Product Reviews

There was some general dissatisfaction when iMovie 08 was released, with complaints that it had removed a lot of control from the user and become iPhone for video. If you're of the same opinion, then you should check out Norrkross Movie 1.2 from Swedish developer Martin Wennerberg, which does everything the old iMovie did - and a bit more besides.

Norrkross Movie's timeline, playback window, effects chain and attributes panes are all contained in a single window, much like iMovie, though the ability to split them off (especially the timeline and the node network) would give the program a bit more room to breathe. The timeline has, however, been improved since version 1.0 and now draws all frames of a movie for easier navigation, and allows clips to be snapped to each other either on the same or different tracks, ensuring perfect alignment.

Building a video is simply a matter of dragging video clips and sound files into the timeline: there's no need to create a project before you start. Objects in Norrkross Movie are treated as either clips or tracks - tracks can contain multiple clips and are stacked one on top of another in the timeline (the order is used for controlling visibility). The clips can be dragged in from the Finder or they can be accessed by Norrkross Movie's Media Browser. This already knows the location of standard AV repositories like your Movies folder and your iTunes and iPhoto

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libraries. Other custom folders can be added here, too.

The Media Browser also holds all the components needed to blend, merge and edit your clips and tracks. Norrkross Movie relies heavily on Apple's Core Image framework, which makes it great for inter-application compatibility. It also means that a lot of the processing muscle will be provided by your Mac's graphics card. You can also expand the program's repertory of effects (which includes high-quality green-screening) by plugging in more Core Image units. Norrkross Movie actually uses a node-based network to connect these Image Units with clips and tracks, with the output of one node feeding into the input of another. This is something that is normally the preserve of high-end video editors, although the single-window approach does make this aspect a little cramped.

Most effects and transitions can be keyframed and this version has added keyframing for volume level, allowing fade-ins and fade outs. Norrkross Movie has always supported a wide variety of output formats - it doesn't try and shoehorn the output into a standard DV format like iMovie does, and this is one of the big pluses going for it.

This new version has also added some interesting output presets: Apple TV and iPod video formats are supported, as are presets for Google Video and YouTube, making it easy to share your Norrkross masterpieces with the rest of the world. Titling in Norrkross Movie is also easy - and powerful - thanks to its use of the Core Text Unit that allows text to have any of the Effects Units applied to it. Many of these effects can also be keyframed and text can be updated by typing in new text at any point in the composition - there's no need to add a new text box.

Norrkross Movie is shaping up rather nicely. We can't wait to see what future versions will offer (supporting image sequences and compressing/expanding clips are promised), and now that it's $20 (about £10.90) cheaper than its predecessor, it's a bargain.