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Santa Monica-based Ferris received $2 million in seed funding this week from Upfront Ventures and Allen DeBevoise. If the app proves to be successful, in the near future, video shot on mobile devices might just become watchable.
While the company is based in Los Angeles, the founders have strong ties to Austin. In fact, Austin radio personality J.B. Hager is a cofounder. You can pick up his show weekdays in the morning here, or on 105.3 if you’re in the city. Paul Boukadakis, another founder, lives in Austin and Los Angeles and is an editor and director by trade.
The app, which is available in the App Store, lets users shoot video on their smartphones and edit them into a mini-movie. Basically you take a series of short videos shot on your smartphone and then weave them into a story. You can, for example, take multiple short video clips from different parts of a vacation – say a clip out the window of the airplane, one of your sizzling lobster dinner, and another of the sunset on the beach – and then quickly and easily edit them into one video that actually makes sense. It’s not exactly like having Scorsese in your pocket, but it’s a good start.
The app sets itself apart from other video editing apps a couple of ways. To start with, the videos can be shot in other apps – including Periscope and Instagram.
Then, and this is revolutionary, you can collaborate with other Ferris users. After a user makes a video public, they can then invite others to add to it – thus allowing a video to grow virally. Imagine the video that a group of iPhone totting wedding guests could create.
The app just launched two months ago, and already has fantastic reviews.
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