Technical And Technological Features Of Modern Videobloging

Abstract

The article analyzes the situation in the field of modern video blogging. Most of the innovative approaches to content creation are associated with the latest technical and technological advancements. The study of modern principles and techniques of video blog production has become the goal of our research. Based on the analysis of the Russian-speaking sector of YouTube, we identify the most frequent approaches to creating video blogs, which can be classified as trends. We managed to establish the following features of modern video blogging: a general reduction in video length and simultaneous accelerating of the rate at which information is conveyed; personification of the information delivery channel; creation of an intimate connection between the narrative and the audience. The main features of video capture in Youtube videoblogging of the Russian segment include: frequent violation of the principles of frame composition (truncation of body parts, misaligned horizon, the inclusion of information noise in the frame, etc.); frequent use of non-standard shooting angles; use of a handheld camera with no clear need; the use of editing for time manipulation (timelapse, slow-motion, mannequin challenge); frequent use of non-standard backgrounds; the use of exotic camera lenses. Among the key features of the video editing are: increased (in comparison to the classic methods of video production) use of intraframe editing; breaking content up into modules that manifests itself in two ways: delivery of content in a serialized manner and fragmentation of material into modules within a single video-product with the use of standardized transitions, etc.

Keywords: Video bloggingcontent creationmodern mediashooting and editing technologies

Introduction

Rapid changes in technology, production techniques and delivery of media content today are especially noticeable in the field of content creation in general and video blogging in particular (Вaranova, 2014; Bresler, 2018; Vartanova & Kolomyets, 2017). Video blogs or "vlogs" have become a kind of platform for experimenting with both the format and the content type of video production. According to many researchers, the modern audience has been transformed from a generation of "people reading" into a generation of "people watching" (Kachkacheva & Shomova, 2017; Shesterina, 2018). “The world is increasingly perceived through the visualization of information”, as said by the authors of the textbook for Multimedia Journalism. This statement is confirmed by the observations of experts studying the information behaviour within the audience of social networks, where a noticeable predominance of the video viewing process over the processes of reading or listening to audio recordings is perceived. This, along with the intensifying integration of traditional and modern media, predetermines the relevance of our research.

Problem Statement

Despite the imporance and involvement of the described matters into societal development, the degree of their exploration cannot be described as sufficient. Modern researchers often pay attention to the specifics of the digital environment, which determines the nature of video production (Agafonova, 2008). Some try to classify video blogs and define the genres of video blogging (Pinchuk, 2018; Shamaev, 2013; Tekutyeva, 2016). Such exploration can be of a utilitarian focus as well as scientific. In the context of this exploration, researchers' attention is focused on the technical and technological features of the production of certain genres of content. But a systematic approach to the study of these methods and techniques has not yet been developed.

Research Questions

In order to compensate for the lack of systematic knowledge in the field, we need to solve the following tasks:

3.1. Specify the general technical and technological features of the production process of video blogging and content creation;

3.2. Identify the specific techniques used in filming video-blogs;

3.3. Study the dominant approaches in the editing of this type of video content.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to identify key trends in techniques and technological approaches to the creation of audiovisual media. These trends, first emergent in the network environment, now extend their sphere of influence to traditional media. Techniques and technologies that were once considered adequate for video blogs and unacceptable for programs of traditional television channels are now adopted by the latter quite often. In our study, we attempt to trace the key directions of the development of such technologies.

Research Methods

In studying the problem, we relied on the textological method, the comparative typological method and the method of media content analysis. The subjects of the study have been picked from the most popular blogs of the Russian-speaking sector of the Internet, based on the YouTube video hosting platform.

Findings

Over the course of the study, we identified the following trends in video production technology:

1. The overall reduction in video length and the simultaneous acceleration of conveying information. In spite of the overall increase in time a typical member of the audience allocates for consuming video-content, the time allocated for viewing any specific video is reduced, which encourages content creators to involve the viewer in the consumption of the media text from the very first seconds. This task is often solved by giving the content such traits as sensationalism, urgency, and exclusivity. This trend is often supported by the acceleration of information delivery on both the verbal level and on the level of video editing (for example, a clip-montage is used) (Pimenov, 2018);

2. The personification of the information delivery channel. In most of the vlogs, the author is present on the screen sporadically or throughout the entire video, and where a voice-over is used instead, there is a heavy (compared to traditional television) use of suprasegmental elements of the text, prosody and increased message modality; 

3. The intimacy of the narrative. With video blogging channels, it often manifests itself as an attempt by the author to form a kind of community among the subscribers, when the author references the information from previous videos, uses subtext, exclusive hints. At the level of the video editing, this tendency is manifested in including video fragments shot with a handheld camera or a smartphone camera. Of course, such techniques are present in traditional television, but they are not as widely accepted; 

The main features of video-filming we explore:

1. Frequent violation of the principles of framing. Classical approaches to the composition of the frame give way to such techniques as truncating parts of the body (for example, half of a person's face can be shown on a horizontal or vertical plane, which is used as a technique rather than as to convey a specific message), misaligned horizon (sometimes in combination with intraframe editing, when the horizon tilts from one side to the other, sometimes rhythmically), the inclusion of information noise in the frame (extra details, debris, the sudden appearance and disappearance of people or objects in the frame), etc .;

2. Frequent use of non-standard shooting angles (such as above, from the floor, from under the object, from a person's shoulder); 

3. The use of a handheld camera (shooting without a tripod) with no clear need;

4. The use of editing to manipulate time (timelapse, hyperlapse, slow-motion, mannequin challenge);

5. Frequent use of non-standard forms of panning (for example, oblique panning, panning along a curved line, circular panning, bypassing the object of the shot);

6. Use of exotic camera lenses (fisheye, wide-angle lens, macro lens, panoramic lens, etc.).

Among the key features of the editing are: 

1. Frequent (in comparison to the classic video editing) use of intraframe editing.

2. The use of the modular principle of content editing manifested as fragmentation of the topic into episodes and as fragmentation of material into modules within a single video with the use of standardized transitions;

3. The use of connecting similar video segments without changing the scale and angle of the shot (Ward, 2005);

4. The use of several transition types in one video (both included in the video editor and custom ones, sometimes utilizing green-screen. Often, custom transitions are created individually and exclusively for dedicated series or formats) (Utilova, 2004);

5. Frequent use of computer graphics (shape graphics, 3D, CG templates) (Heller & Chwast, 2016);

6. Violation of the principles of shot composition and editing (sticking together several wide pans in a row);

7. Involved sound design (sometimes sound editing is paid more attention than video editing).

Conclusion

These and many more changes in the techniques of content creation are associated not only with technical and technological changes in the industry, but also with the transformation of the audience’s informational behavior (Vartanova, Vyrkovsky, Makeenko, & Smyrnov, 2017).

References

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About this article

Publication Date

07 August 2019

eBook ISBN

978-1-80296-065-5

Publisher

Future Academy

Volume

66

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-

Edition Number

1st Edition

Pages

1-783

Subjects

Communication studies, press, journalism, science, technology, society

Cite this article as:

Sterlikov*, D. (2019). Technical And Technological Features Of Modern Videobloging. In Z. Marina Viktorovna (Ed.), Journalistic Text in a New Technological Environment: Achievements and Problems, vol 66. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 364-368). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.08.02.42