As 2020 races by, we aren’t ashamed to admit that we at Videvo have come down with a case of the blues. At least, that’s the predominant theme that popular clips and search-terms are indicating. In December 2019, the Pantone Colour Institute named ‘Classic Blue’ as 2020’s colour of the year. We were pretty stoked. Have you seen our logo? We’ve been rocking the classic blue since before it was cool.
Since the heady (and perhaps misplaced optimism) of the New Year, however, the world has changed. Corona virus has dominated the news, our thoughts, and the way we live our day to day lives. There have been highs: being able to work in our pyjamas, spending more time with the dog, exploring the pockets of nature closest to us… There have also been lows: not being able to see our nearest and dearest, the immense strain placed on healthcare and essential workers, and the knock-on effect a near-global lockdown is having on the economy.
All in all, it’s been a whopper of year so far. This being the case, we thought we should take a moment to look at the kinds of Videvo stock videos and visuals that people are searching for and using to communicate these changes across the world. Read on below to join us in our quest to identify the visuals and videos that best express the times we live in.
The Small and the Wild
Although bars, gyms, cinemas and all the trappings of metropolitan life are starting to re-open here and there, most of us are turning to our local parks, forest trails or back gardens for our daily dose of exercise and socialisation. As Summer hits the Northern hemisphere, it’s no wonder that natural worlds close to home and further afield are dominating our visuals. Searches for video footage of ‘nature’ have increased drastically.
Large and exotic locations such as beaches, and aerial and drone shots of sublime, far-flung landscapes have enjoyed exponential popularity. But we’ve also spotted a penchant for close up shots and small macro details. The kind that you notice when you really stop to admire the world around you.
The Novel Coronavirus
Before this year, ‘Covid-19’ wasn’t even a word. Now, it’s one of our most popular search terms alongside ‘Virus’ and ‘Corona’. A virus is tiny, however, and hard to conceptualise in the abstract. This means that we’ve noticed an uptick in the more tangible aspects of a global pandemic: stock videos of doctors, nurses and hospitals are increasingly sought-after.
In a world where the value of medical professionals, orderlies, hospital administrative and cleaning staff cannot be understated, it’s no wonder that these professions have become the faces of 2020.
The Blue Marble
On the other end of the spectrum, the unfathomably large scale of the epidemic as a whole means that the globe has become an even bigger part of our visual vocabulary. Limitations placed on international travel, tracking statistics and data on a global scale, and a sense of solidarity as we all stay apart together might be why we’re seeing a massive increase in searches for terms related to planet earth, the world, and space.
NASA footage, motion graphics of planet earth, time-lapses of the milky way all evoke that feeling. They remind us that we are just tiny people, on a tiny planet, in a huge universe. But they also remind exactly what we, as tiny people, can achieve with science and technology when we all work together.
Feeling Blue
The stresses and strains of this new life can be hard to ignore. Mental health has been steadily more represented in media, marketing, music and movies across the years. Wellness, self-care and self-expression have held their ground as visual trends since 2015.
Now, more than ever, however, searches related to the struggles of mental health – not just the prevention – are on the rise. As the current situation forces us to take a more honest look at mental health, emotive searches for ‘sad’ or ‘lonely’ stock video footage are on the rise. Visuals like rain that have traditionally stood in for these concepts are also being downloaded with greater frequency.
Home is Where the Heart is
All of the trends so far have had one thing in common: the concepts find expression on both the macro and micro level. The more we are aware of the magnitude of the events that have unfolded this year, the more we connect with what’s around us on an individual and local level. No wonder then that connection is at the heart of our final visual trend.
The important things – family, love, food – are the things that sustain us in uncertain times: our stock clips that depict positive interpersonal relationships are at an all time high compared to this time last year. And as we all know, the best way to anyone’s heart is through food. Cooking together, eating together, even doing the washing up, have become the ways we all stick together. These kinds of scenes are also some of our most downloaded stock assets.
Mostly though, what our data tells us is that just because we may not be able to get together in person like we used to, nor go out and film everyday life (because everyday life as we knew it is at a standstill), people are still out there making things. Wherever our stock video clips end up – on Instagram, in a commercial, in an indie film made using only household objects – they’re part of a visual mosaic that reflects the zeitgeist of the year 2020.
And now that we think about it… that visual mosaic can sometimes look eerily similar to a conference call on Zoom….
