Real Estate Agent/Videographer Reviews Momenzo App for Shooting RE Videos14048

Originally Posted by @Dataventurer
I saw this app when Dan introduced it a few days ago and was immediately interested in checking it out.

I have found from my limited experience shooting Zillow 3D Home Tours with my Ricoh SC2 and then creating a walk-through video with my phone on a gimbal, that the 3D tours get far more views than the videos but the videos take about four times as long to produce. If the Momenzo app could cut down the video production time and provide an acceptable quality tour, then we have a winner!

I was interested in a couple things when evaluating this for my use:
• How quickly could I become proficient using the app?
• What is the quality of the template designs provided by the app, since customization is not enabled?
• I shoot real estate tours for other agents in my office. How laborious will it be to produce branded tours for multiple agents?
• Is the quality of the app’s native camera good enough to produce an acceptable video (exposure, white balance, etc.)?

Dan was interested in my review of the product. I was glad to be offered the opportunity to share my explorations. I spent several hours experimenting, creating sample clips with the various templates, and compiling screen shots of the templates so I could really understand what kind of options and possibilities are provided by Momenzo. I corresponded in three emails to the support department. Now I think I have a pretty good grasp on the product.

Summary Before the Details:
This app can produce a very acceptable video tour with additional graphics (logo, headshot, comments, property description, agent contact information). The process to shoot, compile, and produce a tour video is simple and straightforward, easy to learn within a few minutes, even by a newbie. The resulting video is definitely a product produced in far less time than it would take using a non-linear video editing desktop app. The way that the app stitches the intro, clips with fades, and outro together with background music cuts the product time from hours literally to minutes.

Diving into the Details
Since the available template designs determine what the final product looks like, I decided to focus my initial efforts on creating a short sample video and generate versions using the templates that I’d likely be using.

The Momenzo app has a total of 23 templates to speed the creation of a tour from your 360 photos. Displayed here are screen shots of the twelve that I picked as being most probably of interest to real estate agents.

These are the template I did not explore:
For Rent 3.1
For Rent 3.2
For Rent 3.3
Sold
Sold 2
Sold 3
Price Reduced
Sale Pending
Under Contract
Under Offer
Rented
On Show
Trulia

The following templates are displayed below with a screen capture of the main tour screen. Some of the templates include auto-generated clips for an Intro (branded and unbranded), and an Outro, noted with each photo. Note: the co-founder noted that your profile could be set up without including some of the personal information that is displayed on the templates: logo, photo, license number, etc.

• Branded Intro (Unbranded Intro looks similar without the brokerage logo)
• Motion – fly-in motion is used for the descriptions (you enter the words). There is a short fade between each video clip in the tour.
• Outro (some of the templates display the Outro screen longer)

The URL after each entry is to a 22-second example using the same clips with each template.

No Logo - Unbranded Intro, no Outro https://vimeo.com/502398148




Walkthrough 1.1 - Branded Intro, no fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502421658




Walkthrough 1.2 - Branded Intro, with fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502400258



Walkthrough 1.3 - Branded Intro, with fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502421398



Walkthrough 1.4 - Branded Intro, with fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502421398




Original 2.1 - Branded Intro, with fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502398940




Original 2.2 - Branded Intro, with fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502397473




Original 2.3 - Branded Intro, with fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502399400




Just Listed – No Intro, no descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502397809




Open House - No Intro, no descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502398565




Zillow - Unbranded Intro, with fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502400998




Realtor.com - Branded Intro, with fly-in descriptions, Outro https://vimeo.com/502399886




Review of Application Functionality:

Startup phase
- Good communication upon sign-up – video
- Welcome email with directions
- Excellent collection of tutorial videos, sample narrated video

Shooting - Guided
- Very good guidance: example videos before each different shot with suggestions for direction
Clearly identified shot options:
- Introduction shot of 5 seconds
- Living Room with example, 6 seconds
- Kitchen, 5 seconds
- Bedroom, 5 seconds
- Bathroom, 4 seconds

Additional options in Guided Mode:
- Standard minimum 4 seconds, maximum 60 by shooting or importing
- Commented – facecam shot, minimum 4 seconds, maximum 60 by shooting or importing
- Voice Over – narrated shot with back camera
- Speed Up – Set for 11 seconds, play faster
- Mini-Lapse – Set for 41 seconds, plays very fast
- Timed shots – 1, 2, 3, 4 seconds

When shooting in Guided Mode, the timer is displayed on the screen, you can choose to display a 3-second countdown timer to start recording

Shooting – Guided
This mode enables the option to NOT record an Intro shot that will automatically be laid over with the logo and short property description as in the Guided Mode. This is helpful when you plan to import your own Intro photo or video clip (when creating tours for multiple agents).
The other available shots are the same as in the Guided Mode. What is NOT displayed in this mode is the example shot and suggestion screens for how to scan during the shot.

Comments:
The Guided Mode is so easy to use that you could hand the phone to a newbie and instruct them to hit the yellow Start Project button and follow the on-screen directions.

Videographers on this forum would use the Pro version tour to freely choose the sequence of the rooms, length of shots, etc.

