Video Ethnography
Design Anthropology
Definition
Video ethnography has long been overshadowed by photo ethnography, perhaps because video as a medium was too cumbersome to be useful in many ethnographic research settings. However, now that video is just as easy as photography, it has the potential to reveal even richer contextual data about cultures and their interactions.
“Knowledge is produced in converstaion and negotiation
between informant and researcher, rather than existing as an objective
reality that may be recorded and taken home in a note book, camera film or tape.”
— Sarah Pink Doing Visual Ethnography Pg 79
Procedure
Preparation
While it is true, the best camera is the one you have on you, make sure that you know how to use said camera. Ideally have one that can shoot in a high enough definition that details can be made out when seen on a TV, which many smart phones can do nowadays.
Familiarize yourself with some sort of video editing software, such as Premier.
Make sure that your camera has battery and that you have all other supplies such as a tripod and SD cards.
Make a plan of what you are going to focus on filming.
In person
One of the most important things about video ethnography is that the people you are filming of know that you are taking filming. Normally if you are using a camera that looks like a camera then it is safe to say people know what is going on, but be careful when using a phone camera because people could think you are trying to be sneaky or they may not have the opportunity to let you know they do not want to be filmed.
Furthermore if you are in a private area make sure that you get permission to use a video if there are peoples faces in it.
Then let your imagination run free and film whatever you want. Whatever seems like it might capture an interaction or meaningful moment. Pay close attention to how people use artifacts and how those artifacts influence their behavior and try to capture it.
Analysis
Start by dumping all of your footage into an editor and just go through and throw out all of the bad scenes.
Then find the ones that really show the interactions you wanted to capture and clean them up. Put all of your cleaned shots in an album and watch through it a few times.
Lastly, edit the video together in a way that is as true to the story that you are trying to tell without exploiting or otherwise harming any of the people in your video.
Use Case
While researching how people share culture through food, my team and Idecided to first watch a film called Roma, and then to try and shoot some footage ourselves. The footage was not spectacular, but the conversation that we got out of the excuse that we were filming was worth the effort.
Strengths
Video ethnography can be very powerful because videos are easy to share and are emotionally impactful. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video can tell an entire story.
Weaknesses
Videos can be misinterpreted, especially when they are edited.
Also capturing anything on video still only gives one perspective.
