YouTube Slow Motion Tool Helps Turn Videos Into Epic Moments

On the YouTube Creator Blog, Software Engineer Eron Steger has announced that “Slomo” has been added to YouTube’s Enhancements tool and the Video Editor.

Although videographers already understand the benefits of using slow motion, an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down, marketers will want to understand when and how to use slomo (or slowmo), too.

Why? The effect can be used to illustrate issues or demonstrate products more dramatically than videos shot at normal speed.

For example, a nonprofit building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis can use a time lapse video (fast motion) to show “350 Days in the life of a retreating glacier” in just one minute and 11 seconds, as 350.org did with the retreating Mendenhall glacier near Juneau, Alaska.

Or, as SEW reported earlier this month in a story entitled, YouTube Contest Case Study: Intel Generates Awareness, Engages Consumers, Drives Brand Lift, Intel launched a five-month series of time lapse photography and slow motion videography contests on YouTube, supported by TrueView ads and Promoted Channels.

One of the winners was a short film by Jason Groepper titled, “A Ticket to Ride.”

The Intel campaign, “A Momentary Lapse,” resulted in the highest conversion rate from ad to response the team had ever seen, and was so successful that the team had to revise its original goals after targets were hit within 3 weeks.

In other words, when videographers or marketers shoot anything out of normal speed, they can get viewers to take a second look at even the most “normal” events.

As Steger observed, “Anyone who’s seen a slow motion video of a dog drinking water, rubber bands breaking a watermelon, or footballs in faces knows the age-old proverb: slomo makes everything better.”

So, YouTube has now let anyone make their own slomo videos.

To create a slomo video, videographers and marketers can visit either YouTube’s Enhancements tool or its Video Editor and apply it to one of their existing videos.

According to Steger, “You’ll get a smooth, slomo video that makes it look like it was filmed with a high-speed camera.”

Here is an example of what Time’s Square (normal speed) ” looks like:

Now, here is what “Times Square (1/8th speed)” looks like:

Although skeptical New Yorkers probably think the traffic in Times Square is always painfully slow, all they need to do is get stuck behind a flock of sheep on any of the country roads in Ireland to realize that “rush hour” can be painfully slow in the most surprising places.

So, videographers and marketers in communities of all sizes should experiment with slomo by turning their next video into an epic moment. And they may also want to check out the rest of the free Enhancement tools available to help them build a whole channel filled with awesome videos of any speed.