Quick review: Silent Film Director adds Charlie Chaplin flair to your clips

9to5 Staff | Apr 15 2011 - 9:04 am PT

If you haven’t seen it yet on Google.com, today is Charlie Chaplin’s 122nd birthday anniversary. Marking the occasion, MacPhun has updated Silent Film Director, a fun video effects app currently ranked #4 in the US App Store’s photography section. I’ve been playing with Silent Film Director this morning and found it very addictive and a pleasure to use. If you’re anything like me, your iPhone is jam packed with a bunch of clips shot on the go whenever inspiration strikes.

Silent Film Director lets me breathe new life into my videos by applying high-quality effects ranging from standard Black & White, Sepia and Vintage Sepia filters to the more sophisticated 20’s Movie, 60’s Home Video and 70’s Home Video effects. In short, anything from the beginning of the movie era to a hippie style music video from the ’60s to the modern hipster look.

You can choose between two silent movie piano tracks, the movie projector background noise or select a song from your iPod library. It’s a lot of fun and only a buck on the App Store (works best with iPhone 4, 3GS and fourth-gen iPod touch). Sample clips and more information right below the fold.

I began with the untouched 15-second clip I took earlier this winter at a local hockey game. I ran the video through the 20’s Movie and Vintage Sepia filters and uploaded them to YouTube from within the app. You can see the original clip and the two touched up variants embedded below, in addition to the developer’s promo clip. The app has a custom user interface that looks polished and accessible. You can import source videos from your camera roll, via iTunes sharing and even through a local FTP connection. Another buck (via in-app purchase) buys you silent movie-like title cards, transitions, the ability to mix video with photos and more.

You can choose between four quality preset, customize the video speed, submit your masterpiece to the YouTube contest channel or share it via email, YouTube and Facebook. High-quality processing takes time so the app entertains you with amazing facts while the video is being processed. For example, have you heard of an urban legend about the QWERTY layout supposedly invented by Hungarian-born Qwert Yuiop who left his “signature” on the keyboard? Me neither.