Multimodal Analysis: Researching Short-Form Videos and the Theatrical Practices

Abstract

Video analysis methods need to be updated in facing the proliferation of user-generated short-form videos (UGSVs). This paper investigates what’s behind this type of visual communication and resonates with the emerging field of social media and performance studies. We ask if a theatrical or performative discourse can make sense of the video data, and search for a method to holistically study user-generated short-form videos. This paper uses multimodal analysis for video analysis and draws concepts and practices from Chinese and western theater. Building on three theories (situation, suspense, and mimesis) in which the ontology of theater is often discussed, this paper demonstrates the modes and modalities of five videos originating from TikTok. The preliminary findings suggest three types of suspense and three types of mimesis practices that respectively answer how attention of audiences is retained, and how and why videos are reproduced and disseminated. We argue that imitation as a phenomenon and as a process can generate memes, and memes in turn invites more imitation. The underlying crux are the video practices that ridicule and critique, when different levels of resistance to politics, authority, or societal classes are shown. Video analysis, under today’s ubiquitous visual data, requires robust updates. In addition to the contribution of a performative and theatrical perspective for the sense-making of short- form videos, this paper also contributes to the methods of video analysis in general and video analysis by using modes and multimodalities.