After testing out the Guided Tour mode, then shooting my home several times using the Pro Tour mode, I found it was a smooth process to use mainly the Standard Mode clips and shoot each room. There are enough other shot options to compile a decent tour!

Video Quality
Options for recording are 1080p or 720p at 30fps. I was concerned about the auto exposure and white balance quality of the Momenzo camera app. You can see from the sample video that the results are acceptable. I shot with a new Samsung S20 FE in super-wide angle mode. If you want to have more control of the camera function, Momenzo suggested shooting with a different camera app (native, Manual Camera, Open Camera, etc.) and then importing the clips. The trade-off here is that the Momenzo camera app enables cropping of the video at the time you capture the clip. It’s easy to slide the window to trim the beginning or end of the clip. When you import a video clip there is no functionality in Momenzo to edit a video (a bit more about this kind of work-around tactics later…) I did a couple test shots with the other camera apps but ran out of daylight to be able to accurately compare. That's one action item to explore a bit more. If the difference is not noticeable to the “normal” viewer, I will stay with the Momenzo camera.

Note: My regular phone video app is FilmicPro because I shoot on a DJI 3 gimbal and the app connects to the Record button on the gimbal for start/stop filming. But… I could not get a FilmicPro video clip to import into the Momenzo app. I brought this to the attention of the Support team and they took notice of my report. I plan to play a bit more with it by trying some different codecs before I fall back on one of the other camera apps or the Momenzo app. Using the gimbal with FilmicPro is great for longer clips to smooth things out. But the Momenzo app seems to be geared to the style of filming where shot clips of less than 5 seconds are used. In that case, it’s pretty easy to get a good, smooth shot by standing in one place and panning the camera, in which case you are holding the camera with two hands and can smoothly touch the Stop record button with your thumb. When shooting on the gimbal, the action of touching the screen to stop recording can cause a jiggle on the screen that must then be trimmed back a second or so. That’s an additional step that takes but a few seconds to complete, but it is again one of those tradeoffs that warrants some thought and testing.

Editing
After the shooting is completed, you can edit the shots (move them backward or forward in the sequence) and enter the fly-in comments.

The Editing step is where there are some trade-offs to consider. Staying in the Momenzo app, the access to the video clip is limited to trimming it or re-recording it. Once you hit Done after shooting a scene, the clip cannot be pulled back up to do any trimming. So any trimming like that must be done in the course of collecting your shots for the tour. There is the possibility of viewing the clip on the screen easily before you hit Done. For the kind of short clips we are shooting for these short tours, it is probably easier to simply re-shoot the scene and skip the in-process trimming.

Editing…Into the weeds…
There were some questions above in this stream about reusing clips in a subsequent tour. That is possible at a couple levels. Using the Import Clip function, the various video folders on your phone (the ones that show up using the Gallery app) are accessible. Limitations: only the thumbnail and clip duration show in that view; no other details are accessible. But…I found that all the clips are stored in this folder on your phone: /Android/Data/com.momenzo.momenzo/files/videos
You can access the video clip files there, pull them into your desktop, use a desktop video editor to doctor them, save them back to that folder on your phone and import the clips into a Momenzo tour. Laborious, but possible if the need arises.

How to create tours for multiple profiles – work-around
This is also the route if you want to create a pre-recorded introductory clip for an agent. The Momenzo onboarding process creates one profile with one logo and photo and contact info. The co-founder said they were working on their backend system to be able to accommodate multi-profile requirements by videographers. In the meantime, I plan to create a simple Outro template like the one Momenzo provides. and simply import it into the app. What is not possible at this point is having a different agent’s photo displayed on each shot of the tour (this is possible in some of the templates). Personally, I don’t think it’s helpful to have my mug showing in the corner of the screen taking up space when viewers are interested in seeing the tour video. You can easily add a headshot in the Outro.

Background Music
Finding good background music is a time-consuming task! The Momenzo app provides a surprising array of music styles to choose from. I listened to a few of them and felt there were at least a couple that were acceptable. One nice thing I noticed: if you narrate a video clip, the app will automatically lower the background music volume during the narration. That’s a nice touch!

Here are the things that I found to be less than desirable:

Onboarding Process
At this point in the app's development, you must wait to get your profile set up after sending in your contact info, photo, logo, etc. That process took a day.
The onboarding instructions didn’t specify minimum specs for logo size, I was asked to submit a larger one. That slowed the onboarding process an additional day.

Editing
Can’t import video from FilmicPro

Predetermined shot lengths are too short – need something longer than 5 seconds. You can shoot longer in Standard mode, but the recording doesn't automatically end like it does with the timed shots (no need to hit the Stop button on the screen).

Transition between clips could be a smidge longer. It’s a personal preference of mine. The co-founder responded that they wanted a dynamic feel to the tours and the shorter fades help create that dynamic.

There is no access to a trial version on the company website. After I inquired, I was provided a link to a trial on the website. That seemed strange to me that the web page with the link to the Trial wasn’t easily available for use.

