Kris Van Hout – Institute of Design & Communication

by Kris Van Hout - February 5, 2024

Impulse #8 – Great Things Are Made Together

For the last semester were we as a group of students are still working together before starting with our master theses, we worked with all four departments (Communication, Media, Sound & Interaction Design). The exhibition included all sorts of projects that we have created over the 1,5 years at FH.

For this exhibition I was one of the tutors who mainly managed the organization of the exhibition. We made an excel sheet with all the needed information. Exhibits, Teams, Budget, Sponsors, Working hours, Meeting protocols, Logistics, Timeline & etc.

At the beginning I thought it would be impossible to organize an event like this in this short time with also working on other projects but in the end it all worked out. I noticed it was stressful not only for me but also for the other students but the result was worth it.

I don’t know if I would do a lot different if we have to do it again. Maybe make a better time schedule for when what need to be done. And divide the work more equally over all students. In the end there were some few students that really made this exhibition happen. And other students that were less motivated. But you will always have that in projects like this. But I learned it is okay to ask for help and you don’t have to do everything on your own and it’s also important to offer help because some people have troubles asking of it.

But with the opening it showed again that we as a group all grew a little bit closer to each other and I think we have a really great team to make stuff together.

Great things are made together.

by Kris Van Hout - February 3, 2024

Blog #10 – Topic assignment Master‘s thesis

Central Research Question
What is the best way to make a social media campaign a question that a lot of marketing teams are asking themselves but still don’t have quite clear answer to. Why is a social media campaign valuable for brands? How does a campaign communicate? What is a social media campaign and what does it include? This thesis will mainly focus on short-form-video in social media campaigns and want to find out why do they preform so well and what is the secret behind it.

Goal
The goal of this master thesis is to investigate the impact of design elements (trends, storytelling, camera techniques) in short-form video on social media platforms (Instagram and TikTok), with the aim of providing insights and recommendations for optimizing engagement in social media campaigns. with the focus of the target group Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Hypothesis:
The use of design elements, such as visual aesthetics, narrative and trends, in short-form video on social media notably influences audience engagement, including views, shares and comments. By understanding these design elements, media designers can enhance the effectiveness of social media campaigns for brand promotion and communication.

Classification in the field of Media Design
This master thesis would be relevant for the field of media design for several reasons:
– Media trends: Short-form content with focus on video is becoming more and more popular on social media platforms. Understanding the role of short films in social media campaigns can provide valuable insight into the media field.
– Engagement and attention: Maintaining audience attention is very important. Short-form video is designed to brief and engaging. Which could be a media design strategy to hold audience interest.
– Visual storytelling: an important element in the field of media design is visual storytelling. Short-form video rely strongly on visual storytelling techniques to deliver a narrative within a short amount of time.
– Brand image and Communication: Social media campaigns are aiming to build and promote a brand. Short-form video can convey a brand’s message in a creative way.

Status of the art in research
Since short form video is quite new, there are not a lot of scientific papers about it. There are a lot of papers and books about traditional marketing where the essence of marketing can be taken from and put those findings in the new form of marketing. Also interviews and best practice will be done about this topic to figure out what the real reactions/results are of certain social media campaigns.

Theory reference
This master thesis can use theoretical references theory in narrative, visual communication, digital media, user engagement, advertising and branding and social media.

Method
The method will be based on three pillars:

1. Theoretical Framework,
– Conduct literature to establish strong theoretical foundation.
– Identify key theories relevant for short-form video, media design and user engagement on social media.

2. Best practice, Interviews and User feedback
– Case studies on successful short-form video campaigns on social media
– Conduct interviews with professionals in media design and digital marketing
– Collect user feedback through surveys and analyse existing user interactions on social media platforms

3. Implementation to own campaign and analysis
– Design and execute own campaign for Cycling race Acht van Bladel
– Gather and analyse data, Performance, engagement and user interactions
– Compare findings with theoretical framework, best practice and user feedback to draw conclusions

Material and sources
Material that can be used for this master thesis are:
– Academic Journals, for insights into user engagement, visual communication and media theories
– Books, by experts in media design, digital storytelling and social media
– Case Studies, successful social media campaigns that use short-form video
– Interviews and Expert opinions, with professionals in the fields of media design, advertising and digital marketing
– Social media platforms, they often release reports and analytics that can be valuable of understanding user behaviour and engagement.
– Surveys and User feedback, to gather data on user preferences and responses to short-form video on social media.
– Other theses, this can help me with a base for my own research and highlights where I can contribute new insights.

