The Importace of Video

Over the past decade or so, video has become the consumers first choice when it comes to media consumption. Everything has gone digital, and attention spans continue to shrink.

Youtube and other media platforms have taken off, and trainers, publishers… just about anyone in the media field, has turned to video. A prime example is the news industry. People are much more likely to watch a 1-2 minute video, and be more encapsulated by it, than read a long article (usually just skiming through the highlights).

By 2019, 80% of the world’s internet traffic will be video, up from 70% in 2015. (Cisco)

Consumers are driving publishers to move to video, otherwise they risk losing their audiance. However, video production is time consuming. Now, not only do you need to write the material, but you need to storyboard it, film, and edit it into an interesting segment that’s just the right length.

From publishers to hobbists, many are starting to turn to automation for rapid video production. There are now tons of apps and web-based solutions available for automating most of the process of video production.

Quick Video Production

Quik, by GoPro, is great example, and is available on iOS and Android. I’ve used it for both professional and personal projects when I wanted to pump out a video fast. What’s great is it doesn’t have to be video shot with a GoPro, it will work off your photo library. You can even set it to automatically create weekly videos for you, which if you like you can save, or fine tune with some edits of your own. Below is an example of a montage video I made in a pinch. This is not some of my best work, but illustrates my point.

It took me almost as long to creat this (crappy) photo as it did the video. In fact, I made this video in the time between boarding my flight home and take off (5-10 minutes):

I wouldn’t even consider this a good example of what this free app can do. You can view some other samples I created: “Croatia Vacation” came out pretty well, as well as this similar one from Estes National Park. I used similar themes and music in all of these, but there’s a decent selection to choose from to customize your video.

Adobe offers Spark Video which is targeted at education, but can be used for just about anything, and Clip which is basically a simplifed version of Premiere for your phone/tablet. Apple recently incorporated a similar feature into their Photos app, “Memories”.

Automation

These apps will automate different pan and zoom effects in photos, slow motion, colorization, and other effects in video, transitions, music, and more. On the surface, it’s a simple as chosing your pictures and videos and selecting a theme or template. You can then fine tune the final video before exporting.

What’s most exciting is, for example, the Croatia Vacation example video, looks pretty professional. I could have created this myself using a program like Final Cut or Adobe Premiere, but it would have taken me hours. And that’s for a 1-2 minute video.

Publishers turn to rapid video production tools

There was an interesting article in the New York Times that focused on publishers’ increasing needs for video, and the amount of time and resources that this takes. Many are now turning to rapid video production tools that will create a video from text. There are several companies out there that do this, including Wibbitz and Wochit. You have probably seen videos created from platforms like this everywhere. Here’s an example:

https://youtu.be/M5OGd_S9mxc

Conclusion

Not only is video production getting rapid, it’s also going mobile. This is a blossiming industry; there will be many more companies that will start producing apps, and companies already in the game will continue to refine and advance this technology. I think this will be a game changer for the video production field, especially in the social media ecosphere, where it’s important to pump out content for marketing or engagement.