Final Summary
This app is definitely worth the license fee because it produces the type of "run and gun" video walk-throughs that fit a medium quality niche. It definitely fits as a complementary offering to the Zillow 3D Home Tour product. I think a "regular" video takes far more time to produce, hence costs more to the agent, hence they don't choose to include videos as often. Offering Momenzo tours at a lower price point would likely capture more overall video business revenue.

Originally Posted by @Dataventurer
@DanSmigrod Dan, I'm pleased to share my research! The process helped me to evaluate the Momenzo app for myself in a methodical manner. And I think it's a keeper!

To answer your questions from above:
..."how long does it take to be as proficient with the Momenzo app as you?"

Answer: Proficiency with an app requires assessing what options are available, then deciding which ones are relevant to your work. The Momenzo app has a couple areas to assess:
- Onboarding - after subscribing, I immediately received a Welcome email with instructions to send photo, logo, etc. so the Support team could create my profile (they are working on enabling user control of that process). Then I watched the several training videos and example videos (a regular tour and a narrated tour). That entire process to get the material sent and watch the videos took about an hour total, a one-time requirement.
- Templates - there are 23 templates. I paired the list down to 12 to evaluate. The way I did that was to shoot a short 22-second, 4-shot video, then produce it using the various templates and download it so I could take a close look at the graphics and components (whether an Intro, Outro, comments were included, etc.) Shooting the video took about 8 minutes, each template took about five minutes to produce (that work is done on the Momenzo servers) and download. One reason I posted the screen capture photos and links to access each sample video was to save other interested members time in this step. All those videos are also posted on a Show and Tour page that I didn't include in my initial review: clickable text Frankly, I haven't completed my evaluation of the various templates because some of the text and graphics can be removed from display by removing elements of my profile: photo, logo, agent name, MLS number, etc. I think some of the added graphics elements take up too much screen space so I have a bit more scrutinizing to do. For someone here on the Forum who is jumping in to begin using the app, I estimate using my examples posted here to evaluate the template options, that could be done in half an hour.
- Video Options - the app offers a small set of shot options that appear on the phone screen when you prepare to shoot a room. I listed them above Shooting - Guided I just noticed an error. The second section above, Shooting - Guided, should be "Shooting Pro". Too late to change that... The options provided in the camera app are easy to understand, so a quick learning curve here. Try each shot option once and you've got the idea - total time to shoot each option, produce, download takes about 12 minutes.
- Adding Comments - after hitting Done to complete a set of tour clips, an option to Edit/Add Comments appears. Straightforward: grab the clip and move it up or down in the sequence, click on the comment line under each clip and enter a short description or comment.

Summary answer to your question about time required to master - Initially playing with this app shooting a short sequence of clips and producing a couple of sample tours using different templates, that can be done in less than an hour.

Second Question about customizing for different agents
There are three parts of the Momenzo tours where customization is possible: Intro, tour clips, Outro.

First, the Tour Clips: Personally, I plan to remove profile information that displays during the tour clips by asking Momenzo support to delete those fields from my profile. I think that information is distracting and unnecessary when a potential buyer is seeking to see a walk-through of a property.

Intro - I just did a bit more exploration here. One of the shot options is Logo. The app automatically grabs the brokerage logo and adds it to the description text that gets overlaid on the logo clip. I included that intro clip in my sample video but the various templates do not automatically add an Intro, which is called the Logo shot when you are choosing which shot to take. The Logo shot option has a switch to include or omit the logo - but it still can display the project title and location of the property. If an agent is a client who wants to show his face at the beginning, have them shoot a short clip on their mobile phone, send it to you and import it as the first clip in the tour.

Outro - the Outro screen is automatically added to most of the templates and includes all the specific profile information that I plan to delete (phone, website, email address, photo, license number). The solution for customization here is to omit all these fields from your profile so they don't display. I have not sought to have my profile wiped yet so I can't tell you how that last screen will display.

A the simple solution to branding for multiple agents: Use the No Logo template. This template enables the fly-in comments for each clip, no other details display on the screen. You can add the Logo shot with the property location and title easy, no logo will display. (See the example No Logo tour at the top of my review post for an example of an Intro without a logo.) For the Outro, import a JPG with the agent's information as the last clip. Get the agent's photo, logo, contact info, create a page in PowerPoint, save it as a JPG and include that page in your gallery for importing. This will take some time to set up for each agent - once. (Maybe 20 minutes at most?) Then you have it in inventory to import for their listings. This can provide a very usable video product that's customized with the same quick production capability as the other templates.

Think about the trade-offs here. Initial start-up with the app will take a couple hours at the most and about 30 minutes total to create a customized Outro page for each agent. You'll have the potential to shoot a whole-house video in about 15-20 minutes, then add the comments for each clip and create the tour in another 15 minutes - this step is where the BIG TIME SAVING is! If an agent really wants to have their photo, phone and logo displayed on every page, create a Momenzo account with their profile information for them and charge them $19 per month for the subscription!

Originally Posted by @Dataventurer
So it looks like I can use FilmicPro clips to import into the Pro version tours using the Standard shot selection. Nice!

Originally Posted by Dataventurer
Since the import function wouldn't accept a JPG file

Originally Posted by Dataventurer
Since the import function wouldn't accept a JPG file