I won’t be the last person to make a Vine Video.
When people first explained Twitter to me, my response was: “So it’s Facebook, but with less words? I don’t get it. That’s stupid. That won’t last.”
I’m not what you call a “visionary.”
So when Twitter released the Vine video app, dammit, I hopped right on the bandwagon (well, like 6 months later) and made one:
What is a Vine Video?
A Vine video is just a video, but you make it with the Vine video app. In short, all the Vine video app does is provide an interface that triggers the video record when you touch your screen, and stops it when you remove your finger (I assume you were using your finger) from the screen. After 6 seconds (well, actually 6.4 seconds) the video ends. That’s it. You get 6 seconds of video.
Vine Video Sounds Really Stupid.
Yes. See Twitter story above.
I think the point is to encourage people to share very short videos much the way Twitter encourages people to share every nuance of their day in micro-bursts. The bonus is that you can take a little video, change something, take a little more, change something… much like stop motion photography. With regular phone video, when you stop, the video is over, and you’d have to edit various clips together to achieve what Vine video does.
Fine. How Do I Make a Vine Video?
- Download the Vine video app to your phone. Be sure it is a cell phone, because old fashion rotary phones have very low bandwidth.
- Ta da! You have the Vine video app! Now open it and tap on the little video camera in the upper right to take your first video.
- Point at something interesting. Touch the screen. See the little progress bar at the top? When that fills up, your video is done, and you’ll see a preview of it. It loops eternally, which can be funny or annoying.
- Delete, upload/share or just ignore your video.
Tips for Vine Videos
I learned a few things while trying to make my Vine video, that I’m hoping to can help you should you decided to be cool and make one yourself.
- When you finish a Vine video, you are immediately confronted with a screen that asks you to share it. This caused me a lot of anxiety. I didn’t want to share it, but I didn’t want to lose it. Don’t worry, it is automatically saved to your camera roll. You can share it later if you like.
- After finally getting it into my head that videos look better when you hold your camera horizontally (landscape), I discovered Vine video only works holding the camera vertically, which is why when I proudly shared my first Vine video on Twitter and the Vine video site, it was sideways. Which I didn’t realize. I thought it would correct. Not so much.
- Be conscious of noise. Remember it records sounds too, so if you’re talking while you’re doing your little micro-bursts, it will sound like “eh- bu- de- soup- bur- ha-” when you’re done.
- Also watch for shadows. In my wine cork video above, you can see where I leaned in too far and cast a shadow that blips on the lower left.
- You’ll quickly realize that your Vine video is sort of shaky. It’s hard to keep a camera still and tap on the screen and keep it in the same spot if you’re doing a stop motion-type project like my wine corks. Get a tripod. I got this one, which I LOVE. Its little arms can be curled around objects for odd angles and everything.
Those were the most important Vine video tips I discovered. This post is by no means all encompassing, so if you have any questions, just let me know. I don’t know much, but I DO know we have to take down the 60 foot dead pine tree in our front yard and I can’t wait to make a Vine video of it coming down!
Another Vine video:
