A1 Practical Analysis

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One of the coolest experiences over the past year has been getting to chat with hundreds of people who have been inspired to make Instagram stories. For some of you it has rekindled a passion for filmmaking that you lost over the years, and for others it has been your very first time hitting record on a camera. Whatever the case, I’m really happy you are getting out and making something. My friends @canningbrandon and @zachdriftwood are some of my pals that make these types of instagram stories so please do go check out their stuff. If you have been making stories leave a comment down below and connect with others down there that are doing the same. If not I’d still love to say hey! 👋 So leave me a comment anyway. You are great. kthxbye

A post shared by Jesse Driftwood (@jessedriftwood) on

 

Provide the name of the practitioner, the title of the work, the date when it was made, and a link to the work. 

 

 

This video was filmed & edited by Jesse Driftwood. It was uploaded on the 11th of February in 2018. So it is somewhat outdated for right now, but what he was doing was innovative at the time and has set up a whole bunch of young videographers to try and emulate his video style.

 

 

Provide some context on the video by summarising the content, the context of publication, and the audience it targets. 

 

 

Jesse Driftwood is one of those flashy videographers working with a run & gun mirrorless setup. It’s a style that is very prevalent over the last 2 years, especially on YouTube. Driftwood started out with an iPhone filming vlog style videos but then developed this new style where learnt in-camera transitions (like the one where the snow is falling down of the bridge, and the camera whips down with it into the next frame) & the strong rhythmic editing.

 

The first half of the video is just some fairly dramatic B-Roll shots of him playing around with snow & ice, but together with music, atmos & pacing, he creates the overall mood to the video,

 

The second half of the video is a shout-out to those who he has influenced for following him & emulating the style.

 

 

How was the video made technically? 

 

 

Jesse shoots with a Sony A7iii, so nothing super high end and he also uses an iPhone X for a lot of shots. He’s also a fairly big advocator for shooting hand-held so I don’t think he would be using a gimbal. I believe that he has his camera rigged up in a SmallRig Cage and possibly an attachable handle for stability.

 

He usually exports in 9:16 for Instagram, I’ve heard him mention that he likes to play with the style as most making this style of videos prefer to avoid portrait. It is also to do with the content size on the Instagram feed. If you’re scrolling down only half taking in what’s on your feed, a 16:9 video is half the size of a 9:16 video on the scrolling Instagram feed.

 

I’m not entirely sure though whether he shoots in landscape and crops in post, or shoots in portrait. The Sony A7 is capable of shooting 4k + 1080 @ fps, and if he’s exporting for Instagram he would probably edit in a 720 or 1080 timeline and have some room to manipulate with scale & position of the larger resolution footage if he did choose to film in landscape.

 

Driftwood then edits in FCXP (I’ve seen a tutorial on YouTube by him, and it’s also in this lesson package).

 

I assume that he recorded some atmos tracks on the set, as well as using a shotgun mic on top for some of the SFX. But I’m sure that foley would be added into the edit.

 

 

What similarities and differences can you make with other forms of time-based media?  

 

 

The video utilises a song, so comparatively it still has an aural effect. But compared to music, the visual aspect & added atmos would heighten the overall senses that we perceive as the viewer compared to just listening to the song.

 

 

What is innovative about this video

 

 

The video itself isn’t anything crazily innovative for cinematography itself. As a videographer, Driftwood was part of the first few to really create high-end content using simple point & shoot cameras or mobile phones before upgrading later.

 

The editing is very detailed and effective (I find in this style some people go over the top).

 

But the main innovation lies in when he started doing this.

 

Driftwood was one of the first in this style to really turn to Instagram to create 60-second stories in vertical. A lot of videographers doing longer travel vlog videos still haven’t embraced Instagram as much as they have YouTube & Vimeo. But Driftwood continues to produce engaging content that tells a story, whilst working within the limitations of Instagram.

 

I believe he has been doing these short stories since around 2015, and they do cover a wide variety of content but pertain to his own style that many have tried to emulate afterward. To name some; Peter Mackinnon, Daniel Schiffer & Matti Haapoja.

 

So I believe the innovations lie more with the intent & utilization of the Instagram format to tell short-form stories, rather than focusing on more traditional approaches to film.

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