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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Why Instagram Videos Will Be Better...

I suppose the average person who responds to a subject like this are people with a more negative feeling. The ones who are more positive or on the fence don't say anything. However, I feel that the latter two are still in the majority.

Michael, I hear what you are saying and I know first hand the power of Instagram. I know people who get jobs because of Instagram. Unknowns all the way up to NatGeo photographers for 40 years get hired as a result of Instagram. How do I know? I'm one of the peoples who find those Instagram users.

The special recognition from what I was creating on an iPhone was even a key reason why I live in Dubai now.

I have found it is best to not too quickly speak against platforms of media distribution today.

Oh, by the way. You should follow @Faz3 :). You may see him occasionally post pictures of him shooting RED.
 
Cream will always rise to the top. Like Michael said, yes, if you are popular you will obviously have a lot of followers and likes. But there are a large amount of people who because of their ability to take pictures and compelling content begin to have a following. Because of those followings, they get jobs. For example, because someone has taken nice pictures and drawn a following, some city/state/country/business will give them a vacation, money, or perks if they agree to visit and share their journey which becomes involved with a product.

Whether you think that is a good thing or not, it happens everyday.

Instagram has become my most popularly followed social network. If it was junk, I don't think that would be the case.

Anyway. Just thought I'd drop a few words into the discussion. Not much more to say. See y'all around! :)
 
Cream might rise to the top but if there's just some tiny cream pile in the middle of an ocean of mediocrity (at best) then any assertion that Instagram or other similar sites actually improve the quality of the medium as an artform - as opposed to making it harder for the cream to be seen - are massively wide of the mark.

Show me who is doing something genuinely new, amazing, creative and innovative and who is only using instagram as their primary output. And I mean new amazing creative in terms of the craft of the visual arts, not in viral marketing.
 
Ben Scott said:
.Show me who is doing something genuinely new, amazing, creative and innovative and who is only using instagram as their primary output. And I mean new amazing creative in terms of the craft of the visual arts, not in viral marketing.
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Yeah, I suppose it would be difficult for me to find that for you. Anyone doing something new, amazing, and creative I wouldn't think would be so crazy to put themselves in a box and choose for themselves only one method of distribution. I don't think Instagram was even designed for that in itself.
 
On the basis of don't knock until you've tried it, I've just signed up to Instagram. Let's see if I can shoot something more interesting than my dinner...

@Michael, make your ap $1 sand you could be on to a winner.
 
Joseph Hutson said:
Yeah, I suppose it would be difficult for me to find that for you. Anyone doing something new, amazing, and creative I wouldn't think would be so crazy to put themselves in a box and choose for themselves only one method of distribution. I don't think Instagram was even designed for that in itself.
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Ok, remove that last caveat from it. Show me who is doing something genuinely new, amazing, creative and innovative and who is using instagram as an integral part of that process.
 
Good photography, as in well composed, well exposed, and well developed images has reached a point where it's almost taken for granted. Great photography works on a different level because it reaches deep into your emotions, is capable of making you laugh, bring you to tears, leave you speechless, etc. In my opinion, you will come across great photographs on instagram but they will be no more or no less common as they are outside of that space. But when you find it you will know it.
 
Owen Rennie said:
I can't see how instagram videos will help at all.... Just more garbage...
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Hi Owen…I believe that if 130 million "connected" consumers are suddenly given tools that enable them to CREATE video compositions LIMITED to 15 seconds AND consisting of more than one contiguous clip, that alone will improve the art.

Joseph Hutson said:
Michael, I hear what you are saying and I know first hand the power of Instagram. I know people who get jobs because of Instagram. Unknowns all the way up to NatGeo photographers for 40 years get hired as a result of Instagram. How do I know? I'm one of the people who find those Instagram users.
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Thanks Joseph… I truly hope everyone on this RedUser forum will take this VERY seriously, sign-up for an Instagram account, begin building a following and begin creating content within the constraints of this medium. I am only trying to help. This is very serious, a historic moment and shift. I don't credit Instagram by the way, but it's a bit like when Microsoft launched Windows. Apple (and perhaps Xerox) deserve credit, but Microsoft's embrace and democtratization of the GUI changed the world.