Literature (temporary)
Brown, R. E., Jones, V. K. & Wang, M. (o. D.). The new advertising: branding, content, and consumer relationships in the data-driven social media era. Volume 1 Traditional advertising transformed (Volume 1).

Brown, R. E., Jones, V. K. & Wang, M. (o. D.). The new advertising: branding, content, and consumer relationships in the data-driven social media era. Volume 2 New Media, New Uses, New Metrics (Volume 2).

Coker, K. K., Flight, R., & Baima, D. M. (2017). Skip it or view it: The Role of Video Storytelling in Social Media Marketing. Researchgate.

Structure (temporary)

Title
Abstract
Introduction
– Background
– Research Problem
– Objectives, the specific goals
– Significance of the study, why is this thesis relevant?
Literature Review
– Relevant theories such as narrative, visual communication, digital media, user engagement, advertising and branding and social media
– Identify gaps in the literature that this thesis aims to fill.
Theoretical Framework
Method
– Theoretical Framework
– Best Practice, Interviews, User Feedback
– Own campaign implementation and Analysis
Results/ Data analysis
– Evaluate
– Present and analyse the data
– Interpret the findings
Discussion
– Compare findings in relation to existing literature.
– Address any limitations of this study and suggest directions for future research
– The potential impact of the findings on the field of media design
Conclusion
– Summary of findings
Recommendations
– Practical recommendations for media designers, marketers
– Suggest strategies for optimizing short-form video in social media campaigns
References
Appendices

Timeline[1]
February – March
Weeks 1-2: Refine topic
– Finalize topic, align with interests and goals
– Refine research question
Weeks 3-4: Conduct first literature review
– Begin a literature review, identify key theories related to short-form video, media design and social media campaigns.

April – May
Week 5-6: Develop theoretical framework
– Build theoretical framework based on the literature
– Define key concepts and theories that will guide the research
Week 7-8: Plan best practice analysis and Interviews
– Identify relevant case studies
– Plan and prepare of interviews with industry professionals

June
Week 9-10 Conduct Best practise analysis and interviews
– Analyse successful short-form video campaigns and extract insights
– Conduct and transcribe interviews with industry professionals
Week 11-12 Collect user feedback
– Develop surveys to gather user feedback on short-form video
Week 13-14 Design and implement own campaign (achtvanbladel)
– Develop detailed plan for own short-form video campaign
– Implement the campaign

July – September
Week 15-16 Analyse campaign data
– Analyse data collected from own campaign
– compare them with theoretical framework, best practices and user feedback
Week 17-18 Write draft chapters
– Begin writing thesis chapters, Introduction, literature review, method
Week 19-20 Refine and finalize thesis
– Edit end refine Thesis
– Ensure arguments are well-supported and structure is cohesive.
Week 21-22 Finalize and submit
– Make final revisions and polish thesis.
– Submit the final version of thesis.

[1] ChatGPT is used to create a guidance for a timeline for Topic assignment Master‘s thesis, February 03. 2024

by Kris Van Hout - January 30, 2024

Impulse #7 – Meta Modernism

Movies nowadays feel so different than movies that they used to make. There is very little straightforward storytelling and film anymore. Movies are either part of a multidimensional franchise or a satirical, surreal or absurd. They might contain a multiverse, break storytelling or a combination of those. There always have been movies like this but these things have gone from the occasional novelty to the norm.

Modernism
In modernism the medium film can been seen in a way as the default state of cinema. A movies sincerity and traditional story telling is what makes a movie modernist. Modernism looks at the traditional governments, art, religions and saying a lot of this seems flawed. And if we apply science, reason and rationalism we become more enlightened and have a more objective understanding of the truth and that would make the world a better place.
The movies are not just modernist in their values, it’s also modernist in its storytelling structure. What makes films surprising watching them 70 years later is that there are pretty much no twists. Which could feel very straight forward for audiences who have grown up postmodern and middle modern media.

