4 Tips for Making Memorable Vine Videos Jerome Jarre and Rudy Mancuso of GrapeStory offer expert advice on how to make your Vines worth watching.
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Like any new medium, Vine had no rules or best practices when it launched. As a result, GrapeStory talent head Jerome Jarre and fellow creator Rudy Mancuso had to figure things out as they went along, producing hundreds of videos—some great, some terrible. "I felt like I was learning as Vine was learning itself," Jarre says. Here are their top tips for making memorable Vines.
Avoid memes and be creative. This past summer, a YouTube video of a girl getting hit by a shovel went viral and spread to Vine, where it was mocked by copycats. Don't yield to the temptation to join the fray. "Way too many people are doing that, and you'll just be buried within the hour," Mancuso says.
The beauty of Vine is that its six-second limit forces boundaries that will push you creatively. "Novelty is rewarded on the internet, and on Vine especially," Jarre says. "If it's new, it's interesting."
Keep it one-shot simple. Unless you're skilled with timing and making cuts, don't try to edit your videos. "People try to raise the bar on Vine because they think they'll stand out by doing effects like titles, crazy music and cuts, but it doesn't work," Mancuso says.
"Vine is not here to tell a story," Jarre adds. "You're here to capture a moment, an interesting moment—boom."
Get in the shot. "Showing your face is a good way to engage, because when people watch the videos, they are consuming intimately," says Jarre, who often appears in his own clips. When filming, think about how close your camera phone should be to your head in order to look your best.
Remember the punch line. If you're making a comedic Vine, save the funniest part for the end. "On almost every Vine video, you find something in the last millisecond, and when it loops, you're still laughing," Mancuso says.
