Magisto's automatic movie-editing app now lets you ID important people & moments

LAS VEGAS — If video editing startup Magisto‘s technology reaches critical mass in the photography industry, the movie Zoolander will confound and confuse the hell out of anyone born after 2000.

Magisto’s service essentially applies an algorithm to the process of editing a short personal video. Magisto takes 10 minutes of video footage (using a mobile device or desktop web), five photos, and an audio track and then edits it down into a minute-long video clip. You can pick the editing style of the short movie, and the entire process takes up to 7 minutes.

But back to Zoolander, the concept that photographers would get paid big bucks to snap pictures of people who’s job it is to look good? Ridiculous. That’s because Magisto’s movie editing technology now enables users to identify important people or moments while recording. The new software is cool because Magisto is already good at identifying the best footage and photos for short movies. And being able to dictate (to a degree) all the most important stuff within that footage means it’ll be harder to identify people who suck at videography/photography (such as myself).

I was able to get a live demo of Magisto’s new features in action at yesterday’s Pepcom event during the 2014 International CES. When recording from a tablet, you now have the capability to tap a person’s face and then tap a button on the upper-left corner of the screen to identify them as someone important. When Magisto starts editing, it’ll keep this in mind and make that person appear more often. The same is true for important moments, which you can identify by tapping the heart button on the other side of the screen.

Check out the demo video below for a closer look at Magisto’s new software update.