Postmodernism
When questioning modernist values in film became more than norm in broader culture postmodernism began to form. People start to question if modernist values where actually good and really making things better for everybody. Instead of returning to traditional narratives, Postmodernism starts to question the value of narrative itself. And if you start questioning the narrative itself thing understandably start to get a little weird. In postmodernism we see movies that start to deconstruct the way stories are told in film. Time became fragmented, forth walls are getting broken, stories become more self-aware. They try to remind the viewer that they were a viewer.

Meta Modernism
unlike postmodernism, meta modernism has a depiction of sentiment that most postmodern movies never have. It also harnesses optimism and emotional sincerity. Meta Modernism in general can be seen as a response to postmodernism. It builds on post modernism. It swings back and forth to modernist straightforwardness and post modernism deconstruction.

In post modernism self-reflex is used to draw attention to limitation, structure and boundaries. People are too self-aware of passive entertainment and there is a lot to concern about things that are happening in the world and there might be a feeling we should do something about it. Making just an entertaining movie is maybe better to questioning these things.

Meta modernism is a form of post modernism but more optimistic and less cynical. It still deconstructs the narrative but keenly balanced with comedy, heartfelt, dramatic sentiment.

Cause of the internet and social media we are constantly overflown with traditional modernist and post-modernist narratives all at once. We have a perspective of the world that was never before possible. Meta modernism is an attempt to make sense of this new perspective. To pick and choose positive elements from each of philosophy and to recognize the multiverse that exists around us, while still trying to stay grounded.

Thomas Flight. (2023, 23. Mai). Why do movies feel so different now? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xEi8qg266g

by Kris Van Hout - January 29, 2024

Impulse #6 – Why we all need subtitles now?

Nowadays I watch almost everything with subtitles but why is that? I can understand conversations when I talk to people when there are no subtitles.

Microphones
All sound used to be recorded at one track, that means that actors had to speak in a curtain angle so the mic could pick up their lines otherwise you couldn’t hear a thing.
But Microphones got better and they don’t impede performance as much anymore. They became smaller, better and even wireless. And we use more of them to be use the performances are getting captured. That would imply that everything is audible?

Editing
In earlier movie productions when lines were not able to hear on the recording actors had to come back and rerecord their lines (ADR). That is still be done today but it also costs a lot of money. So, editors nowadays need to try to make the sound that is recorded sound better. the microphone pickup almost every sound.

But even after the sound editing it is still hard sometimes to understand what the actors are saying. You can’t just turn up the dialogue otherwise it will be in contrast with the Dynamic Range: The range between your quietest sound and you loudest sound. As the dialogue is as loud as an explosion that follows that dialogue, the explosion is not going to feel as big. Also turning up the dialogue can cause distortion.

What also causes the problem of not hearing the dialogue on your phone, laptop or Tv is that the movies we are watching are edited for big surround sound like Dolby Atmos. And all those 128 tracks have to come down to one or two tracks to match our device we are watching it from. (downmixing)

When you combine not great speakers, mumble performances, dynamic range with bombastic sound over dialogue and a flattened mix. It is not a surprise that we have trouble understanding what is going on.

Solutions:
1. Buy better speakers
2. Worry a bit less about picking up every single word that gets said
3. Keep the subtitles on

Vox. (2023a, Januar 20). Why we all need subtitles now [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8

by Kris Van Hout - January 28, 2024January 29, 2024

Blog #9 – Can AI make my master thesis?

Can we use AI for our Master thesis? The answer to that is no but is that a good thing or should we be allowed to use AI?
I came across this video on YouTube that had some pretty interesting insights about this topic.

At the beginning not everyone knew where to use AI chatbots for. But for students it was pretty obvious to use it for school assignments to give answers to questions and even with .4 versions of ChatGPT AI can analyze data, read images files, and write at the college level.

What does this mean for education?
How do we know that students have learned?

