Home Videos: A history

Despite the prevalence of the video camera and its proliferation in our virtual and actuallives, the basic predecessor of what we now know as the itty bitty video camera came on to thescene in 1980, only thirty years ago. Of course, slides and slide projectors were availablebefore this, but the ability to capture life in action, and to capture and sustain movement wassomething entirely new. Here are some important dates*surrounding the camcorder and otherhome video recording media:

1980Sony demonstrates first consumer camcorder.

1984Canon demonstrates first digital electronic still camera.

1985Pixar introduces digital imaging processor.

1990Kodak announces Photo CD as a digital image storage medium.

“At one extreme, one finds that the performer can be fully taken in by hisown act; he can be sincerely convinced that the impression of reality

which he stages is the real reality… At the other extreme, we find that theperformer may not be taken in at all by his own routine. This possibility is

understandable, since no one is in quite as good an observational positionto see through the act as the person who puts it on.” (Goffman 17)

Home Videos: The conundrum (why make them?)

There is a large disparity between the number of home videos made and thenumber of home videos watched after the videos are produced. Many

families have a surplus of home video footage that has not been viewed afterit was recorded. If people don’t typically watch home videos following the

production of these videos, why do people still go to the trouble of recordinghome video footage?

Reason 1: To give life meaning

To give life meaning. Many daily tasks are mundane and ordinary. These tasksmay seem exciting in the moment, but when the actor reflects upon his tasks he isoften bored. Having a video camera document activites elevates these activities outof the realm of mundane and ordinary, even if this elevation occurs for only amoment. Furthermore, there are even more opportunities for actors to elevate theirdaily lives above the average daily life when videos are uploaded to Youtube.

The video "David After Dentist" is one example of the change from averagecitizen to fleeting internet celebrity, a kind of momentary fame that happens followinga vdeo being uploaded to Youtube. David's dad recorded the video to show David'smother, since she had to work during David's hyperdontia (extra tooth) removalsurgery. The fact that David's father felt the need to record this experience seemsstrange to me, as the father could have relayed any important information to themother over the phone or once he and David reached home. Why create a video?David's father asserts that the video was planned and made possible by easy accessto his iFlip video camera.

Maybe David's father created "David After Dentist" as a way to maintainkinship ties with his wife who could not be present at David's dentist appointment.James Moran asserts a similar notion in his work There's No Place Like Home Video,"more than just souvenirs of the past, home made artifacts provide families withimportant cultural functions as well: retention of detailed memories of people, places,and events; transmission of personal stories reformulated into the context of anindividual lifetime; kinship affiliation and generational continuity; andconnection to the land and accumulated good," (36­7).

Reason 2: A need to catalog and organize life

Having videos available and organized by the date the videos were taken createsorder in the life of the person who took all the video footage. However, watching thevideo footage does not increase the amount of order in the viewer's life. In essence, theact of creating video footage, and then editing the footage and cataloging the footage ona disk creates order. Creating video footage allows the videographer to keep aspects ofhis life in one place, on a tape or on his computer. Taking video footage also createsorder because videos portray life flatly. The way the audience interacts with a video ismediated by the way they look at the video, the angles used in the video, and the waythe videographer took the footage. When the videographer edits his footage, he takes hismaterials and cuts them into the most concise piece of his experience, editing out whathe deems to be unimportant or extraneous, this too creates order.

Also, reformatting footage to work with newer technological devices creates orderbecause new technology favors video cataloging techniques that take up less space.Reformatting video footage to work with current video technology is also an attempt toremain in touch with technology itself, which is covered more extensively on the nextpage.

This video of the babies creates order because the footage allows the parents tohaveaclearrepresentationoftheirchildrenatthetimethevideowastaken.Thisvideofootage alsoallowstheparentstoremembertheirchildren at the exact age when this video was taken.

Reason 3: To remain in touch with reality

At first glance the video may appear to be real, but viewers of videos cannot geta full picture of what is happening in the video. Videos can only appeal to two senses,hearing and sight. Video footage cannot give a viewer anyway to touch, smell, or tastewhat is happening in the video. The video can only cause the viewer to reflect onexperiences he had that were similar to the video, situations where he used all fivesenses. For example, if a viewer saw footage of himself blowing out birthday candlesand eating birthday cake, he cannot taste the cake or smell the blown out candles. Hecan only remember a time when he did eat birthday cake and smelled birthday candlesafter he blew them out. The video footage would trigger these memories.

In the "Playable Angry Birds Cake" video, the video's creator has taken a part ofhis son's life that is virtual, The "Angry Birds" cell phone application, and made thegame into a reality, and a way to interact with his son. The reality and tangibleexperience that the father has created in making his son a working birthday cake ismediated when he videotapes the entire experience. Videos are meant to be interactedwith in a certain way, and the videographer expects his audience will sit down in front ofhis TV (or in this case computer) and take in the video clip at the angle it was filmed.Viewers cannot get all the angles in the video that they could get if they wereactual observers. Viewers could get a different perspective on this video entirely if theycould see every angle around the table the father set the cake on, and wereable to see the slingshot working, and the cake falling, from different angles.The lack of angles in videos in general, and in the "Playable Angry BirdsCake" video, highlights how "flat" the experience of watching a video truly is.

Reason 4: To remain connected to technology

Once the video has been taken it is flat, stoic, cannot be changed (unless it is edited). Inessence the video is a small frozen piece of time. The technology used to create the videobegins to become obsolete as soon as the video is taken. In order to remain connected to

technology, the videographer would need to continue to make videos using the newesttechnology available. Watching videos only allows the videographer to interact with older formsof technology. Yet, when the video creator interacts with new pieces of technology, he is also

able to create more realistic representations of himself. Technology continues to move forward inorder to make our viewing experiences mirror real life as closely as possible. By continuing to

interact with home video technology, video makers would be able to continue to makethemselves relevant in video form, but also evaluate (reevaluate) their perceptions of themselves

in everyday life as well.

Relationship between the public andprivate in the "home" video

The proliferation of devices capable of taking “home video” footage coupled with theshrinking size of these devices has greatly increased the number of home videos taken. Forexample, “David After Dentist” was taken using a small portable video device called The“Flip”. A good number of the “home videos” taken with portable video cameras and cellphones enabled with movie capabilities are taken outside the “home”.

So are the videos taken away from the home still “home videos”? Yes and no. Videostaken outside the home may not be framed in the community and the bonds of family, butmany of these videos still take the “private” aspects of the home and put these privateaspects of the home on display in the public arena. For example, the “Marriage ProposalRejected at Basketball Game” is not a home video in the traditional sense. Neither of theactors in the video planned to take the video footage or recorded the video. And yet, thevideo still portrays a private moment that might be captured by a home video camera. Inprivate, the girl in the video would be allowed (begrudgingly) to reject the marriage proposal.In public the girl would be expected to say yes to the proposal, or at least say yes in thepublic moment and then politely decline the proposal in private, as suggested in the videocomments.

Regardless of if a video is a home video or not, “when an individual plays his part heimplicitly requests observers to take seriously the impression that is fostered before them.They are asked to believe that the character they see actually see actually possesses theattributes he appears to possess… there is the popular view that the individual offers hisperformance and puts on his show “for the benefit of other people.” It will be convenient tobegin a consideration of performances by turning the question around and looking at theindividual’s own belief in the impression of reality that he attempts to engender inthose whom he finds himself.” (Goffman 17) An audience member can glean asmuch about the actors in a video (and the actors’ perceptions of themselves)whether the raw video footage is taken at home in “private” or out in a publicvenue.

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