Lattes, Slowmo and Why Mobile Video Will Catch

On a beach in a faraway place, the lattes of the world are celebrating. They are shaded by cabanas, enjoying frozen beverages and gloating about their rise to global stardom.

A few filters have given these lucky beverages new lives. No longer is the latte confined to a 2-minute existence upended by its independent coffee shop-loving devourer (of which, I am admittedly one).

Thanks to tilt-shifting and color manipulation, the latte now enjoys publicity in the feeds of hundreds of Instagram followers, blushing ever-so-slightly at each succession of like-inducing ‘double taps’.

But the latte is not alone. It seems every visually observable detail of our lives has become snappable, shareable and more importantly, capable of entertaining.

Instagram has made minutia appear more interesting in our minds,and skylines, sunsets and apple orchards have all benefitted as a result.

Why not video?

The moving moments of our lives haven’t been so fortunate. Waving flags, falling water and slobbering dogs remain mortal, yet to join the latte at the digital party in the sky.

The issue is not the content, it is the medium. Video requires a narrative that most people aren’t capable of creating on-the-fly. As a result, our video sharing has been confined to unique perspectives and events, like concerts, extreme sports and speeches for which the subject has already constructed the narrative.

Photos have followed a similar path. Before after effects came into the picture, we were less apt to capture and share unless something extraordinary was happening. Now everyone is a photographer and everything is a subject.

What about Vine?

Length constraints (Vine) and filters (Instagram), helped accentuate content creators’ skill, but they were not enough to turn us all into capable videographers. No matter how good it looks, video still needs a narrative.

Enter, Slow Motion

What will change everything is slow motion. Suddenly, we will be able to readily capture and see movement like never before, at 120 FPS.

Running, dogs yawning, friends laughing and subways arriving, literally everything with motion, will now look new and exciting, no narrative required.

Just as Instagram gave us a new lens to look at the still world, slow motion video will do the same for the moving one.We are now endowed with a perspective we’ve never had before and the way we look at and capture moving moments of our lives will shift as a result.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if we internalize the pace shift in our media and slow down a bit ourselves?