Banning AI
To ban AI, schools have to block AI websites, they need to use AI detecting software to detect Ai generated texts and shifting more work into class hours and onto paper.
But there are a lot of pros and cons for banning AI completely. Teachers don’t want to be policing measures like this. The detection software is really imperfect and can cause false positives. How can teacher accuse a student of using AI when they are not 100% sure.
Does it make sense to ban chatbot when tech companies are inserting them everywhere else.
Grammerly, Notion, Google Docs have a “help me write” and other functions that are considered AI. Do we now have to cite all the AI we are using?

Allowing AI
Allowing AI in school can be helpful for students to understand how to use AI and how future generations are using it. It will become part of our everyday lives such as spelling checkers, translation software and calculators.
But ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are still not perfect. There are a lot of flaws and you can’t just copy and paste. But how do you know when something it correct when you don’t know anything about the subject. But we have that problem with humans as well.

The risk with AI is that we are not learning enough from it because it’s a passive way of gaining information. Learning it not about having the right/correct answer but it is about the struggle and the growth. It’s for students to realize “this” is where I use ChatPGT for and “this” is where I don’t need to use ChatGPT for.

I think for highschoolers it would be better to ban ChatGPT since they didn’t choose to study and would use AI to quickly get rid of their homework. But College and University Student choose to study for a curtain topic and they want to learn and that hopefully makes them smart enough to use AI in a responsible way. As a Master student you choose to be in university and why would you waste an opportunity to let AI make all your assignments and learn nothing from it.

Vox. (2023, 12. Dezember). AI can do your homework. Now what? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEJ0_TVXh-I

by Kris Van Hout - January 28, 2024

Impulse #5 – How to make Learning as Addictive as Social Media (TedTalk)

Duolingo made a language app so it is accessible for everyone to learn a new language. They choose to make an app since most people have access to a smartphone. But what also comes with a smartphone are addictive social media platforms.

What Duolingo did to keep people using their language app is using the same psychological techniques as social media platforms and games are using to keep people engaged.

One of the most powerful ones it’s the notion of a streak.
Another mechanism to get people come back to the app are notification. With notifications you shouldn’t be spamming.

When you learn something out of it you get meaning out of it. And when you don’t get that it feels like you have been wasting your time.

I think this way of thinking can by applied to a lot of different things. As on social media content. The content you are making has to be meaningful and has to be a certain way that people want to come back to your page/campaign.

TED. (2023, 26. Oktober). How to make learning as addictive as social Media | Luis von Ahn | TED [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6FORpg0KVo

by Kris Van Hout - January 28, 2024

Impulse #4 – Duolingo’s TikTok Best practice

In the podcast 20VC from Harry Stebbings he is interviewing Zaria Parvez – Social media Manager at Duolingo. She is talking about the success of their social media accounts with a special look to TikTok.

Zaria didn’t know a lot about advertising and she had fresh eyes to it. She just started making funny videos with the Duolingo mascot suit that nobody was using at the time. The content she was making was different and unexpected and no other brand was doing that yet. The small human moment is what Zaria thinks which made the TikTok page of Duolingo blow up.

Zaria choose for TikTok as a platform because it felt like a native platform to her. Also TikTok mentioned that they hat 1 billion users (September 2021). “And if People are on TikTok they are not on our app. How do we bring people back to our app.” Zaria. Duolingo doesn’t see other language apps as competitors but apps like TikTok or other social media platforms that are taking attention away from taking your daily language lesion. “How do we bring back the daily lesion or push notification to TikTok” Zaria.

For Zaria TikTok and Reels feels more connected and Shorts feels a bit more distanced. The Content that is made has to be fit with the trends that are going on. “Is the content entertaining to you when you are making it? Or do you have fun making it? Then most likely it has a chance to become viral. Is it sharable?”

Zaria doesn’t believe that the quantity of posting is important what a lot of people suggest but she thinks the quality is far more important.

So, to sum up the things that has been said. Make sure why you are using social media content. And try to be different than all the other main brands.

20VC with Harry Stebbings. (2024b, Januar 21). Behind Duolingo viral success 🔥 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPBRuzPF7XI

20VC with Harry Stebbings. (2024a, Januar 20). Duolingo’s Owl Origin Story [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOGv96tYdnE

by Kris Van Hout - January 28, 2024January 28, 2024

Impulse #3 – Virtual Production

Visual production allows the filmmaker to see what a shot look like in its final form. Visual production is a process where real-world filmmaking and digital effects occur simultaneously. This is in contrast to green/blue screen where the onset cast had the visualize in their minds what the shot will look like.
Virtual production finds it base in video projection being used as backgrounds in film shoots. With video production where the movie relies heavily on green screen it makes it harder to visual the actual shot. Lighting, camera angels and more are hard to predict. Avatar was one of the first movies using virtual production.

