As phone cameras have improved, more and more people are using their camera phones to not only film their lives, but to then edit this footage, add special effects and soundtracks and even enter the results in international film competitions.

The advantage of using your phone to shoot your movie masterpiece is obvious. Firstly, it is the one camera you always have with you. Secondly, as documentary-style films are increasingly finding their place on the national stage, especially with the proliferation of film-sharing sites, if you've got a GALAXY Note II there's nothing stopping you getting your creations out there.

Here are a few tips, top Note II-friendly apps and websites perfect to start you on your way to director-hood.

Shoot and edit

With the Note II you've got a phone with a great HD video camera and plenty of space to store footage, so don't be shy about capturing as much of it as you can. If you are working from a script, do retakes; if you are being more freeform, take the time to capture as much around your subject as you can – yes, most of the resulting footage will be cut and deleted, but to find the right shots you need to spend a long time capturing as much action as possible.

Once you've got some footage there are a select few Note II-friendly apps that can help you with trimming, editing and adding effects to your content, some will even perform movie magic for you while you are filming.


If you are after a simple life, Magisto (free) is an Android video-editing app which magically creates videos in minutes, complete with effects and soundtracks. It works by analysing your footage and automatically splicing it together.

Choose a soundtrack and it will present you with a complete professional-looking video without you doing anything else. Of course, this does take artistic control away from you, but if you are after something quick and dirty to get an idea of how a project is progressing, Magisto is well worth looking at.


The Clesh Video Editor app (£2.99) is particularly good for editing on the move.

With a drag and drop interface perfect for the Note II's expansive screen and S Pen combination, Clesh lets you create a storyboard, edit by timeline, add in transitions, add slo-mo, combine more than one shot and, of course, trim your video on the go. It also lets you upload your videos in their full 1080p glory direct to YouTube and Facebook.


A simpler offering is VidTrim Pro (£1.76 or free ad-supported version) which lets you trim videos using simple on-screen sliders.

You can also add effects such as black and white, posterize, glow, and so on, and use its impressive transcoder to compress your videos, and then instantly share them with family and friends.

Other free offerings include the recommended (and free) AndroVid Video Trimmer, which lets you trim, split and merge video clips and grab videoframes, and the free trial version of V-Cut Express which let's you fine-tune your cuts and trims down to the second.

If you are looking to collaborate with others on your videos, then you could use the free WeVideo camera app to automatically upload your videos to the cloud where you can use the WeVideo website to share and edit it with those you are working with.

Adding effects


If you are an effects fan, you may want to give the free Videocam Illusion app a go, as it lets you add effects in real time while filming on your Note II.

These include 6 filters, 5 effects, 4 masks and 2 recording speeds. You can also save your favourite combinations of effects to the app for quick selection when capturing footage.