My on-going research into marketing applications of artificial intelligence led me today to Magisto, which promises not merely to automatically create videos, but to do in a way that elicits a user-specified emotion. That was enough to pique my curiosity,especially combined with the claim that all you had to do was upload some video and photo clips and Magisto would do the rest. I mean, this is something for people who are both cool and lazy – sign me up!
Which is exactly what I did. I took a few video selfies (velfies?) around the office with some simple narration, uploaded them to Magisto, made the necessary choices, and waited a few minutes to see what came back. To see the available range, I made two different versions, one with a storyteller theme and the other – why not? – for a fiesta. The music choices were for songs I didn't recognize, but that only confirms how long ago I stopped listening to current music. You can see the results here: storyteller and fiesta.
Obviously Magisto wasn't smart enough to recognize that one video was recorded sideways or that one clip was a retake of another clip. But for something that took almost zero effort, it's not bad. If I'd wanted to pay $9.99 per month for a business subscription, I could have made a longer video, reordered the clips (within some limits), and even added captions. For more on creating a business video, see Magisto's own video on the subject.
What about that promise of making videos that elicit emotions? Well, I'm not so sure. The music sets a mood but that doesn't seem like enough to drive anyone to tears or cheers. On the other hand, the results were much better than plenty of home-grown videos I've seen, and Magisto certainly knows a cute pet when it sees one. So don't fire your agency quite yet. But for your own amusement, Magisto is worth a try.
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