Valerie Speaks to Georgie

I decided to try out online video editing and publishing through a site called eyespot.com. There are a handful of sites that provide this service all free. It's a very simplified version of the desktop video editing software such as Adobe Premiere, Final Cut and iMovie that allows users to edit and share their homemade movies online.

How it works is you upload the movie to the site and then edit as you please and publish for the world to see. The big plus is it's free and you don't have to worry about where to host the files. Of course there are size limits with each upload. Eyespot's limit is 50mb. The downside is the limited editing tools that are provided. But hey, what do you expect...it's free! I'm sure with time and popularity of these sites more features will be provided.

Eyespot isn't the only site that provides this service. Some others are jumpcut.com, grouper.com and videoegg.com. The video above is something I posted using Eyespot. The only editing I did was to trim the beginning of the video, which is fairly simple to do. I also wanted to add title screens, but to my disappointment this feature was not available. Eyespot is easy to use, but its meager sampling of editing tools and effects has left something to be desired. The video quality after upload is not 100% either as I noticed with the strange flickers that occur every few seconds. The original video is fine. But who knows, it might have been a one-time thing. I didn't try again.

Overall these sites make it easy for anyone to edit and share their videos, but don't expect to churn out award winning movies. If anyone tries any of the other sites, please share your thoughts on usability, features, quirks, etc.