Ben Scott said:
and yet none of that has anything to do with the quality of material, just its ability to garner hits/likes/go viral.
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Ben, please check out Instagram before making such generalizations. MOST Instagram sharing is between smaller groups without the objective of "going viral". This isn't YouTube. The goal is often to get 20 or 30 likes instead of 7 or 8. That type of a forum is proven to improve quality over time.
 
Ben Scott said:
Cream might rise to the top but if there's just some tiny cream pile in the middle of an ocean of mediocrity (at best) then any assertion that Instagram or other similar sites actually improve the quality of the medium as an artform - as opposed to making it harder for the cream to be seen - are massively wide of the mark.

Show me who is doing something genuinely new, amazing, creative and innovative and who is only using instagram as their primary output. And I mean new amazing creative in terms of the craft of the visual arts, not in viral marketing.
Click to expand...

Hi Ben,

We are not talking about a tiny amount on the quality side. We are talking about potentially millions of truly excellent SHORT (15-second) Videos containing moret than one clip (angle, subject, etc.). YouTube didn't give that to the art. As I said to Ben Scott, research this more first...MOST Instagram sharing is between smaller groups without the objective of "going viral". This isn't YouTube. The goal is often to get 20 or 30 likes instead of 7 or 8. That type of a forum is proven to improve quality over time. Thousands of Instagram users are (and have been) doing something genuinely new, amazing, creative and innovative but MOST see Instagram as just another channel for their creativity.
 
Tehben Dean said:
IMHO Instagram really dropped the ball when they included sound. Seriously lame. On the other note there will be plenty of garbage but then again there already is...
Then again if I had the say the stabilizer would also be forced on :)
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They had to add sound Tehben. They really had no choice. Advertisers will expect sound but more importantly, Hollywood already figured out that motion pictures need sound. Cinemagram and Echograph's experiments with loops and without sound were a bit of a passing fad.

Steve Sherrick said:
Good photography, as in well composed, well exposed, and well developed images has reached a point where it's almost taken for granted. Great photography works on a different level because it reaches deep into your emotions, is capable of making you laugh, bring you to tears, leave you speechless, etc. In my opinion, you will come across great photographs on instagram but they will be no more or no less common as they are outside of that space. But when you find it you will know it.
Click to expand...

Instagram is one of the reasons good photography is now taken for granted.

I believe the same will now happen with video. One comment and one like at a time.

Do you have any idea how seriously teenagers stress over how many likes or comments their latest Instagram Creation has garnered from their peer group? My 14-year old daughter is one of the 10 best photographers I've ever known. I would put her up against anyone on this forum. Some of that talent and skill is the result of the peer feedback she has received on Instagram.
 
michael zaletel said:
They had to add sound Tehben. They really had no choice. Advertisers will expect sound but more importantly, Hollywood already figured out that motion pictures need sound. Cinemagram and Echograph's experiments with loops and without sound were a bit of a passing fad.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree.

I don't feel that 15sec of square video on a iphone is "hollywood," it's not even youtube. No sound would have set it appart and kept some possibility of artistic integrity. The least they could have done is to give you the option of not including sound. Also since they give you no sound editing features the sound that is included is crap. It's also super annoying to be scrubbing through your feed and suddenly having harsh random noise blast at you.

If they start putting video advertising on instagram I think I will probably quit.
 
michael zaletel said:
Hi Ben,

We are not talking about a tiny amount on the quality side. We are talking about potentially millions of truly excellent SHORT (15-second) Videos containing moret than one clip (angle, subject, etc.). YouTube didn't give that to the art. As I said to Ben Scott, research this more first...MOST Instagram sharing is between smaller groups without the objective of "going viral". This isn't YouTube. The goal is often to get 20 or 30 likes instead of 7 or 8. That type of a forum is proven to improve quality over time. Thousands of Instagram users are (and have been) doing something genuinely new, amazing, creative and innovative but MOST see Instagram as just another channel for their creativity.
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So show me examples. So far the only things posted in here are below average photos with below average filter presets on them. I'm genuinely open-minded about this and looking forward to be shown I am wrong but thus far I've not seen a single amazing piece of work from this arena. But yeah, don't worry so much about the potentially millions of excellent films you mentioned. Show me 5. 5 pieces of excellence and I will shut up and accept it's not a force for evil in this world :)


