Third-party apps will be able to edit Cinematic Mode videos in iOS 17

With Cinematic Mode, filmmakers can decide who to focus on after they've already shot the scene

Cinematic Mode is the tool that lets a filmmaker perform changes that would previously have meant reshooting a scene. With a tap, they can decide to focus on a background actor instead of the foreground for instance.

Originally introduced in 2021, Cinematic Mode was specifically created for filmmakers, but it was initially limited to HD instead of 4K, and it only worked with Apple's apps.

With the introduction of the iPhone 14 range, Cinematic Mode was updated to work with 4K — and now with iOS 17, filmmakers will be able to use the feature in third-party apps instead.

Developers will need to incorporate tools to make that happen, so there won't be any updated video apps immediately. But Apple hosted a developer session at WWDC specifically about how apps can add the feature.

The 25-minute session was fronted by an engineer on Apple's Camera Algorithms team, and showed the kind of coding detail that developers need. One thing it also revealed for users is that these third-party apps will not be able to use Cinematic Mode in their own recordings.

Instead, they will have to use Apple's Camera app to record the video. That means the footage has to be imported into the third-party app later, which may mean this will be reserved for video editors such as DaVinci Resolve, or Apple's own Final Cut Pro.