AMATEURS VS. PRO’S
The Issue- Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time. Where does this leave 'professionals' and highly skilled artists? Choose one area of creativity (audio visual/videos) and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioner’s vs amateurs in producing digital content.
I find myself spending way to much valuable assignment time procrastinating checking out the Internet. One of my favorites pastimes would have to be checking out what kind of weird and wacky videos are on www.youtube.com. Something you’d have to be blind not to notice is the increasing quality in the videos created not by professionals, but amateurs. Why the sudden boom in creativity and standard? Digital media editing tools of production are now incredibly easy to produce reasonable or even remarkable videos, quickly. This has apparently become a serious threat to professionals as suggestions arouse that this increasing availability of new editing software plus the internet has made it possible for ‘everyone’ to be a producer (Burgess, 2006), and the mysteries crafting film editing more recognizable to the public (LoBrutto, 2009).
So where does that leave the pro’s? In this blog/essay I will discuss why I don’t think it’s a problem, that every industry has its competition and how creativity should be embraced no matter whom it comes from. I’ll also discuss the challenges the professionals are facing, and what position they and the amateurs have been put in.
Once upon a time editing tools for audiovisuals (videos) seemed hard and impossible to use, if you go way back to 1890 when motion pictures was first invented its changed dramatically (LoBrutto, 2009). Up until 1980 motion picture editing technology under went only 3 technological phases…
- Physical film cutting
- Electronic videotape editing
- Digital nonlinear editing (LoBrutto, 2009)
When we entered the new millennium we saw the introduction of new technology such as still digital still and video cameras, wireless computing platforms and mobile devices, all resulting in an explosion of creative activity (Bowman, 2009) and an explosion in editing not only to the film industry but also to the average Jo aswell. Thus, consumers were able to access a new world of low-cost audiovisual distribution and production (Dijck van). The proof is everywhere, in recent years; sales have scored for digital video cameras, camera phones with video capabilities and Photoshop software (Dijck van). Programs like iMovie (http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/), Adobe Premiere Elements 8 (http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/) and Windows Movie Maker (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx) are giving consumers the freedom to create a wide variety of videos in a professional style. Websites like www.youtube.com are getting up to 65, 000 new videos per day (Blythe, 2007).
If you’ve got some spare time check out http://www.fanfilms.net/, it will if you some idea how much creative power some amateurs. They have by re-creating and re-invented well known movies. Here are some other examples… http://www.batmanfanfilms.com/, http://theforce.net/fanfilms/, http://www.comics2film.com/.
Leadbeater and Miller view the current rise in non-professional creativity as a ‘new ethic of amateurism’ and also one ‘of the defining features of developed society’ (2004). Personally, if I were to further my video editing skills, I believe that as amazing as some of the production and editing can be, following a professional footsteps would be preferable. They at least have the reputation and reliability on a business card.
Some negatives are that amateurs may find are that the some methods available to consumers are modeled after those of professional video production, which consumers usually possess neither the time, money, nor expertise that profession production methods require (Davis, 2003). Although it may be easier, cheaper and faster to produce amateur videos, this also means, due to the sheer amount of consumers produced videos, far more videos are shot and edited than actually watched (Davis, 2003).
For the professionals, the challenges they face may be the impact on the dominance of culture by the mass media, and as I said before editing can be more re-cognizable and the standard of editing may have to be increased or questioned (Bowman, 2009). So what positions does this leave the professionals in? Well as a producer, although in a developing world specialists might be hard to find, whom are you going to hire? Personally, as a perfectionist, there’s generally nothing you can trust more than a piece of paper stating someone knows what they are talking about. The professional editor's has still got the broad knowledge, the reliable reputation and unique ability to craftily shape the construction of a motion-picture story by either visibly or invisibly executing the director's vision (LoBrutto, 2009).
I cant just talk about how in the end the professionals have nothing to worry about. I’m confess that I indeed do use iMovie and have just recently been given a beautiful brand new Sony Handycam for my 18th. When I first approached this topic I thought it was unfortunate that professionals were having there titles and superiority striped due to amateurs that probably haven’t worked as hard as they have or even gone to university to study the profession…. but you have to have a look at it from the amateurs side of things as well. I love making movies, and if there’s a short cut to making my movies better and increasing the production standard, then I’ll take it. If I can take the time to learn about my software, then I’ll go right ahead and expand my creative mind to create the best movies possible. If that is a threat to professional and highly skilled artists, well maybe you should think about combining forces and learning a thing or two off the amateurs, or embracing the opportunity.
Technology is constantly changing and with it we see the need and want for improvements in audiovisual editing technology. As long as there is a need for software, it will keep being created. Amateur video editing is just another form of competition, one that has been consider to a larger threat than it really is. There has always been competition in any industry, and this is just another form, or opportunity that the industry will have to decided wither to work for or against.
Sources
1. LoBrutto, V, 2009, ‘"Invisible" or "Visible" Editing’, The Development of Editorial Styles and Strategies, vol. 34, pp. 43
2. Davis, M, 2003, Editing Out Video Editing, Computation Media Aesthetics, vol. unknown, pp. 54-64
3. Dijck van, J., ‘Television 2.0: YouTube and the Emergence of Home casting’, vol. unknown, pp. 1-23
4. Burgess, J, 2006, ‘Hearing Ordinary Voices Cultural Studies, Vernacular Creativity and Digital Storytelling’, Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, vol.20, pp. 201-214.
5. Bowman, S, Willis, C, How audiences are shaping the future of news and information, viewed October 9th 2009, <http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php>
6. Leadbeater, C, Miller, P, 2004, ‘The Pro-Am Revolution: How Enthusiasts Are Changing Our Economy and Society’, vol. unknown, pp. 1-74
7. Blythe, M, Light, A, Shaleph, O, 2007, ‘Human Technology’, An Interdisciplinary journal on Humans in ICT Environments, vol.3, pp. 1-118
