How is skate video transformed when it is produced in Vine?
Link: https://vine.co/v/eavn6z0BWMJ
As a popular online video service that has evident stylistic constraints, Vine was an important video service to test the transformation of skate video within this video practice. The use of Vine was informed by noticing the correlations between Snapchat and Vine, however also detecting their differences in terms of affordances and constraints. Vine restricts users to submitting videos of no longer than six second in duration and is designed to be engaged with via a mobile phone device (however this is not the only level of engagement). This associates Vine’s video practice with notions of spontaneity and simplistic content. Similarly, Snapchat is designed for mobile phone use, however Vine also has a ‘stop, start’ feature which separates the online service from other short duration video services such as Snapchat messenger, where the user is restricted to capturing a short video in one attempt of continuous recording. Whereas Vine’s ‘start, stop’ feature enables users to record segments of the six second video in individually captured pieces. This allows for elements of creativity to flourish and allows the user to redefine the narrative structure of the video.
To make this sketch, I used the Vine application on my mobile phone and recorded Errol completing his line of tricks in four segments. This file was then uploaded to Vine through the application. One option could have been to break down his skating performance into the four steps and capture each one individually, potentially allowing more concentration on the quality of each section. However, I chose to follow Errol during one attempt at the complete line of tricks and used the ‘stop, start’ feature intuitively to capture the series of tricks on ‘the go’. The reason for this was that the camera would therefore be positioned accurately in relation to Errol during each segment in regards to the representation of a linear video. In skate video as an online video practice, there is an expectation that footage will not be altered for reasons of deception in regards to the performance of tricks. As a result, a well-regarded stylistic technique of skate video is to capture a lengthy long take of continuous sequenced tricks in order to portray authentic skill. Due to these notions, this Vine sketch was captured in the same manner as close as possible and within the constraints of the online service. Regardless of these efforts, the six second constraint and ‘stop, start’ affordance of Vine are extremely prominent in the production of material through the service. Therefore, in reference to our probe, producing skate video in Vine completely restructures the narrative form as it allows the producer to portray a narrative of tricks in sequence that may not have been achievable in a continuous succession. Meaning the narrative is portrayed to the audience as a less authentic skate practice.
However, in contrast to a Snapchat story where the producer can capture each section of the narrative completely independently of the success of the previous part of the sequence, Vine restricts the performance of tricks to be captured in chronological success. Finally, since the affordances of Vine allow the user to create a disjointed video sequence, translation of a narrative form may be lost in replacement of a non-narrative aesthetic due to a potential inability to make narrative associations between the segments of the Vine video.