As for your other post, of course i have checked out instagram. I'm not a luddite. I just take exception to commercial advertising pretending not to be.
 
michael zaletel said:
My 14-year old daughter is one of the 10 best photographers I've ever known. I would put her up against anyone on this forum. Some of that talent and skill is the result of the peer feedback she has received on Instagram.
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See now, are you aware of some of the talents that frequent this forum? That sort of hyperbole just stops people in their tracks when you don't bear in mind exactly where you are posting this - on a cinematography sub-section of a cinema camera users' website.
 
So some people got work because of Instagram? I applaud that. So The Bridges of Madison County may as well be real! Fuck me! Still, I'm not going near that turdpile of a photo app.

Cream certainly floats to the top, but shit sinks right down to the bottom. And Instagram, with all its hideously banal, filtered photos of Starbucks coffee and home-cooked breakfasts, is the shit-pit of digital photography. Is it popular? It's bigger than The Beatles. But so too are junk food, intestinal congestion and spitting on the street.

Liam Hall said:
@Michael, make your ap $1 sand you could be on to a winner.
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Actually Michael should be smart enough not to do that. :-) Assuming he can make the same, exact income with the app at the higher price, he would have fewer support issues to deal with. $20 is a very, very effective cheapskate filter and reduces business overheads dramatically. The only catch: the app has to be very, very good.

michael zaletel said:
LIMITED to 15 seconds AND consisting of more than one contiguous clip
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So 15 seconds is a beneficial limitation? I agree! Shame they couldn't limit the number of clips to one.

michael zaletel said:
Thanks Joseph… I truly hope everyone on this RedUser forum will take this VERY seriously, sign-up for an Instagram account, begin building a following and begin creating content within the constraints of this medium.
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That's an interesting idea. I think I'll create content on Instagram with the greatest constraint of all: not having Instagram.

michael zaletel said:
Cinemagram and Echograph's experiments with loops and without sound were a bit of a passing fad.
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You have one thing right: Instagram isn't a passing fad. Perhaps it will die a slow, painful death. Sort of like MySpace.

michael zaletel said:
Instagram is one of the reasons good photography is now taken for granted.
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Oh, dear lord, give me a break.

michael zaletel said:
Do you have any idea how seriously teenagers stress over how many likes or comments their latest Instagram Creation has garnered from their peer group?
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I think if you stress over something like that, you need a time-out. Imagine other people NOT LIKING WHAT YOU DID. It seems that your daughter did not succumb to the stress load, and instead used that energy to take great photos. If most teens were like that, we'd live in a beautiful world, that is for sure.

Tehben Dean said:
If they start putting video advertising on instagram I think I will probably quit.
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One person whose blog I read daily stated that if there was no option to turn off auto-play for videos, he'd leave the service.
 
Ben Scott said:
See now, are you aware of some of the talents that frequent this forum? That sort of hyperbole just stops people in their tracks when you don't bear in mind exactly where you are posting this - on a cinematography sub-section of a cinema camera users' website.
Click to expand...

Considering I ordered my first RED ONE at NAB in 2007 and was among the very first to own the EPIC-M and have consequently been an active member of this forum for 5 years, I am certainly aware of the talents that frequent this forum. My daughter happens to be a prodigy and in mentioning her, the context was still photos, not cinematography.

I just don't understand why everyone is so angry on here lately...(you should read the thread I started about the new Mac Pro. Talk about anger!)

Back in 2011, before I released Vizzywig, I invited 50 top RED User members to participate in a closed Beta. They were brutal, merciless and harsh. It was the best thing I ever did. That sort of intense criticism pushed me to make the app better and when I released it in January 2012, it won Best of Show at Macworld. It is currently the highest rated video editing app on the App Store (4.5 stars on over 2,400 reviews) and is the ONLY app in the world (all app stores) that charts high at a $19.99 price point.

So, do I believe that peer feedback on a social forum can improve quality? You bet!

Instagram will do the same for millions of young, budding photographers who will now be pushed to add motion in a meaningful way their friends will appreciate.

Michael
 
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