As reported on The Verge.
By Thomas Houston
Lifting the burdens of film-making.
Here’s the thing: most apps suck. And not only does that make bad apps hard to avoid, it makes the good ones hard to find when there are hundreds of thousands of apps out there. So in this new series, we’ll be highlighting our favorite apps on every platform, whether it’s for your phone, your tablet, your laptop, or any other device.
But these aren’t just cool new apps — these are the best new apps. The ones you absolutely must download, right now. The ones that will instantly make you saner, happier, drier (if and when we ever find a great weather app), and more productive. So trust us: you want these apps.
Vine’s gotten loads of early hype, but even just a few weeks in, it seems warranted. It’s the first time in years that a mobile video app has inspired such a flood of creativity and experimentation. Plus, it’s spawned Vinepeek and Just Vined, delightful sites where you can easily blow hours watching real-time uploads of the latest Vine user videos. Mobile video editing apps ask so much of a user. How should your footage be edited together? How long should your piece be? How should audio be integrated? How do I export the best quality video, and where should I upload it? Vine’s found a way forward.
“THE LIMITATION GIVES THE SERVICE THE METABOLISM IT NEEDS TO SUCCEED.”
Similar to how Twitter’s character limit helped pithy observations, real-time news, and humor to flourish within the medium, Vine’s built-in constraints seems to have lifted the burden of capital F film-making and audio editing to let users just shoot. As Ellis Hamburger wrote, “The limitation gives the service the metabolism it needs to succeed.” On top of that, it’s got an ingenious UI: tap and hold to record video, pull off to stop. You can shoot a full uncut, six-second moment of an approaching train, or go crazy with jump cuts showing your professional coffee brewing method or, of course, your cat’s manic antics.