Cinemagram – Something to Get Animated about

Image: Charles Williams

Video has never been easier to produce, yet at the same time it has never been harder.

We all have video-cameras sat in our pockets, which shoot at an unbelievable quality for their size, yet photos are still the preferred medium to share online. But why is it that photos are favoured when the process of making and sharing a video is often the same as that of a photo – the only major difference being the time it takes to upload.

Well this may have something to do with the ease of taking a photo. Photos are taken and shared in an instant; point your camera at a nice scene and press the shutter and odds on you will have a nice picture. Within a few seconds you can even add a frame or tint if you wish.

But creating a video that you are happy with is a different story altogether. We have been spoiled with the quality and choice in the last ten years. There have been so many technical advances and so much competition, that the bar is unbelievably high.

Digital technology has created a generation that not only consumes media, but has equipped them with tools to create almost professional quality content. Yet in the midst of this complicated technology, many people favour the simplicity of the still image.

A New Dimension of Creativity

Cinemagram is refreshingly analogue and opens accessibility up to a whole new audience that wouldn’t have attempted to create their own videos before.

What Cinemagram manages to do is substitute that need for skill and context with the ability to be creative. Sure, what is produced is not a high quality video, but it doesn’t matter. Cinemagram fills the middle ground between photo and video perfectly and is widely tipped to become as big as Instagram.

What I love about Cinemagram is that it gives you another dimension of creativity. With a photo you pick your subject and framing, and phone photography rarely exceed these two points. But with Cinemagram, you really have to think about what you want to show, and this has already resulted in a large number of really creative ideas that can be seen on their company blog.

What will affect the success of Cinemagram is the acceptance by social media networks, specifically Facebook. Now bearing in mind that Facebook have just spend a considerable amount of pocket money on Instagram, will they want to incorporate another service into their network?

Cinemagraphs come in the form of GIFs, which have been around since the early days of the internet. Typical GIFs that you have seen around the internet are short videos. These videos are converted into single frames at a low quality, so that they are able to be shown in a browser without the need for a video player.

There is a lot of scope for Cinemagram in a commercial sense, like mini interactive TV advertising that you can view on any browser. Personally, I would like to see the function available for Facebook’s cover photo area. Google has already introduced a similar set of graphics on their site that can be seen in this blog about Google events.

Watching the creative examples that are already flooding the internet, I can’t wait for Cinemagram to be available for Android!

Hurry up Cinemagram!

About the Author

Gavin Harvey is a fitness fanatic that likes to mix up hobbies by taking his Polaroid camera out jogging. When he’s not working he likes to watch his extensive collection of classic films. He’s also an avid writer and currently blogs for Softel .