Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?
Zach Lower is filmmaker originating from Brighton, England. Lower began his interest in video work from shooting short clips of himself and his friends doing BMX stunts and over time, what seemed like a side hobby has now turned into an ever growing passion (boostedboards, n.d).
Lower joined Instagram in 2012 and since then has made over 1000 posts and accumulated over 34,000 followers.
What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)
Title: #swishhh
Where: Seaford, East Sussex, England
When: 24th April 2020
This video could be found here
With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced (date)?
This video was posted on Lower’s Instagram page on the 24th of April 2020. However, it is stated in the biography section of his Instagram page that he makes videos either daily or bi-monthly. Taking a look at his recent posts, Lower has not gone longer than a week between making each post. Given the nature of this video of him playing basketball with two copies of himself, it is most likely that he shot and edited the video before the date that he had posted it.
How was the photo or video authored?
It is not disclosed what equipment Lower used to shoot this video however it is most likely that he used a digital camera over a mobile phone. To further build upon this assumption, a digital camera that could shoot high quality video would ease the post process editing of zooming in and out without deteriorating the quality of the video. Also, The camera would have had to be placed on a tripod to get the wide angled shot of Lower on the basketball court.
The use of the tripod is also a key factor to get a steady unmoved shot of Lower in two separate sequences, one from underneath the basketball hoop and another from across the basketball hoop. He would have then presumably masked the two shots together and applied a blur to the basketball to make the transition smoother. He would have then edited in the panning and zooming effect to give the feel that it had been shot freehand.
How was the photo or video published?
This video was published on Lowers Instagram page. Despite Instagram being a platform mostly tied to photos, other forms of media including video have made their way onto the platform and have gained quite a bit of traction over the last few years. Though, Instagram poses a few constraints for videographers as each post has a time limit of 60 seconds per video. Should a video be longer than that, users would be redirected to a section of Instagram called IGTV (Instagram TV) where they can continue to watch the entire video.
Lower however usually posts short 5-20 seconds and at times up to 50 seconds video clips. These video clips are in a 4:5 aspect ratio that is well suited to be viewed on Instagram. Being that Instagram is a platform where users usually scroll past each post quite quickly, Lower keeps his videos quite brief but still keeps them interesting by including well performed edits.
How was the photo or video distributed?
Lower is present on various different platforms such as Vimeo, Youtube and Twitter. This video in particular was published and distributed on Instagram where he has a more present following. From the moment he publishes the video it is then instantly distributed to those who follow him on Instagram. Furthermore, Lower utilises the geotagging feature that Instagrams offers. Through this, when users look up for posts that are geotagged with the location Seaford or Sussex, Lowers post will then be suggested to these users.
References
Boosted Boards, n.d, MEET FILMMAKER ZACH LOWER, Booster boards, viewed 1st May 2020,
<https://blog.boostedboards.com/meet-filmmaker-zach-lower/>
Lower, Z 2020, @zachlower, Instagram, viewed 1st May 2020, <https://www.instagram.com/zachlower/>.