Shutterstock Hackathon Led to New Video Editing Tool


Shutterstock video editing tool
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Shutterstock, the online marketplace for stock images, video clips and music clips, has launched a video editing tool called Sequence.

With Sequence, you can create video mockups up to one-minute long using clips from among 2 million video clips and 60,000 music clips in the Shutterstock library. You can even include your own video clips.

As an online tool, Sequence is designed to be intuitive, without lengthy instructions. Everything is drag and drop.

There’s nothing to download or install.  All it takes is accessing the tool via your Web browser — Chrome only as of right now.  Safari and FireFox are coming “soon,” said Vivek Garg, Product Owner for Footage at Shutterstock, in an interview with Small Business Trends.

“People have the perception that video is difficult.  We want to change that perception,” said Garg (pictured below).

The resulting work is really only a video mockup at this stage because you can’t create a final version or save it locally — yet.

So, for now, the tool is really only used as a sort of “show and tell.”  Sequence was created to make it faster and easier for teams to collaborate and develop ideas for videos, by seeing what’s possible.

Production companies, film houses, and digital agencies often create video concepts to show to clients and team members. They need feedback so that they can continue the creative process, explained Garg.

Up to now, this process of creating video concepts and getting feedback has been time consuming. Someone has to choose video comps from a place like Shutterstock, download them one by one, choose and download a music clip, and then use a video editing tool to create a concept for feedback purposes. They may add in their own video footage or music. After that, the video concept has to be made available somewhere for team members to see so they can give feedback.

This envisioning and collaboration process is where Sequence comes in, said Garg. “We are streamlining the workflow. And the time savings is substantial.”

Sequence - Shutterstock's Vivek Garg

According to Garg, Shutterstock’s video clips are frequently used for films, television advertisements and corporate presentations.  A growing trend is using motion graphics in ebooks, he added.

The Winning Idea in a 24-Hour Hackathon

Sequence is still new and experimental, Garg explained. It is part of the Shutterstock Labs initiative.

The idea came out of a developer ‘hackathon’ that Shutterstock holds.   Hackathon at Shutterstock is a 24-hour period where the entire company is “encouraged to create something extraordinary,” he said.

Two Shutterstock employees developed a prototype during the Shutterstock Hackathon.  “It was the Shutterstock Hackathon prize winning idea,” said Garg.

Shutterstock’s internal development team then took the concept to the next level.  They worked on it, fleshed it out, and developed it into a usable tool.

And Sequence was born.

Today the tool is free and usable by anyone. Simply go to http://www.shutterstock.com/labs/sequence/to get started.  There’s also a video explaining it:

Shutterstock plans to continue developing features and making Sequence available on other browsers.  Other planned enhancements include the ability to download the resulting video mockup. It’s a feature that was among the first to be requested by early users.  By downloading the mockup, “the creator will be able to continue editing offline,” said Garg.

He added, “This is just step one. As we get feedback from customers, we plan to continue our work on Sequence.”

See the video mockup we created in 15 minutes using Sequence. Be sure to use Chrome.

Images: Shutterstock video stills

4 Comments ▼

Anita Campbell Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Publisher of Small Business Trends and has been following trends in small businesses since 2003. She is the owner of BizSugar, a social media site for small businesses.

4 Reactions
  1. It’s a pretty cool idea considering that it has only been conceived in 24 hours. Sure. it only pulls together video clips to make one video, but I think it is still quite useful especially in the areas of training and education.