And why Vine and Instagram Video are on course for epic obscurity...
On our recent vacation trip, upon seeing me take photographs of whimsical proportions (click click click...), APS confronted me as to why don't I shoot videos from our Canon 550D. It was a good proposal, since these days most cameras will record 1080p video at 30fps. Throw in optical image stabilization chops, and you've got a potential winner, ain't it?
FLY IN THE OINTMENT #UNO - PICS ARE ABOUT CAPTURING THE MOMENT, VIDS ARE ABOUT CREATING ONE (OR MANY):
This alone is perhaps the most critical aspect of my larger argument. With photographs, owing to their inherent nature of static objects (nothing moves, unless you're seeing a GIF), embellishing it with a handful of design filters and layers is easy. Just look at Instagram's mushrooming photo service (thereby distinguishing it from it's recently-announced video service - more on this later). All of a sudden, that guy you know who couldn't click for his life now suddenly has an enthralling collection of photographs (selfies, please excuse) on his Instagram feed. These days, nothing is cooler than Instagram-ming your food, pets and flowers. Guess what, video isn't so forgiving. There is a ton of post-production processing that goes into typical video feeds that you see on YouTube, even the simplest of'em. That's the stuff of pros and takes a long time and lots of complex software tools. 'nuff said.
Arguably, most camera sensors on our point-and-shoots and DSLRs are only getting better at capturing image quality and detail. Goes without saying that video shot from these devices is data-heavy and poses 2 basic constraints - firstly of storage size for such immense data files, and secondly of data bandwidth to upload and share. Samsung is trying to tackle these constraints through it's Galaxy range of high-end point-and-shoot camera, but that's for a different day.
FLY IN THE OINTMENT #TRES - USER-GENERATED SOCIAL VIDEO SHARING THROUGH THE MOBILE IS TAKING OFF:
Yes, but as explained in point #uno, post-production on mobile is kind of tough right now. Neither do we have such high computational power onboard these power-sipping processors, nor do we have the adequate software to manage this. Sure, Apple, Samsung and most notably, Nokia, are taking giant steps in this direction. But I'd say we're still ages away from the day when all post-processing would happen natively.
As innovative as the idea of shooting a few seconds of video of your dog running in circles chasing it's tail might sound, Vine wasn't the first vendor to come up with this concept. 12 Seconds and many others during their time came up with the idea of community-based video sharing and had to shut shop eventually due to some of the challenges I highlighted above. At this point, I am struggling to form my faith in Vine's business model and am very clear that Instagram's intent behind launching Instagram Video was purely defensive rather than trying to gain / grow market-share from Vine. Why - because nobody has a clue as to how to create something that isn't crap from social video sharing on mobile.
P.S.: Grammatically-speaking, 'productisation' as a word doesn't exist, but then I never assumed responsibility for your grammar, did I?
Image credit: http://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA2LzI3LzIzL3ZpbmVpbnN0YWdyLmVmNWQ2LmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/9282fd37/7af/vine-instagram-video.jpg
If photography is painstaking calligraphy, video is the gay abandon of broad-brushing a canvas.Here's a product manager's perspective of why treating video as a commodity is tough when compared to still photography.
FLY IN THE OINTMENT #UNO - PICS ARE ABOUT CAPTURING THE MOMENT, VIDS ARE ABOUT CREATING ONE (OR MANY):
This alone is perhaps the most critical aspect of my larger argument. With photographs, owing to their inherent nature of static objects (nothing moves, unless you're seeing a GIF), embellishing it with a handful of design filters and layers is easy. Just look at Instagram's mushrooming photo service (thereby distinguishing it from it's recently-announced video service - more on this later). All of a sudden, that guy you know who couldn't click for his life now suddenly has an enthralling collection of photographs (selfies, please excuse) on his Instagram feed. These days, nothing is cooler than Instagram-ming your food, pets and flowers. Guess what, video isn't so forgiving. There is a ton of post-production processing that goes into typical video feeds that you see on YouTube, even the simplest of'em. That's the stuff of pros and takes a long time and lots of complex software tools. 'nuff said.
The earth hasn't become more beautiful, neither have the earthlings become more artistic - though Instagram would like to make you believe otherwise.FLY IN THE OINTMENT #DOS - BIG DATA (NOT THAT ONE, I MEANT LITERALLY BIG DATA):
Arguably, most camera sensors on our point-and-shoots and DSLRs are only getting better at capturing image quality and detail. Goes without saying that video shot from these devices is data-heavy and poses 2 basic constraints - firstly of storage size for such immense data files, and secondly of data bandwidth to upload and share. Samsung is trying to tackle these constraints through it's Galaxy range of high-end point-and-shoot camera, but that's for a different day.
FLY IN THE OINTMENT #TRES - USER-GENERATED SOCIAL VIDEO SHARING THROUGH THE MOBILE IS TAKING OFF:
Yes, but as explained in point #uno, post-production on mobile is kind of tough right now. Neither do we have such high computational power onboard these power-sipping processors, nor do we have the adequate software to manage this. Sure, Apple, Samsung and most notably, Nokia, are taking giant steps in this direction. But I'd say we're still ages away from the day when all post-processing would happen natively.
Ok, so the million $$ question - what happens to Vine and Instagram Video???This is where the productisation dilemma strikes. How do you create a strong and sustainable usage case out of something which is so difficult to produce and easy to botch up? How do you ensure it doesn't turn into a gigantic mass of badly-shot video clips with poor audio and dull lighting conditions? And how do you monetize this? Google's YouTube division is yet to answer this question. Will advertisers come? Will users stay and proliferate?
As innovative as the idea of shooting a few seconds of video of your dog running in circles chasing it's tail might sound, Vine wasn't the first vendor to come up with this concept. 12 Seconds and many others during their time came up with the idea of community-based video sharing and had to shut shop eventually due to some of the challenges I highlighted above. At this point, I am struggling to form my faith in Vine's business model and am very clear that Instagram's intent behind launching Instagram Video was purely defensive rather than trying to gain / grow market-share from Vine. Why - because nobody has a clue as to how to create something that isn't crap from social video sharing on mobile.
You may ask yourself what Vine was 18 months down the line - and you shall be excused.In the meanwhile, I shall continue to click, click, click...
P.S.: Grammatically-speaking, 'productisation' as a word doesn't exist, but then I never assumed responsibility for your grammar, did I?
Image credit: http://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA2LzI3LzIzL3ZpbmVpbnN0YWdyLmVmNWQ2LmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/9282fd37/7af/vine-instagram-video.jpg
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