grandparents as well.  And can you imagine the awesome collection of videos I’d have for each child by the end of the year?  I can envision a library of special moments to present to my child as they graduate high school, get married, have a baby, etc..

With Muvee Reveal, I feel that I can reach closer to this ideal.  I really enjoyed using Muvee Reveal and made several movies with them.  I love its simplicity yet Muvee Reveal allows for increased customization when I need it.  Reveal is as easy as they say, within 3 steps, you will have a polished product.  There is a relatively quick learning curve for the more advanced features as well, if you even need them.

Muvee Reveal version 8 sells online at Muvee.com for $79.95.  I checked Amazon.com, but Muvee Reveal is currently out of stock.

Here’s one other Muvee Reveal movie I made for my other blog, theWellConnectedHome.com.  Through both video and pictures, it highlights some very cool home technology that will be making its way to our homes in the not so distant future: