Filmmaker-inspired video app wants your help in beta testing

The former chief operating officer of Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates and an award-winning filmmaker and creative professional have converged to create Vuse, a video content app for the real estate industry.

Julie Leonhardt LaTorre and Leanna Creel’s mobile app combines the simplicity of step-by-step shot-lists with the technical sophistication of in-time, on-screen photography recommendations.

The duo has opened their app to public beta testing industrywide with an expected live launch within Q3.

Vuse helps agents create videos with a number of subject themes, such as “just listed,” “sold” and “client preview.” Custom videos can be created as well, and a pre-recored agent profile can be set to run at the end of each project, sort of like a post-credits scene.

Although there are countless video apps out there that agents can use, few are designed specifically for agents’ use, and others can be more complicated than necessary.

Leonhardt LaTorre and Creel wanted to build something that agents could learn to use in minimal time but that was rooted in the fundamental tenets of effective filmmaking.

Vuse executes on this premise quite well by including an extensive shot list that steps users capture-by-capture through what it takes to bring a listing to life on the mobile screen.

The app reminds users to get exterior front and rear establishing shots, and it breaks down each possible interior room and the features within it, such as a walk-in pantry in the kitchen or en suite bathroom in the guest room.

Video is captured in-app or can be imported from the phone’s on-board library. There are on-screen shot list icons as well as active, situationally aware recommendations that tell the user when there’s a lens-flare or if it’s too dark.

The technology is similar to mobile check-deposit and document scanning apps that suggest darker backgrounds or ways to better align the subject. It’s not something I’ve seen used in this environment, but it’s certainly a much-needed bit of innovation.

Individual video and still shots can be selected to be showcased, which means the final cut will lengthen a subject’s time on screen by a couple of seconds, a nice touch.

A full review of Vuse will happen once it’s out of beta. For now, agents should consider joining the next available wave of beta accounts.

Given its developers’ collective expertise and what I saw from the software’s early capabilities and pre-launch user experience, I see no reason this won’t become an A-list real estate marketing app.

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Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe

Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman. He’s also a commercial backpacking and adventure travel guide. He lives in Truckee, California, near Lake Tahoe.