Abstract:
I am attempting to deconstruct the elements which comprise viral videos that achieve a degree of internet noteriety/popularity. In doing so, I hope to help my reader understand how the average web user views, processes, and in turn propagates video media that he or she encounters.
I will postulate a theoretical "formula" for popular internet videos, and show a number of shared elements among previously established popular videos. The core of my project would be to then test the actual effectiveness of my theory by applying it to a number of self-created videos and tracking their popularity. As there is often an author/viewer correspondance present in these videos, I will also fabricate and assume the various personas behind each video, responding to the viewers. In this way, this might be considered an interactive video project, or more specifically, a series of short interactive video projects linked by a common thread.
While my audience is also an unwitting test subject, the real audience for this would be for the more academically minded, as they are aware of the fact that the video is constructed with the sole purpose of achieving a high degree of internet popularity.
I intend for my final delivery format to be both an interactive DVD as well as a website documenting my thinking and process.
Methodology:
To answer what makes an internet video popular, I will take commonly seen elements in popular videos, past and present, and distill them into generic formulas which I will then use as a blueprint to create videos of my own. Meanwhile, I will also document the making of process to yield insight into the thinking behind each decision. I intend to use the web video format as the primary way of presenting information, and necessarily will be also creating a webpage for the project as well. In addition, due to the amount of recompression present in web videos, I will also be creating an "offline" DVD version of the project as well.
My primary assumption behind this project is that the internet audience is, in fact, predictable, and while trends and general tastes are certainly mercurial, there exist common elements that are in fact shared by media that is self-propagated.
Media Presentation and Justification:
As noted earlier, I will be using the web video form with website to present this project. In this way, the form of the project will reflect the actual content.
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2 comments:
This is close. At this point you are probably best served by finding an advisor or advisors who might help you and, starting to very roughly storyboard to get an idea of scope.
In your statement you may want to move your assumption (stated at the end) into the abstract as you edit the proposal. Your use of the form to explore and analyze the form is ideal for an IML project.
I really like your ideas for this project! Understanding the various "formulas" that make certain internet videos so immensely popular would have a great impact on the way internet videos are made and distrubted - understanding the likes and dislikes of internet users, especially video watchers (as I know we all are) would give any one in the media department for some company an incredible advantage over competitors, although there would be a multitude of other benefits to this study. Your ideas and goals are solid and interesting.
I'm not sure it's necessary to have both presentation formats. It seems you have your plate full with what you're planning to do already, granted it would be easy enough to make the website and then just incorporate all the pieces in DVD Studio Pro. (Because your topic deals with internet videos it seems that the web-based project would be the more appropriate presentation medium).
Good luck!
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