Talking Tech app spotlight: Vivoom for vivacious videos

• New video app has 100 effects

LOS ANGELES — Just what the world needs, another app that lets you add filters and effects to your smartphone videos, right?

We already have Instagram, Vine, SocialCam and Viddy, not to mention the native iPhone and Android camera apps — isn't that enough?

That's what I first thought, when I first heard about Vivoom, a new app for the Apple iPhone platform.

But then, when I learned it was developed by GenArts, the company that makes special effects that have been seen in such films as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Iron Man films, the TV series Game of Thrones and American Idol, I sat up and took notice.

It's a good thing I did, as Vivoom is a whole lot of fun.

The app is free, and offers 100 different looks.

The same sapphire glow you might have seen in Rings and Idol, for instance, you can achieve, on a smaller scale, with the app.

You can shoot new videos on your iPhone, or access them from the camera roll, to add effects directly to the clip. You can add lighting, tones, remove selective colors and more. From the app, you can then share out to your social networks.

GenArts says over 8 billion videos were shot by mobile users in the last year, and not shared. It hopes that with more fun tools to pretty up the videos more will start getting shared in 2014.

Richard Kerris, a former Chief Technology Officer for LucasFilm and early beta tester for Vivoom, thinks the app will find an audience tiring of the same 10-15 black and white and sepia filters seen on so many video apps.

"People are getting tired of those limited effects," he says. "Their appetite is growing for more advanced stuff."

The app is available for now only on the Apple platform. Look for an Android release in 2014.

Readers: what's your favorite video app? Let's chat about it on Twitter, where I'm @jeffersongraham.