How does it work
Today’s popular usage of virtual production is using a set of LED walls. Combined with unreal engines. Resulting a photorealistic background. Before filming the camera need to be synced with the 3d camera to follow every movement and to create the parallax effect.
One of the benefits is its use as a light source. Where green screen casts green shadows, the LED walls reflect the natural light from the background that is used at the time. But it has some hard time with recreating direct daylight.
Another benefit is that it makes location flexible. But camera movement is limited.
Where with green/blue screen most visual effects were done in post-production with virtual production most of the visual effects has to be done in the pre-production since the set needs to be ready for production. When the screens are not ready for the shoot, green screen replacements can be used.
Virtual production also solves a practical problem: the eye line. With predicting where the visual effects will be as an actor it can be hard to have the eyes on the same line as the direction where the object would be in post. The LED set will fix this problem.

StudioBinder. (2023, 17. April). Virtual Production explained — Is this the end of the green screen? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a25BMp5Z1QY

by Kris Van Hout - January 21, 2024January 28, 2024

Blog #8 – Expose v.2

The Problem
What is the best way to make a social media campaign a question that a lot of marketing teams are asking themselves but still don’t have quite clear answer to that. Why is a social media campaign valuable for brands? How does a campaign communicate? What is a social media campaign and what does it include? This thesis will mainly focus on Short-form-video in these social media campaigns and
want to find out why do they work so well and what is the secret behind it.

State of research
Since short form video is quite new, there are not a lot of scientific papers about it. There are a lot of papers and books about traditional marketing where the essence of marketing can be taken from and put those findings in the new form of marketing. Also interviews and best practice will be done about this topic to figure out what the real reactions/results are of curtain social media campaigns.

Question
There are multiple questions that will be answered in this thesis:
– What is a social media campaign? What does it include?
– Why is a social media campaign valuable for brands?
– How does a campaign communicate and how is that different from traditional marketing communication?
– Would it be better for a company to invest into one brand movie or a whole campaign?
– Why does content matter?

The hypothesis
This master thesis will provide a written form of guidelines for an optimized social media campaign based on short form video. It will also execute a campaign itself to state if the findings are correct.

The reference to theory
There are a lot of social media campaigns with short form video but you rarely find the secret recipe to the best way of doing it the right way. Short form video is quite new and therefore, there is a lot to list out what is the best way to do so.

The Method
The method will be based on three pillars:
1. Best practice, analyze previous campaigns. And interview people who play a key role in defining the industry, are questioned about their social media management processes and point out what the importance is of a good social media campaign.
2. Theoretical contextualization of traditional and agile marketing/social media methods.
3. Implementation, of all the findings to a social media campaign for a live event (achtvanbladel)
All pillars are combined to find optimized guidelines for a social media campaign focused on short form video.

The Material
There are all kinds of sources available: Theoretical books, scientific papers, Tedtalks, Interviews, data of previous campaigns

Bibliography
Brown, R. E., Jones, V. K. & Wang, M. (o. D.). The new advertising: branding, content, and consumer relationships in the data-driven social media era. Volume 1 Traditional advertising transformed (Volume 1).
Coker, K. K., Flight, R., & Baima, D. M. (2017). Skip it or view it: The Role of Video Storytelling in Social Media Marketing. Researchgate.
Kurzrock, Ethan. (2019). Intensified Play: Cinematic study of TikTok mobile app.

Structure

Title
Abstract
Introduction
Literature review
Method
Results
Conclusion
Discussion

Timetable
February – April: Theoretical part, best practice, analyse previous campaigns. And interview people who play a key role in defining the industry, are questioned about their social media management processes and point out what the importance is of a good social media campaign.
April – June: Preproduction for Implementation
July – August: Social media campaign for a live event (achtvanbladel)
August – September: Results, Conclusion, Discussion