Help

What are films and moments?

A film is what you make in oblivious: an ordered run of moments, with an optional soundtrack over it as its background music.

A moment is one photo, or one short piece of video. Every moment plays for the same length, so a film reads as a rhythm rather than a timeline.

A film can hold up to 60 moments.
moment length is 1, 2 or 3 seconds, chosen per film.
Order carries meaning. Reordering the moments changes how the film reads.

How do I add moments?

Open the film and tap ＋. Photos and videos come in the order you picked them, and that becomes the order of the moments.

If only some of your library shows up, oblivious has access to a selected set of photos. Tap Select more photos to widen that set, or Change settings to allow all photos.

A video shorter than the moment length becomes a single still frame.
A moment refers back to the original file in your photo library.
Delete that original and the moment has nothing left to show in the film.

What can I do when editing a moment?

Tap a moment to open it for editing. Tap Done to keep what you changed.

Pinch and drag to choose how the picture sits in the frame. Fill fills the frame in one tap, and Reset returns to unfilled.
For a video, the filmstrip picks which part plays.
Aa at the bottom puts text and the capture date & time on the moment.
Choose whether a video keeps its own sound.
Previous moment ghost shows the moment before, faintly, for lining the two up.
Duplicate before and Duplicate after in the ⋯ menu add a copy of this moment before or after it, carrying over everything you've set.
For a video, the copy takes the stretch of footage just before or just after.
Remove moment, in the same ⋯ menu, takes it out of the film. The photo or video in your library isn't touched.

How do I put text on a moment?

Open a moment for editing and tap Aa at the bottom to open Arrange text. This is where you choose where the text goes and what shows.

Layout chooses how the text and the capture date & time are split across the frame.
Show lists only the items the layout has a place for, and turns each one on or off. In a layout with two texts, they appear as two rows named by where they sit (Top text / Bottom text, or Left text / Right text), so you can turn off just one of them. The last item still showing can't be turned off; to show nothing, choose None under Layout.
Tap the text on the moment to rewrite it. Among the icons above the keyboard, the one made of lines and an A lets you pick a typeface.
Tap the date & time to show both, or only the date or only the time.
The alignment icon above the keyboard, a stack of lines, switches between left, center and right each time you tap it. Each piece of text keeps its own alignment, and choosing a Layout again resets it. In a portrait or square film with a side-by-side layout, the text stacks vertically, so the alignment can't be changed.
A line with characters the chosen typeface doesn't have is drawn in the standard typeface, Plain. Emoji and symbols don't count.
Text left as Tap to edit isn't part of the saved film.

What can I change about the film itself?

At the top of an open film, next to ⋯, is an icon of a frame marked 1s, 2s or 3s. Both act on the whole film, not on a single moment: the frame icon sets how long moments play, and ⋯ holds everything else.

The frame icon opens moment duration, where 1 sec, 2 sec or 3 sec sets how long every moment plays.
Sort by reorders the whole film at once, by Capture date or Date added. Dragging rows by hand still works afterwards.
Edit name renames the film.
Change aspect ratio picks the shape of the frame — 16:9, 3:2, 4:3 or 1:1, portrait or landscape. Each moment keeps whether it was filled or unfilled, but position and zoom go back to the start.
Delete film can't be undone. The photos and videos in your library aren't touched — but if other films are using a soundtrack created from this one, it goes from them too.

When the film is ready, tap the save icon at the bottom of the screen — a tray with a downward arrow. The save screen opens, and saving and sharing both happen there.

The preview is exactly what will come out, at the film's orientation and with the soundtrack mixed in.

Save writes the video to your photo library.
The share button at the top hands the same video to another app.
Pick a look for the color finish of the film, and adjust how strongly it applies.
Add your own .cube (3D LUT) from the ＋ tile at the end of the look row. LUTs made for sRGB / Rec.709 work as intended; LUTs made for Log footage won't look as designed.
While a look is on, tap the preview to see it against the original.
A color finish goes onto the video you export, not onto the film itself.
Saving changes nothing about the film. You can keep editing and save again.

How does creating a soundtrack work?

Tap the icon at the bottom of the screen — a music note with a plus — to open Choose soundtrack, where you set the soundtrack for the film. Take one of the soundtracks that ship with oblivious, use audio from your device, or create a new one, where oblivious reads the film and writes a soundtrack for it.

A soundtrack can be created once per film.
You can create 3 soundtracks a month in total, counted across every film. Settings shows how many are left and when the count resets.
A soundtrack created in one film can be chosen from another film, and reusing one doesn't count against the monthly total.
Creating needs a network connection. It keeps running in the background if you leave the app.

What does iCloud sync cover?

iCloud sync stays off until you turn it on in Settings, under Sync across devices. With it on, your films travel between devices signed in to the same Apple Account.

Carried across: films — their moments, order, trims, name and orientation — and the soundtrack attached to each one.
Not carried across: the photos and videos themselves. A moment points at your photo library, so the other device needs iCloud Photos on to show the same picture.

Why does the screen dim on bright scenes?

This isn't coming from oblivious. It's most likely Dim Flashing Lights, an accessibility setting on your iPhone that dims the screen when it detects large, sudden changes in brightness, to ease the strain on your eyes.

It tends to kick in the instant a dark scene turns bright, or on footage that shimmers, like light on water.
It acts on the display rather than on the video, so the same thing happens in other apps, including Photos.
To turn it off: Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Dim Flashing Lights. The exact wording and where it sits can vary by iOS version.
It's a safeguard for people who are sensitive to flashing lights, so whether to turn it off is your call.

A moment won't load — what happened?

A moment points at a photo or video in your photo library. When oblivious can't reach that original, the row says Couldn't load, or Deleted from camera roll when the original can't be found in the library at all.

Put the original back and the moment comes back. If you deleted it, Photos keeps it under Recently Deleted for a while. If iCloud Photos simply hasn't brought it down yet, it returns on its own.
It may only be out of reach on this device. oblivious sees a selected set of photos, iCloud Photos is off, or a photo or video from another device hasn't synced yet — any of these can read as Deleted from camera roll. Open Photos and check the original is there.
Leaving it is fine. A moment that can't load is skipped — it doesn't play, and it isn't in the video you save. The film closes up around it.
It can't be edited while it's in this state, so tapping the row does nothing.
To remove it, swipe the row left in the moment list and delete it.

Something isn't working — what can I check?

Common problems, and what to check for each.

moments won't add: check the film hasn't reached 60 moments, and that oblivious can see the items you're picking.
a soundtrack won't generate: creating needs a network connection. If this month's 3 soundtracks are used up, Settings shows when the count resets.
films aren't reaching another device: check sync across devices is on for both, signed in to the same Apple Account, and give the other device a moment to catch up.

If the problem persists, get in touch.