The Truth about TikTok – Lachlan Bahr S3903004 from Media Factory on Vimeo.
The question which I was focusing on for my assignment was “The truth about the TikTok algorithm” or in other words how the TikTok algorithm truly works in order to run such a wildly successful app. I approached this task by researching different articles which tried to dig deep about how the algorithm works. Unfortunately, Bytedance the owners of TikTok are highly secretive about their algorithm and thus there were a lot of different theories about how it worked. I ended up siding with WSJ’s report as they seemed to be one of the few which did physical tests against the AI in order to determine how it worked. I believe the overall aesthetic and final quality of my video worked very well at explaining how the algorithm works whilst also being easy to understand and follow which I believe all video explainers should be. If I had more time to work on it I would probably try to add better archival footage when as I was just using basic TikTok B-roll. I would also try to extend more the technical aspects of how the algorithm works so that it would be more applicable to a website especially about artificial intelligence.
I learned quite a lot about the video making process and that if you story board and structure your video beforehand then it will make the creation and recording process a lot quicker and easier. I also learned that AI is still subject to the prejudice and short coming of the people who programme them. I learnt that here in lies a major issue which could arise as AI technology continues to develop over time. Before beginning this class I believed AI was some sort of fancy technology only used in robot’s and niche software however the more we learnt I soon came to understand that AI is used everywhere all around us to keep the digital world running and that it will only play a bigger role as time moves on. I learnt a lot about my own video making capabilities as I tested out new skills such as animation and recording audio seperate from video. I had to cut a lot of my audio and video in seperate parts before stitching them back together in a cohesive manner. In future I will try to spend more time making sure my hardware is working well so that I don’t have audio or video quality issues again. I would also try to focus on improving my narration as I found that the voice I speak in when reading from a script is quite monotone and lacks a lot of interest that most high quality video explainers have.
I hope that my final project engages the audience through its easily relatable subject in the University student demographic and similarly through its simple and easy to follow visuals. I tried to emulate the successful Vox videos with their music and structure and hope that all audience members enjoy the final screening.
VIDEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/760270190