Made on Earth: Koh Phi Phi

I'm continuing to enjoy getting back into video production as a hobby. I used to do a lot of video production and motion graphics in 2011-2014, and am rediscovering my love for it. I think a lot of the concepts I've learned in design can be applied to video. Ultimately, both disciplines are a practice in creating an experience for another person, and giving them a certain feeling. To me, it's all about playing with someone's attention. With video, or in product design, someone has trusted you with their attention, and you have a responsibility to take care of it and give them the best possible experience. 

In this video, I take care to change the shot every two seconds, and to keep the video short and sweet. I want the viewer to be left wanting a just a little bit more with each shot, and with the video as a whole. I don't want to dwell on any shot too long because it gets stale, and attention fades.

It also helps that Koh Phi Phi is a gorgeous island with impossibly blue water. 

The tag at the end says "Made on earth." and is something I'll be talking about in a future post. I had fun designing the logo, making the period earth-blue, as a reference to Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot monologue. 

Work In Progress: 75 App Icon iterations in 16 seconds (Video)

I've been making a Mac app as a side project and I needed an app icon. Here are all 75 iterations in one 16 second video. Ultimately I landed on a playful and modern design that uses repeating, overlapped rectangles to give a stacked effect. Excited to share the project once it's finished. Stay tuned!

Experimenting with Video Part 3: 30 seconds in Nha Trang

A collection of footage I captured on a single walk down the beach in Nha Trang. Each time I play with video as a format I'm more convinced that shorter cuts are better. Of course, it depends on the mood you're going for, but I love how the cadence of cuts can give a certain rhythm to the visual experience. 

An interesting technique is to play with the attention span of the viewer. There's a sweet spot where the viewer has just recognized what the image is, and the longer you dwell on that image, the more the attention starts to fade and your visual becomes stale. 

By cutting to a new shot right at the moment where the viewer has barely just perceived what the shot is, you create a really fresh experience where the viewer is constantly engaged.

Experimenting with Video: A Day in Sapa, Vietnam

In any creative field it's important to expand our horizons and try new things. I've recently been playing around with video more as a natural extension of photography. Photo albums are a favorite format of mine because they allow for a loose story. Video builds on that, but adds motion. 

I feel a common mistake people run into with video is dwelling too long on each shot. I wanted to maintain the snapshot element of photos, but with the added expressiveness and emotion that comes with moving images.

I try to limit each shot to 3 seconds or less in order to always keep the viewer's attention engaged and guessing. 

This video was shot in one day in the beautiful valley of Sapa, Vietnam. It was a sunny day and I had a great time hiking along the rice paddies with my camera, meeting friendly people and taking in the stunning scenery.

Sapa is a really peaceful place and although people work hard in the rice paddies, there is a sense of joy in the air that I wanted to capture with this video.

I look forward to exploring video more as a format. I feel it's an area where my creative strengths can flourish. Photography obviously has a strong connection to videography, but I think the concepts I'm familiar with from design can be applied to video in interesting ways.

In design we have to always consider our work from the user's perspective. Taking this empathetic approach is great for video because we're designing someone's experience. We're trying to take them on a journey, the same way we do in UX design. Simplicity is also important in video, just as in design. By stripping away the unimportant, we can create a powerful focus on the important things.

So when I edit a video, I'm looking for one simple gesture or expression, and then cutting out everything before and after. This approach makes even the simplest gesture, or smile, and interesting moment.