We have been working on a mobile app, called Okapi, to make video with friends. You can think of it as a social scavenger hunt, where you are searching for a moment, or direct a vignette that fits into a larger narrative. Okapi solves the problem of keeping everyone on the same page for rapid mobile video production. The whole team gets live updates of the project, so you can get an aerial view of everyone else’s work, and review the parts that you care about.
Here is how it works: a project owner defines a shot list and invites collaborators. Shots are 1-6 seconds long and have a set of instructions on how to complete them. Generally the instructions are very short. As the clips roll in, the visual placeholders in the shotlist are replaced with the best take of each shot. Light curation is possible within the app, meaning that anyone can review takes and upvote your favorite, or suppress bad takes.
The project owner can keep the crowd’s selection for each clip, or override it. At the end of production, a rough draft is visible. In fact, it can even be available live within the app, as each clip is synchronized and upvoted. For small projects, I haven’t been doing any more editing. But last weekend I wanted to modify sounds and colors, and so I exported the video to a desktop editor to finalize it.
I am passionate about making new tools for creative use. Naturally, I want to test my own tools. Last weekend was a 48 hour film competition in San Diego, where teams compete to make a 4-7 minute film in 48 hours. I joined in using Okapi to film on a mobile app. It was last minute so I made most of it myself, spanning three different Okapi user accounts / phones, and with Anna Meier helping out with the camera work. Actually, I played both main characters … Lol, I hitch-hiked with myself and fought myself. How did I feel about it? Honestly a bit uncomfortable. I like being behind a camera, not acting in front of it. But it was a great test of our framework, and a good creative challenge for me. Here it is:
What did I learn? Not to scoff at sound. I have used musical sound tracks in many of my past explorations, but in this project there was dialog. I was exposed to all the challenges of dealing with background sound, and recording audio from inside a moving camera. I got a wired lavalier, but it did not work with any of my phones. Quality sound remains a real barrier for a truly scalable content platform. (To me, truly scalable implies all hardware is simply the smartphone, and customers don’t need to buy mics, gimbals, etc.) Seeing my own video with and without the cinematic music from Janet Snare and Kenneth Fu reminds me how much of the feeling of video is in the sound.
Would you use Okapi for a collaborative production? How would you want to use it? Let us know! We are selecting a small number of partners for private projects. Please send hello@okapivideo.com with a short description of what you have in mind. If it seems like a good fit, we will set up a zoom call to discuss next steps.
