‘Finding space and time for contemplation during Covid-19′
For the third instalment of my work that explored the notion of ‘Finding space and time for contemplation during Covid-19′ I focussed on the idea of contemplation and more specifically where and when was this contemplation occurring. Having had travel plans for the year, I regularly find myself contemplating what my life would be like if I was able to fulfil these plans in the means to ‘escape’ my reality, that even before the global pandemic, I was finding to be extremely mundane and stagnant.
Now that I can not escape, it doesn’t mean my desire to do so has faded but instead I have had to find new ways in which to almost romanticise the tiny escapes that I can have. For me, this is learning to appreciate that I am surrounded by such a beautiful landscape and can enjoy an escape to a seaside paradise almost every day.
Relating again to the idea of contemplation, this instalment explores a time and space in which reflection and contemplation happen for me the most; a time where I am alone and a space that I often take for granted. I wanted to combine these three elements to round off my work and tie in each of the previous instalment to make it a collection.
How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I once again used the camera on my iPhone 11 and used the built in camera app to shoot all of my content. I utilised the built-in zoom feature quite heavily and saved each shot to my gallery. Similarly to the previous week, I decided that I didn’t want to shoot video on my Canon DSLR camera as for this exercise I felt as if it would be unnecessary and once again I wanted to achieve the ‘homemade’ aesthetic to highlight the idea of finding an escape in your own surrounding.
From here I airdropped each video to my Laptop and uploaded the files to premiere pro. I wanted to deal with an Instagram compatible 1:1 aspect ratio so I changed my timelines settings to this ratio so that I could crop each shot to where I thought it sat best, rather than cropping the whole video to a square format when uploading to Instagram.
I quite randomly just dumped each file into the sequence and began to arrange them so no two consecutive videos were similar. From here I inserted the piece of music that I found through searching ‘disco’ in http://dig.ccmixter.org/. I wanted to use an upbeat, disco song as it is something that, for me, runs parallel to my fond memories of being on a beach, the idea of escapism and enjoyment and also as I felt something folky or acoustic would be too typical for a video of a beach landscape.
I used the soundtrack as inspiration for my shot arrangement and followed the melodic beat as a backbone for the rhythm of my cuts. There were snare sounds that I used to place cuts upon and whirring noises that I used to place cross dissolves upon. I also altered and cut the music down to a shorter length to speed up the crescendo and apparent ending of the song and consequently the video.
I added the text, “I want to… escape to the beginning of the video to act as almost a title and to introduce the theme of escape. I used the text feature on premiere pro and a basic font for the “I want to…” and found a font online at dafont.com named ‘discotheque’ to create the graphic for escape. I chose to layer this graphic four times in the frame in order to again emphasise this idea and also just to create visual interest.
I changed the colouring of the videos with the premiere pro software, moving the temperature down and the exposure up to give each shot more of a cool, bright tone to further emphasise the ‘summery’ paradise sequel vibe of the piece.
I used a dip to white transition to conclude the video (as well as a white screen at the beginning of the video) to compliment the white background of instagram and also to create a loop effect within the video.
I exported the video in its 1:1 format and airdropped it back to my iPhone. From here I uploaded the final video to the ‘Prequel’ app, an app that allows you to apply preset filters to your videos. I applied the ‘disco #2’ filter at 38% and effect intensity at 17%. I chose this filter as it gave my video a vivid, dream like feel to it with the addition of lens flare and twinkling sparkles upon the highlights of the shot. I again saved the video to my camera roll and did not need to do any editing in the gallery app as I had done everything previously.
How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I uploaded the video straight from my camera roll, and because I had already formatted to be 1:1 aspect ratio, I did not crop or make any adjustments to the video. I chose a cover image that would be seen on my grid; this was a still image of the sky. I chose this section as again it complimented the minimalistic aesthetic that I was following on my grid, yet allowed this instalment to stand alone.
I captioned the photo
“been thinkin about escaping lately
music is easy disco by roberro”
And also included the license to the music that was used. I chose to break up each section of my caption between paragraphs to again continue this minimalist aesthetic and not clutter the visual with text.
I geotagged the post at ‘anywhere but here’ in order to relate back to the idea of wishing I was anywhere but here but also to tap into that idea that I could be anywhere but here. Leaving the location anonymous means that the viewer could really see this as anywhere, I could be on the Amalfi coast or I could be at the beach near my house; without being aware the surroundings, you could think I’m anywhere.
Studio prompt
As I conclude my first project that explores the studio prompt of ‘how do the affordances of Instagram affect the way video content is authored?” I have found myself exploring ways to use Instagram that I would not typically do so. I was planning on using the new ‘reels’ feature to become more software literate, but I didn’t feel as if it would be something that I would be able to use to convey my idea in its best form. The ‘reels’ feature utilised shorter duration and a portrait ratio, both of which I didn’t want to use. I also found it to be not the most user friendly in terms of uploading pre-existing footage from your device and editing together a final product. One affordance that I did come across after the publishing of my third video, was the dark mode feature that was introduced to Instagram and iOs a few months ago, which basically makes the background of your applications darker, rather than being white. As I had intentionally used a dip to white dissolve and white backgrounds in my video in order to keep a clean aesthetic, this feature kind of ruined that for me as it no longer felt as clean.
In direct response to the affordances of Instagram affecting the way video content is authored, I think that it this platform and the affordances that come with it have drastically changed the way in which video content is authored both in terms of how and who. Instagram has pioneered many different formats of video creation with their story, reels, IGTV and profile post features. It has also allowed for video creation to be attainable to amateurs. This creation and publishing on Instagram is something that Manovich says “gives young people at least as much power in crafting unique identities as music (2016, p.19)
Manovich, L. 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA. http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/instagram-and-contemporary-image