Blog
Notes on editing footage without handing it to a server, and on the tools that tried this before us.
GoPro Quik alternatives for iPhone: what each one actually does
Quik makes a decent automatic edit but lives inside a subscription built for GoPro owners. Four alternatives for phone footage, including two already on your iPhone, and what each one gives up.
How to make your own Memories video on iPhone, and what Photos will not let you change
Where the Memories button went in Photos, how to pick the music and the length, why the song choice depends on an Apple Music subscription, and what to use when you want to direct the cut.
Auto beat sync: how CapCut, Filmora and the automatic apps place cuts on the music
What auto beat sync actually detects, how to use it in CapCut and Filmora, why the markers still need fixing by hand, and which apps do the whole cut for you.
Google Photos highlight video: how to make one, and why it keeps processing
The steps to create a highlight video in Google Photos on the web and in the app, how to change the music and the clips, why it says still processing or will not save, and what to use when you want control.
Birthday video montage from the clips on your phone: ideas, structure, and the one-tap version
How to turn a day of birthday clips into a two-minute film people actually watch: what to keep, how to order it, where the music goes, and how Life2Film's Happy birthday preset does it in one tap.
Baby's first year video montage: how to make one from the clips you already have
A first-year video is three hundred clips and no time. How to shape it, which clips to keep, how to keep the dates visible, and how to make it on the phone without uploading a year of your child.
Christmas video montage from your phone: three ways, from one tap to a full edit
Christmas Day fills a phone with clips in a few hours. How to turn them into a short film the same evening: what to shoot, what to keep, and the one-tap version that keeps the footage on the phone.
What each Life2Film preset does: Just a film, Summary, Reels, Travel, Chronicle, Birthday, New Year, Vlog
The Make sheet offers a period and a list of presets. Each one changes the length, the shape, whether music is asked for and what the title says. Here is the whole list, with the numbers.
Travel recap video: how to make one from a week of phone clips, with the days in order
A trip leaves a hundred clips and the recap never gets made. What a travel recap needs that a party montage does not, how to keep the days readable, and the preset that does it in one tap, with DJI Osmo Pocket import.
How to make a year in review video on iPhone: the recap, the chronicle, and the one for Instagram
Three shapes of a year recap video and how to make each from the clips already on your phone: a two-minute best-of to music, a ten-minute chronicle in order, and a fifteen-second vertical for Instagram.
The automatic montage tools that came and went
Magisto, GoPro Quik, Google Photos and the idea that software should pick your clips for you — what worked, what closed, and why the problem is still open.
Where your footage actually goes when you edit on your phone
Most video editors upload your clips before they touch them. Here is which ones do it, what it means in practice, and how to tell without reading a privacy policy.
How to cut video to the beat, by hand and automatically
Why edits land badly when they ignore the music, how to place cuts on downbeats manually, and what beat-sync tools actually detect.