Thanks to smartphones we now take more photos every two minutes, than the whole of humanity took in the entire 19th century. When you throw apps like Instagram into the mix, it’s safe to say there are more talented photographers sharing more amazing photos than ever before. Yet for mobile movies it’s a different story.

Although we’re now packing incredibly sophisticated movie cameras in our pockets, there’s not been the same explosion of movie making worldwide. Movies are, of course, tougher to shoot than photos and you need a certain level of skill to go beyond a home video look and feel. But thanks to an ace new app recently launched in Finland that could be all set to change.

LUUP your life

LUUP is a free filmmaking app for iPhone, which makes it super simple to shoot and share beautiful four-scene HD video footage, complete with soundtrack, in seconds. Your little movie then seamlessly loops creating a wonderful way to capture life’s moments through short movies. To see if it’s as good as it sounds we asked talented short filmmaker Kalle Wilkman, a producer at Finnish filmmakers Videolle, to have a play around. Here’s what he had to say

“It’s by far the easiest way to shoot a nice mini movie.”

LUUP has all the basic functions you need to create a great-looking four-shot movie. Plus, its widescreen format means it’s easy to check out your work on any screen. The way you can share it with people is also a cool way of spreading your work and getting instant feedback.



“It teaches you the importance of music for setting the mood.”

You only have to try watching any movie or television show with the sound off to appreciate the importance of music. Yet, normally in filmmaking the music is added afterward, meaning the filmmaker themselves doesn’t get the chance to experience its importance while shooting. With LUUP, you have a growing library of licensed free and paid music you can use for your shots. This means you can get first hand, instant experience of the way music affects our moods and feelings.

“It’s filters help create lots of different vibes”

Most professional video and film is meticulously calibrated to match a vibe through colour correction. With LUUP, you have easy access to a wide array of filters of varying degrees of subtlety. If you want to make a typical, chilly Finnish summer day look more appealing, you can give the video some warmth and contrast, like sunglasses. While winter shots, you can make look extra crisp. These filters make experimentation easy and fun.

“It helps you focus on a beginning, middle, end. The Classic set-up!”

LUUP definitely helps you think like a professional by focusing your mind on the classic narrative set up. It might only be four shots, but like the guys at 5second movies show, that can be plenty of time to have a basic dramatic curve and give your stories a beginning, middle and an ending.



“It shows how short can be better because every second count.”

Think about this for a moment: The first generation of people who grew up with the fast-paced music videos of the early 80’s MTV era. They’re now in their mid-40s. Boom. Moving pictures haven’t in themselves been awe inducing for ages now since everybody and their parents have grown up with a rapid flow of video. And guess what: really smooth, tightly cut video is hard to do. It requires the kinds of restraints and boundaries that make for better creativity and this is available in LUUP.



“It helps you learn to use looping to your advantage”

LUUPs loop, and so does many ultra short forms of video, including, for the most part, GIFs. The budding videographer in you deserves to get the storytelling right. By striving to make your last clip an intro to the first, you can unlock the endless potential in the ultra-short video formats our culture has quickly learned to take for granted.



“It lets you reshoot the clip until you’re satisfied”

LUUP lets you reshoot until you’re done with really simple controls. You can replay the shot and then if you’re not happy just do it together. And with the timer option and you can even get involved in the action. Again, LUUP makes it easy to do the sort of things you’d normally need an editing suite for all on your smartphone.

It seems pretty clear from Kalle’s experience that LUUP is a filmmaking app, which has plenty to offer for filmmakers and passionate amateurs alike. Needless to say, the best way to see for yourself is to download it and have a play around. Let us know what you think in the comments below and if you have LUUPs you’d like to share, we’d love to see them too.