Blog Post 1: Online Video Practice Context

It wasn’t long long ago that watching video online was incredibly difficult, the dreaded “buffering era”, when the internet wasn’t robust enough to support the viewing of high quality or extended video content online. Now however, thanks to the increased affordability of video technology, the ubiquity of mobile phones with video capability, and a restructuring of internet networks on a commercial/industry level to allow for better streaming, video content is everywhere. It is increasingly becoming the language of the online space, in fact it accounts for 70% of all internet traffic, with this set to increase. Many executives for online companies predict that video content will soon all but replace the written word as the primary way of communicating information online.

What is online video practice?

Put simply online video is video published to the internet via platforms (such as Youtube, Netflix, Stan, Vimeo), or applications (such as Instagram, Snapchat, or Vine).

Each platform has its own affordances, for instance platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Youtube allow uploading, whereas only industry made videos can be uploaded to Netflix and Stan, which are only for streaming, and not for authoring content. Most platforms favour short-form video (Vine videos are 6 seconds max, Instagram videos are 60 seconds max), and although platforms such as Vimeo and Youtube support long-form video, arguably online videos on the whole tend to be short and fragmented. The online environment encourages fragmented viewing, due its inherently distracting nature.

Different platforms also have their own parameters or restrictions. For instance, Facebook videos play without sound and therefore often rely on captions and subtitles to convey information. The first few seconds of these videos are also very important as there is only a brief moment to catch the viewer’s attention and draw them in. Instagram videos are generally more personal, and have their own style (via filters, which can add a nostalglic, diary-keeping tone). Furthermore the hashtagging culture of Instagram, coupled with the restrictions on text formatting have actually added to society’s vernacular. Other technicalities around the platform have led to their own unique practices, for instance on Instagram you cannot link out to external pages in a post, which has led to the “link in bio” format where posts refer to an external link on the user’s bio page.

Despite their differences, platforms seem to be becoming more homogenous as they lean towards providing everything. Examples of this include Instagram recently adding its story function, which heavily mimics Snapchat, and even more recently Facebook messenger has added a video stream. On many platforms it is possible to author video, scroll through other users’ videos via a feed, write text captions and communicate via direct messages (or DMs).

Differences between traditional and mobile video.

Traditional video practice would author content in a way that was linear. In making video for film or TV, there was a process of development, pro-production, production, post-production, and sale. As can be seen this was a long process and was expensive. Due to the costs of production, and the requirements of television and film screen needing high-resolution video, there was a high price of entry to making video. Only industry professionals could afford to make film, which tended to be money-driven.

Now, the barriers to entry are much lower, or indeed non existent in many parts of the world. Generally video cameras and editing software are cheaper, the quality of mobile video has improved immensely, Web 2.0 allows people to publish video easily with many platforms offering free hosting, and internet speeds have increased to support the viewing of high quality video online.

So whilst the steps involved in making video for the online sphere may sometimes mimic the old process, on the whole it’s much easier. A prime example of this is the 2015 film Tangerine, which was filmed entirely on iPhones, yet which made it into the Sundance film festival.

Within online video practice a distinction can be made between mobile practices and non-mobile practices. Because of video technology becoming more accessible, mobile phones have been transformed from a communication device to a lens-based medium. This has led to a democratisation of the film industry, with the phone representing an egalitarian moving-image practise. This leads to a difference in the way we author, publish and distribute content. On mobile platforms such as Instagram, the process of pre-production, production and distribution may all happen in less than a minute, which generally results sin content resembling unedited fragments of the every day. On Youtube, the process may (though not necessarily) mirror the traditional process, resulting in content that is closer to what we may see on TV or film.

For the purpose of this course we will examine platforms allowing the authoring of video content.