Videography Has Amplified the Art of Social Climbing, Remembering, and Living | NotForgotten
Never before has any generation more diligently documented themselves. Videos have become ingrained in our every day lives and we are turning them into time capsules. Read this blog to see how you can make them count.
In a world filled with smart phones, computers, and TVs, videos are constantly present. Video has become an essential part of our every day lives, making us ever more conscious of its prescience. As much as I hate to admit it, I am one of the many simple people that feels the urge to whip out their phone and start recording during a good sunset. Personally, I believe something that beautiful deserves admiration even after it finally sets. Every sunset is different and beautiful in its own way, making me want to remember them all.
This theory applies to our personal lives too. Why do you think we selectively post pictures we believe we look good in? In a social media world where it seems that everyone else has a better life than you, it’s important to each of us to personally remember the moments when we felt great, and important that everyone around us sees us the same way.
I find it interesting thinking back on a time when videos did not exist. We all have a general understanding of those times, but we will never be as familiar with them as the future generations will be with our time.
Today we have the power to make history at the tips of our fingers, whereas people would have killed for in the past.
Just think about home videos. In my first blog I ever wrote, the most important videos I could think of that have always had a lasting relevance were the ones filmed of my family when we were young. I look back at those videos and remember times that were innocent and careless.
So much of what we do has been turned into video. You know an event is important when a camera is involved. Every occasion is followed by some sort of digital recollection: Weddings, funerals, birthdays, reunions…etc. Let’s be real, we live in an age where a moment is not truly lived unless it is recorded…and hey no shame in wanting a special moment to last.
Videography has amplified the art of social climbing, remembering, and living.
I have also been thinking about the rapidly evolving role of videographer in society today. In a very real way, we all now perform the role of videographers in our own lives and we do it because we intuitively know that
life through lens give the world perspective.
Being a videographer is such a unique vocation. You not only get paid for the work you do, but documenting important moments is a real contribution to society. Each and every piece of work you record as a videographer becomes integrated and released into history. How cool is that?
As a videographer you are able to participate in so many different stories in so many ways. You get to build lasting memories and tributes for generations of families to enjoy. You are given the chance to create relationships and hear stories one on one. And technology is just expanding this role at an explosive rate.
Today these relationships can be formed online, weddings and funerals are being live streamed and all of these moments and memories and stories can be preserved for unfeasible lengths of time.
Now I’m sure you are wondering how time capsules fit into all this, and this answer is “in so many ways”. Videography revives the past and allows it to thrive in the future. That is why we create time capsules in the first place. When we think of time capsules, we reflexively think of traditional metal seals filled with rusted gadgets and faded photos. Well, what if I told you there was a way you could contribute to the making of capsules in a more innovative way? A way that makes our stories last longer.
The demand for both videos and time capsules come hand in hand, so why not combine the two? Why not become a part of something so special so easily?
I am currently a junior in college with the big and threatening senior year looming over me. As the thought of becoming thrown into the real world approaches, my roommates and I have a plan for not leaving without a fight. Our experience the past years has been too memorable to be disregarded. So we plan to take advantage of the opportunities the combined technologies time capsuling and videography have to offer. Each one of us has our favorite stories to reminisce on with the NotForgotten personal videographer. As embarrassing as it will be explaining the botched adventures we have attempted, it is part of what made the four years together so special. At the end of the filming, our time capsule will be preserved, and we are going to set a reunion date for ten years from now, to watch our time capsule videos together.
Perhaps due to Covid-19 videographers have now also become the conduit to remembering somebody’s legacy — filming and remote streaming memorials, and eulogies and preserving them as moving tributes for a family in time capsules, ready for many generations of a family to appreciate. In many ways, the best way of being remembered after death is not through the physical things, but what people have to say about you because sometimes, it’s better to be talked about from another perspective rather than in the exact moment.
Lisa Smith, a customer of NotForgotten Time Capsules capture her own experience with making a videos for her Dad and preserving it in a time capsule:
“It was certainly an amazing day for my father to reminisce his entire life over a virtual connection with a soft soul. You made that happen for my father and his life has been enriched yet again . ”
The Smith’s seizes the opportunity technology had to offer and made it into something meaningful. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! In this case, when life gives you cameras…make videos!
Some people argue that Youtube is the ultimate time capsule. For those of you living under a rock, Youtube is a leading source of media consumption used by 45% of the worlds population. That is 4.4 billion people! All for an app that consists of people creating their own content. When it comes to videos people love the most, why risk the thought of them being lost forever. What Youtube lacks that time capsules do not is longevity and peace of mind.
When posting on any platform, there is no promise that your video will not be taken down at any given time, or trolled, or associated with an less than salubrious advert. And how long actually will your video be safe with YouTube? Can they guarantee 100 years? And what if you only want your story to be shared after you are gone?
With time capsules, especially virtual ones, you don’t have to worry about any of these things, or losing that moment. A time capsule lets you hold on to the things that you believe to be timeless. Our stories matter, my advice is to not let the hand of untrusted media take away what you wish to remember forever.
Videos in time capsules have made a break through. Here are just a few ways time capsuling is changing the face of videography:
✔ Remote filming story technology ensures stories can be remembered in high quality and therefore for far longer. Low quality memories serve for bad ones with short lives.
✔Digital assets can be added to the same time capsule as your video, 2GB all the way to 20GB means you can store plenty to enhance a story! Sketches, recipes, voicemails, letters, military records, family documentation, children’s art … absolutely anything that can be digitized!
✔ Clients get to pack away their video privately and choose an opening date for a special occasion in the future (and the family can receive annual reminders of the opening date)
✔ Each capsule can be mapped in multitudes of ways, so its never lost — including on the blockchain and with the International Time Capsule Society
✔ Videos time capsules can be safeguarded in vaults for up to 300 years and protected by the Digital Preservation Trust…the technology is regularly updated so its ready for generations of a family to enjoy
If you are reading this, I know you have a videographer of some sort in your life. Whether it’s your dad holding a flip camera to record moments throughout your life, or the professional filming your wedding…you have a videographer. With virtual time capsules being the latest trend, you can take your story and your relationship with your videographer to a whole other level.
Videographers once recorded events for the mere purpose of remembering for at best a decade or two. Now your videographer can become your personal time capsuler for life, creating the stories you see fit enough to not be forgotten.
I think the videographer role in society has been under-appreciated. They have been the underdogs of the world, recording each special moment at a time, but their role and our relationship with them is evolving. And its about time. Treat yourself to the priceless gift of a videographer filmed time capsule today.
