As more and more AI technology begins to roll out for the film and video production industry, some of these innovations seem so far-fetched and idealistic when you hear about them that you’re skeptical that they’ll land at all. Yet, when you do see them in action, it becomes quickly apparent that they make too much sense to not exist—if that makes sense.
This is the case with the AI startup Roll, which has unveiled its new iPhone app which is an AI-powered video production platform designed to give anyone the ability to create (or recreate really) professional, studio-quality remote videos in a few minutes, and with few taps of your iPhone.
Built on its own proprietary AI and cloud technologies, Roll allows users the ability to record remote video calls in broadcast-level quality. On top of that, you can also add AI-generated special effects with the app and publish that content almost 30 times faster than any traditional video production workflow.
Does this sound too good to be true? Or simply too obvious to not already exist?
Let’s dive into everything we know about this new Roll app and explore how it could work for (or ultimately replace) you, the video production professional.
Introducing AI-Powered Video Production
While you can actually use the Roll app without an iPhone, its primary use appears to be tied to recording video conferences or calls with your iPhone, then using this platform to kick the production value up a notch with AI. For this distinct purpose alone, the Roll app looks to be easily capable of delivering on this promise here at its launch.
“Video production is ripe for disruption from the cloud. Large file sizes, complex processing, and multi-person review cycles make it the perfect candidate to have outsized benefits from cloud and AI technologies like large-scale storage, compute, and real-time sharing and collaboration.” — Faizan Buzdar, Founder and CEO
By pairing your iPhone camera sensor with its large AI models in the cloud, you can quickly and easily turn your regular hum-drum iPhone footage into professional-looking videos. By recreating the room it scans and detects you to be in 3D, Roll’s AI in the cloud can then add a virtual camera that moves around you as the subject, giving users image quality with bokeh, MultiCam cutting, motion graphics, and even AI-simulated sliders, dollies and jibs—all with just your iPhone.
Democratizing High-End Video Production
According to the Roll team, one of the chief aims of this new app is to “democratize high-end video production” and simply allow anyone to create high-quality videos without needing thousands of dollars of video production equipment. You know, stuff like digital cameras, lights, sliders, or audio mics and recorders.
Even with DIY setups and the cheaper mirrorless cameras on the market, you are indeed looking at budgets of at least $1,000 or so to produce your usual high-quality video setup, if not significantly more depending on the level of quality and sophistication.
“Roll is fundamentally changing the way we create videos today by automating the entire process - we can get you from recording to publishing in 15 minutes. We’re excited to get it out in the world to see what incredible videos creators and businesses will make with it. We believe that Roll could become the future of video production,” — Faizan Buzdar, Founder and CEO
Roll aims to remove this barrier which many content creators, marketers, or even filmmakers, might not be able to cross for every project or need. Now, Roll is taking this a step further by also offering to use its cloud computing and AI technologies to automatically produce a final edited video for you as well, effectively removing the need of using professional video editors or tools as well.
What Does the Future Hold for AI Video Production?
Now, to be as both-sided as possible here, this is indeed an exciting new technology that could help potentially thousands (if not millions) of content creators simply and easily upgrade their iPhone videos and conference calls to a higher production quality. If you’re looking to quickly turn a CEO-recorded webinar into a more professional-looking marketing video, this could be a perfect tool to try out today.
However, on the other end, many film and video professionals might be a bit frightened to hear that AI is promising to make their jobs and roles obsolete. I mean, why do you need to rent a camera and hire a videographer to record your videos if your iPhone can make them professional and cinematic for you?
Ultimately only time will tell if new apps like Roll—and undoubtedly countless others which will follow—are going to be more of a production aid and tool for those without budgets, or if it might creep into industry replacing levels (which, let’s face it, we’ve all feared with the coming AI revolution).
Roll has plenty of AI-powered tools and featuresCredit: Roll
Pricing and Availability
The Roll app is available now and free to download.
As mentioned above, you don't actually have to have an iPhone to use it, but it would be suggested for optimal results at this point. When getting started users can try the app for a one-time recording up to two hours. After that, you'll need to explore creating either a "Creator" plan which costs $49 per month on an annual basis or a "Pro" plan for $199 per month on an annual basis. If you exceed any recording limits, additional hours are available for more money of course.
How do you feel about this new Roll app and its video production possibilities? Is it something you might share with your clients and possibly explore implementing yourself?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
