Lately, mobile video is all the craze. Youtube is still the king, but Instagram, Vine, Mixbit (child of YouTube founders) and others are entering the field to compete for the title of next big thing in video.
Well what at least some of them have gotten wrong – video shouldn’t be treated the same way as photos because it’s a completely different kind of media.
The most important part – recording
Video is the best possible way how to capture any process. Often, it’s difficult to predict how any process will develop. Think about baby’s first steps, sport performances, drunk friends, etc. And this is a serious dealbreaker, if you’re constrained by 15 seconds. Or six, if we’re talking about Vine. Such short windows are suitable only for perfect conditions & perfect filming skills, which just some of people posess.
Couple of weeks ago Instagram introduced the option to import videos into the app. That’s a step in the right direction – it allows to capture moments in a way user is used to (in the built-in camera app, youtube app or any other) and publish only the part of the video that counts.
Another problem which is solved by youtube (almost) – storing and managing videos. All these videos take up a lot of space. For example, 10min video on iPhone can easily exceed 1GB. Cloud storage is expensive and most people doesn’t have unlimited access to hard drives. That’s another problem that requires solving.
Do videos need filters?
It’s understandable why photo filters are such a big deal. They both help to cover up our lack of photography skills and to add a feeling to any picture. The problem with video is that it consists of a lot of pictures that usually are different from each another. There isn’t a filter that suits every picture and since video consists of a lot of pictures, it shouldn’t be treated as if every frame is the same.
Well, one could argue that filter can still add an emotion to a video, but I strongly believe that quality comes first.
Best mobile video browsing experience? None
In my opinion Youtube is and will be the king of our personal videos. What they need is just a little fine-tuning on their mobile apps, their homepage and everything else. I totally get the fact that they want to have the best content, channels and audiences that reach well past millions.
Personal videos and the ones which are created to be viewed by much broader audiences are very different. It’s a mistake to put both of these kinds of videos in one basket.
Instagram is personal, but it’s hardly suitable for video. If Youtube could copy the simplicity of Instagram’s mobile app and help users manage their videos & streams better, they’d be unbeatable.
The same goes for all the other new video services. Leave out filters and pointless editing options. Just let users to save their videos, cut them in couple of places and post for the world to see. That’s it.
15 second limits, squares, filters and everything else is just too much for saving those moments we wish to save the most.
Thanks for reading!
