Video clip

Video clips are short clips in video format and predominantly found on the internet where the massive influx of new video clips during 2006 was dubbed as a new phenomenon having a profound impact on both the internet and other forms of media. Sources for video clips include news and sporting events, historical videos, music videos, television programmes, film trailers and vlogs. Webvideo in its current form distinguishes itself from what is mostly known as video on demand mainly in terms of technology, interface and cost for the user. The current hype in online video viewing only arose when sites were introduced that offered free hosting for the high bandwidth content and the possibility to easily integrate these into personal Blogs or websites. This enabled online videos to cross over into the mainstream. The arrival of these sites also gave rise to more widespread use of the name webvideo. Video on demand however, is more closely associated with payed content of film studios, online video stores en cable providers. Video on demand also specifically references videos that start at a moment of the user's choice, as opposed to (live)streaming, multicast and webcams in which the data is sent to the user live by a server and is usually not repeated.

The term is also more loosely used to mean any short video less than the length of a traditional television programme.

On the Internet

With the spread of broadband Internet access, video clips have become very popular online. By mid 2006 there were tens of millions of video clips available online, with new websites springing up focussing entirely on offering free video clip to users and many established and corporate sites adding video clip content to their websites. With the spread of broadband Internet access, video clips have become very popular online. Whereas most of this content is non-exclusive and available on competing sites, some companies produce all their own videos and do not rely on the work of outside companies or amateurs.

While some video clips are taken from established media sources, community or individual-produced clips are becoming more common. Some individuals host their created works on vlogs, which are video blogs. The use of internet video is growing very fast. Between March and July of the year 2006 YouTube alone grew from 30 to 100 million views of video's per day. [1]

Distinctive properties

As the developments in the area of internet video move very swiftly, it is difficult to define distinctive properties. There are however certain criteria, which seem to fit most web videos:

• most commonly use FLV format (Flash Video), but also Windows Media Video, RealMedia, Quicktime or DivX;
• usually freely available, which might help explain the current popularity;
• most commonly uploaded by private persons, which explains the inferior technical quality when compared to paid content;
• due to the lack of censorship there seems to be an abundance of free expressions, especially by youth;
• commonly used on weblogs and other web 2.0 sites;
• commonly financed by advertising revenue at the hosting site. Although YouTube has announced plans to let creative users share in the advertising income, for now the only benefiting parties are the site owners.

Clip culture

The widespread popularity of video clips, with the aid of new distribution channels, has evolved into clip culture. It is compared to "lean-back" experience of seeing traditional movies, refers to an internet activity of sharing and viewing a short video, mostly less than 15 minutes. The culture began as early as the development of broadband network, but it sees the boom since 2005 when websites for uploading clips are emerging on the market, including YouTube, Google Video, MSN Video and Yahoo! Video.

These video clips often show moments of significance, humour, oddity, or prodigy performance. Sources for video clips include news, movies, music video and amateur video shot. In addition to the clip recorded by high-quality camcorders, it is becoming common to produce clips with digital camera, webcam, and mobile phone.

Rise of amateurs

Unlike traditional movies largely dominated by studios, clip movies were overwhelmingly supplied by amateurs. In May 2006, The Economist reported that 90% of clips on YouTube came from amateurs, a few of whom are young comedians. It, in effect, also brought amateur talents.

In 2005, two Chinese students Huang Yixin and Wei Wei, now dubbed as "Back Dorm Boys" showed their talent in lip-synching in a song of the Backstreet Boys, with their self-conscious grimaces in a video uploaded to some clip websites, has instantly become renown. Not only did they appear on television shows, concerts, but were also granted a contract by a media company in Beijing for lip-syncing for cash.

An earlier celebrity was David Elsewhere, a talent at popping and liquiding. His performance to Kraftwerk's song Expo 2000 at the talent show Kollaboration in 2001 was widely spread on the internet leading later to his being hired to participate as a dancer in advertisements for Heineken, iPod and Pepsi.

Citizen journalism

Citizen video reporting dates back as early as the development of camcorders, but all videos were screened by the local media outlets of the time, until its spread has been aided by free upload websites in which censorship is limited to make a vast amount of videos available to anyone who wants it. Scenes rarely broadcast on television, and many first-witnessed scenes have since become publicly available.

The tsunami caused by the December 26 2004 earthquake strikes Ao Nang, Thailand.

Notably, in December 2004, tourist videos on the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami offered worldwide audiences the first scenes of the disaster. In December 2003, videos in Hong Kong showing the bully in De La Salle School has outraged the public, raised a wide concern on school violence and led to the arrest of 11 students.

Vlog

In late 2005 to early 2006, a new form of blogging emerged called a vlog. It is a blog that takes video as the primary content, often accompanied by supporting text, image, and additional metadata to provide context. Su Li Walker, an analyst with the Yankee Group, said that like blogs, which have become an extension of traditional media, video blogs will be a supplement to traditional broadcasting.

Convergence with traditional media

The potential markets of video clips has caught the attention of traditional studios. In 2006, the producers of Lucky Number Seven, a film with Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu and Bruce Willis, made an 8-minute clip for YouTube. Celebrity in traditional media has proven to confer bigger popularity in clip culture.

Cyril Takayama, a Japanese-European magician, became famous by showing his theandric skills in Japanese TV magic show in 2004. His fame was achieved only in Japan and the international magicians' culture, until his video clips were later spread across the Internet.

See also

• Media clip
• List of Internet phenomena
• Screencast
• Video sharing
• ReelTime.com

Further reading

• Dilworth, Dianna (2006-08-30). "AOL joins online video battle". DMNews. Retrieved 2007-03-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

External links

• Video directories at Curlie
• News clips from 1950 from the BBC
• Video clip search