As reported on TechCrunch.
The makers of Hipstamatic, the app that was introduced in 2009 and gained a loyal following for its square-format photos and filters before Instagram took over in ubiquity, has launched a new video editing app called Cinamatic.
Cinamatic is currently available for iPhones and costs $1.99. Additional filters are available as in-app purchases. Cinamatic uses the same formula as Hipstamatic: first you take a square-format video of three to 15 seconds, then you chose a filter. Clips can be saved in the app and edited again later. Though Hipstamatic has its own photo-sharing app called Oggl, video-sharing on Cinamatic is integrated with Facebook, Vine, and Instagram instead.
So why not just use Instagram’s video filter instead of buying a new app?
Hipstamatic founder Lucas Buick says that the company took three years to create Cinamatic because its processing engine, which it received its first tech patent for, creates custom effects for each new clip.
“When it comes to video filters, color grading footage just isn’t enough to make a clip interesting, unlike photo filters,” says Buick.
“The basics of our processing engine is reading the time of each clip recorded and building upon the transitions between clips,” he adds. “For example, if you record for more than five seconds continuously, the engine looks for something interesting in the clip to build a special effect from.”
The app comes with five filters with a variety effects. “Darwin” creates a look like vintage 8mm color film, while “Bennett” creates saturated colors and has a blurred vignette effect (good for disguising unattractive backgrounds and placing the focus on your clip’s subject).
While some of the filters are too gimmicky for my taste, I liked the different effects that make them standout from Instagram’s filters (which, to be honest, can get boring if you’ve used them over and over and over again).
“Certain filters have really strong transitions, like the ‘Robert,’ for example. It mirrors and reflects your footage between clip transitions,” Buick says. “There is also a randomization aspect to how we apply filters to the footage. Part of that comes straight from Hipstamatic’s photo processing engine, and we believe the excitement of chance adds to the creativity of the capture process for people.”