Want to be a movie director, luckily for you, Snapchat has just made it a lot easier for all users to explore their boundless creativity when it comes to their art direction visions by enabling a new feature on the platform called ‘Director Mode’. We saw a preview of the feature at the company’s Partner Summit earlier this year and have been waiting in anticipation of the highly anticipated creative tool’s release.
Currently available worldwide to all iOS Snap users, the new ‘Director Mode’ is an advanced video creation process that allows for seamless content creation editing within the app to give creators the possibility to have advanced tools at their disposal.
In an overview video released by Snapchat, as shown in the video above, Snap’s Director Mode includes a range of more advanced editing tools within the app, including a green screen, variable playback speed options, improved editing tools, and dual camera controls, so that you can use the front and back facing cameras at the same time to create 360-degree content.
What does the introduction of ‘Director Mode’ mean to Snap Creators?
Many of the creative tools featured in ‘Director Mode’ are available in other applications, so in reality, it is not such a major innovative introduction to social media applications (360 modes have only been available on iOS up till now). Although on the other hand, introducing the new creative tool would be an immense game changer for content creators as it enables them to shoot, direct, edit and execute all of their content within the app, making it a seamless content creation journey.
A big addition for Snap creators specifically, as it provides them with more opportunities and tools to create standout clips in the app. This, of course, also includes Spotlight content, Snap’s TikTok-clone functionality, which to this date is being used by more than 300 million Snapchatters every month.
Total time viewing Spotlight content in the app has also increased by 55% year-over-year, and these new tools will provide more ways to tap into the popularity of Spotlight with your own short clips.
Yet, at the same time, Snap’s also reducing the amount that it’s paying Spotlight creators via its Spotlight Fund, which sees money allocated to the most popular Spotlight clips every day. Snap’s paid out millions to creators via the funding program, but it’s gradually moving to phase it out over time, as it looks to make Spotlight a more self-sustaining option.
There’s no doubt that steering the focus away from Spotlight will anger a few users who have worked hard to divert their following to it by producing quality content, but the broader vision is that these creators will be able to forge their own brand partnerships for paid promotions in the app, which could be a way to help ensure that they can generate income from their creative content, without direct funding from the app.
On the bright side, the additional creative tools of Director Mode are coming at just the right time, providing even more options to help creators maximize the value of their content to establish new brand deals and relationships, incentivising quality content that draws not only users but big brand deals in benefit of Snap creators.
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