The digital age is upon us… Whether we accept it or not, we will be recorded.
There is much debate over whether or not to engage in the video sharing culture of YouTube, Facebook and others. This list is an attempt to outline the benefits of posting and following of videos online and also the benefits to be gained when abstaining from that community. All of us want the best of both worlds. By making these strict lines, I don’t hope to prove either side, just generate conversation about the topic. Ultimately, we all find ourselves using these props for different reasons and the same can be said about sharing and following videos. We hope that by outlining the positives of both following and disengaging will cause one to think deeply about their art and consequences and benefits of engagement in the online video making community.
Positives to Online Video Watching and Posting
- Engaging in an online conversation about technical development.
- Generating content that contributes to the body of knowledge that exists in the digital form. Hence creating digital evidence of creativity and growth.
- Motivation for an individuals practice that involves feedback, engaging in a community who are peers and inspirations with recognition of one’s work.
- The earning of social capital through regular content posting. Whether through tutorials, flow videos and inspirational artistic endeavors.
- Learning the skill of video editing along with visual learning through the watching of the videos of other.
Positives of Not Posting or Following Online Videos
- Provides a opportunity for individualized creative methods toward approaching technique, separate from external influence.
- Ownership through independent training, technique creation and practice methods can lead to a deeper relationship to ones art and reasons for engaging in the art.
- Self motivated and rewarding practice. Practicing the art for an alternate end exclusively. Such as for performance, stress release and other.
- Creating a meaningful relationship to techniques created. Building a stronger relationship to the external world through sharing techniques in person.
- Learning excellent note taking skills and recording of ones ideas. An increased amount of time spent on creativity and practice.
My personal opinions may be spread throughout this dichotomy. The next article will be an editorial about my opinions and researched case studies including general attitudes about these ideas. Thanks for reading! If this is something you enjoyed, please engage, contribute to the conversation, write and talk to your friends about it. Love, noeltech.
Comments 1
one insight i would like to bring to the conversation (but might not be the most central to the topic) is the simple availability of equipment, and the dichotomy this creates in the community.
remember: posting videos of yourself regularly requires having regular access to a camera. I know in my own history, i have been severely restricted in participating in the online conversation by not having a decent camera. and in fact the quality of the camera i was working with (when i finally did get my hands on one) actually made a difference in what people were able to see me doing (ex: you can’t really tell if someone is solidly holding, or finger spinning over low rez video). for this reason i have recently invested deeply in a high quality video camera with the intention of making it (and myself as a videographer) available to my immediate community. in hopes that it can help more local performers create an online presence for themselves.
i noticed there was also a dramatic shift between my personal interactions with other people after i started putting out videos. before i started putting videos out into the community, i was regarded as an average ticket holding member of the spin community by both the group of instructors, and the group of other spinners. after putting out videos i found that i was treated differently by the community. i was generally treated like a peer by a larger cross section of the instructor level spinners, and would occasionally get recognized by other spinners in the larger community. the recognition in the instructor community was understandable, as i was actively putting the effort into letting people know i existed, so i wasnt just some random stranger that they were meeting for the first time with no context. however the notably strange thing about getting recognized by a non content creating individual is the tendency for the person who recognized you from your video, to then behave awkwardly around you (a la wayne and garth – “we are not worthy” scene from waynes world). this has always been strange to me, since i know it is simply tied to the fact that i fiddled around with a friends nice camera for an afternoon, and that is the reason i am getting more attention (flattery?). it is silly, but the simple act of putting up a high quality video of yourself doing what you do somehow affords you “celebrity status” amongst those who are unable to lock down the technology to do so themselves. pretty much everyone has access to a camera in their phone now, so they know what kind of video they can casually make with one, and as soon as they see a video casually made on a camera that was built to be a camera, all of a sudden impressions change.
while it can be argued that the spinners with the most refined skills will tend to be the ones to draw the most attention, or create the best videos, i think we can all agree that this is not always the case. we all know at least one (if not several) performers who excel in self promotion while struggling to learn even remedial skills with their props. this is actually so common, i know i don’t need to name any names because EVERYONE knows at least a couple of these folks either in their local community, or the larger flow community. and i would very confidently state that being skilled at marketing yourself will always be more effective than simply being awesome at something. it litterally does not matter how amazing you are at something, if nobody ever finds out about it. unfortunately it also follows that if you are good at selling stuff, you can practically sell anything. so there are a variety of people in the community who hold status because they have empowered themselves with technology, and self promotion and kindof skipped over the part where you invest your time and energy into practicing the skill you are presenting. that is not to say that there aren’t plenty of highly technologically savvy, and skillful tech-spinners who market themselves effectively also, but that is not who i am speaking of. these folks obviously have no problem promoting themselves, and getting themselves noticed. BUT the cases of less proficient spinners who excell in self promotion, does at least demonstrate the power of the “cult of the camera.”
this is something i have been dwelling on alot over the years i have been spinning. recently this became a huge motivation for the purchasing of my own video equipment, and teaching myself how to get the most out of using it (which i find usually means pointing it at someone else, and manually controlling it to get really nice shots). and have been producing free media for anyone that wants it. this of course is not limited to flow arts, but that naturally has been the lions share of what i produce. I know for my own interests, (I have always secretly been a video nerd, and film school wannabe through and through) purchasing my camera was the most empowering thing i could have done for myself, and i intend to make that spill over into my immediate community by helping create visually engaging videos for people.
in regards to the notion of the “cult of the camera” that i mentioned earlier. i hope it is not my folly to find that people take this empowerment to inflate their own egos, and claim status over those who have not benefitted from the same types of exposure. but rather i hope people just find like i have that this kind of exposure has professional benefit for any performer, and should be a necessary part of all of our “tool kit.” (like headshots for an actor/actress: having them doesnt mean you are a star, it just means you are trying to get some work) when folks stop seeing video as some kind of magically special thing, and start seeing it as a handy communication tool for all professional performers to have skills in, hopefully the camera cult will lose its mysique.