App for journalists: Spark Pro, for capturing and editing high-quality video

What is it? An app with a slick, easy-to-use interface, that allows users to create video packages in 1080p by stringing clips together and enhancing them with filters and sound.

Cost: Free

Devices: iOS

How is it of use to journalists? Spark Pro is a video creation tool for iPhone, offering a few basic but useful editing features for journalists looking to record high quality footage for a package, or to showcase a single scene.

Spark Pro would work well for reporters who are planning to incorporate a lightly edited video into a piece, to show viewers their location, for example. As it lets reporters film within the app, this is a useful tool for those looking to reduce the time it takes to film and edit video packages.

How it works: As soon as you open the app on your iPhone, you will notice the interface is clean and intuitive, with the recording feature displayed in the centre of the screen and almost all editing options dotted around in each of the four corners.

Tap and hold the screen to start recording and to shoot multiple scenes in a sequence, release your finger and tap again. Spark Pro also shows the length of the video in real time and the clips are given different colours – blue, pink, purple – to make it easy to differentiate between their durations, and you can also re-shoot or remove clips straight away by tapping the 'x' button in the centre of the screen.

You can import additional footage from your device by using the circle icon in the bottom left corner and tapping the '+' icon at the top to choose your clips.

Next, tap the 'play' icon in the bottom right-hand corner to start editing. Swipe left or right to choose from the nine video filters available, which you can preview in real-time, without having to save the footage first or waiting for the filter to be rendered. Swiping up and down on the screen will also enable you to to decrease or increase a filter's intensity, if you feel the colours are too strong.

Use the 'scissors' icon at the bottom to trim your video from its end or beginning, or to reach a desired length. You can also make the footage two times faster, or slow it down to half of its original speed.

To add audio, tap the music icon in the top left-hand corner and choose a song from your your device – Spark Pro does not come with any default songs of its own or a music library, which is something to bear in mind before you start shooting if music is an integral part of your video package and time is of the essence.

Use your finger to drag the audio bar at the bottom left or right, if you wish the audio to start at a certain point rather than the beginning. You can keep both the footage's background noise and a soundtrack in the video, and you can toggle their volumes or mute either of them by dragging the 'speaker' and 'musical note' icons left and right respectively, as the app will instantly preview the new changes.

When you are happy with the result, tap the 'arrow' icon at the top to save the video to camera roll, upload to Instagram, upload to Facebook or send via email or WhatsApp.

Have you tried Spark Pro? Tweet us your result @journalismnews.

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