Monday 18th May Studio (Week 11)

After experimenting with the production of ‘skate video’ within Snapchat (videos coming soon) and presenting our ideas to the class during today’s studio, we noticed that the majority of techniques used for the capture of skate video in a linear fashion, were transferable over to skate video within Snapchat.

Which raises question about what it might be that is interesting about Snapchat? Being such a popular application, why are users attracted to it?

Upon brainstorming these questions, we realised the importance of Snapchat videos being distributed only among a private network and only viewable either once, or for a maximum of 24 hours. Due to the fact that you are often only sharing content with close friends through the use of Snapchat, this encourages the user to capture more personal content, or at least material that is relevant to their life. In addition, the fact that the material is only available for a maximum of 24 hours removes a level of expectation regarding quality. Instead, users are encouraged to produce more disposable content. This, in combination with the material being shared among a private network encourages the user to capture momentary material; aspects of each users 24 hour day that is interesting and not necessarily worthy of saving.

In regards to ‘skate video’, the use of Snapchat redefines the video practice as material is more likely to be comprised of more casual and disposable instances of skateboarding, such as easier tricks. As well as capture of spontaneous instances, such as travel between skate locations and ‘mucking around’. Otherwise, if the content in the Snapchat video is similar to high production, serious, linear skate video production, then the action is likely to be recorded separately on a DSLR (or similar) camera as well, so that it can be saved for later admiration. This the  entails the likelihood for cameras and/or a production crew to be visible within the Snapchat video. This is another important factor to consider when creating the guidelines for the content curation.

To visualise what the project looks like, it now stands as a video similar to:

A collection of sketches (or rather rapid prototypes) that explore how to make effective ‘skate video’ within Snapchat in a variety of different ways. This will be used to explore what stylistic aspects of skate video can be implemented within Snapchat in order to create an effective hybrid of narrative/non-narrative form. Furthering the project in relation to our probe, these discoveries will be used to define the guidelines for curation and organisation of user submitted material. This will help relate the prototype itself, being a concept for an online tool that doesn’t exist, to the aims of this studio. The prototype itself will be almost an advertisement for the online tool, something that could be used to pitch the idea to a client, such as Snapchat. This would be made up of multiple shots of users video capturing skateboarding; screenshots of the users sharing the footage with a ‘mother’ Snapchat user/database (similar to Snapchat’s ‘Our Story’; shots of an office-like setup, where curation would take place; screenshots of certain content getting curated in regards to the decided guidelines; a first-person perspective of the tool as the user accepts/views the collection of videos, structured by different days.

The final part of the prototype video would present all of the highlights from the project process in order to appear to advertise the tool for the interest of a potential client such as Snapchat, as well as to a network of potential customers/users.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *