Exactly a year ago, I started participating in “a week in a minute” video challenge. You are meant to shoot footage (nearly) every day and edit a minute-long video out of each week’s material. I did 11 episodes between 6th of April and 4th of July. Here is the combined material out of those weeks:
The week in a minute challenge was great fun and I had planned on doing it for one year but I guess I kinda grew tired of participating in the concept at some point. Eventually I started doing two weeks in a minute and then I dropped the ball and stopped making the videos altogether. I still have some unedited footage from last July. The week in a minute video challenge has actually a finnish Facebook group around it, but it too grew quiet. There’s been only one active member lately, I gotta respect his dedication!
To pick it up again or leave it alone?
If I were to continue making these videos, I think I would do at least one thing differently. I would use the chosen song in its entirety. It makes it more pleasant to watch a combined video reel when the songs don’t change every minute. I considered doing a re-edit with new music for the video above, but quickly abandoned the idea. I used the music to create rhythm in the video footage as well and it would be too big a task to re-edit everything. During the first weeks of the challenge, I shot about 10 minutes of footage, which I then shrunk down to one minute. In the end I usually had something like 3 to 5 minutes so I did get much more efficient in shooting the footage.
What is the value of the week in a minute videos?
The videos are some kind of audiovisual poetry for me. I have never been good at writing poems or even at consuming them, but I have always liked video as a means of expression. I like playing with the interplay of video and music. Using the combination allows me to create an atmosphere that is linked to the time of year, my general mood or some more specific feeling. Last year I felt like I was unable to capture anything meaningful with still images and that I needed video to be able to create anything. Even if my pictures are not superb in quality, the feeling they help me reach makes the quality a moot point. For me, it is enough that I have succeeded in making myself feel better. But of course it feels good when others appreciate the stuff I do as well.
Creating content for future spectators
Looking at the video now, I like how I am reminded of my life last year. It is also nice to see how the spring turned into summer. I would imagine that it would be even more rewarding to watch these in 20 years. To take a look back. When I have that future retrospect in mind, I can tell a better story of today. The stuff and phenomena we have in our lives today, becomes a thing to wonder tomorrow. Every person is looking at their phones constantly, the clothes we wear and how cities look, all of it becomes interesting in 20 years. Even the most boring can become most interesting given enough time. I love old home videos, because they tell about the life in a way that movies fail to reach. They are somehow more honest.
Maybe I will start shooting more videos, or maybe not. Time will tell.