Throughout the halls, library, cafeteria and classes of Staples, it is clear that most students are more engaged in their phones than in where they are going or what they are doing. They are busy scrolling down feeds and updating themselves on what’s going on. The new phone app, “Cinemagram,” is the new hot thing to start checking.
Cinemagram is an app on the iPhone that allows people to make and post videos that are edited with different effects. Students say the Cinemagram craze was started by word of mouth.
“My friend showed it to me, and I thought the videos were really cool,” Sarah Ellman ’15 said. “I then showed it to my friend who also bought the app.”
The videos made using Cinemagram, also known as “cines,” are quick and easy to create. Once the free app is downloaded and opened, a feed of 2-second videos will appear on the iPhone screen. The feed can be filled with anything from a person jumping on a trampoline to strobe lighting at a concert.
“Most people try to be “artsy” with cines of the skyline and sunset. Other people create cines of what they like, such as surfing or painting,” Hamilton Kovtun ’15 said.
At the bottom of the video feed, there’s a button with a colorful flower and the word, “capture,” on it. The power to upload or create your own cines is available once the small button is pressed.
Caroline Eldh ’13 explained that a cool feature on Cinemagram is the ability to make only some parts of the video move and freeze everything else by highlighting a specific part.
After parts of the video are isolated, they can be put in different effects or filters, like pictures on Instagram.
“My favorite part about Cinemagram is that the finished product always looks really cool, no matter what the video is of,” Ellman said. “Even if the cine is just of your face with your eye isolated because you are rolling it.”
After all this is done, it is shared with all of one’s Cinemagram friends.
“On Cinemagram, you can share continuous videos forwards, backwards, or back and forth,” Alec Maki ’13 said. The video is shared with all the people who follow you and will come up in their feed. They are able to like it, comment on it, or repost it.
While Cinemagram is very different from many other apps. just like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram apps, Cinemagram is just another way to communicate with people through technology.
“My favorite part of the app is being able to see other peoples’ Cinemagrams. Just like with Instagram, you can see what other people are up to and be updated about where they are and who they’re with,” Eldh said.
Maki likes Cinemagram better than other apps such as Instagram because the Cines are animated. He noted that there can be “cool and funny” cines that make them more exciting. But, Kovtun also said that some cines can be strange
“The weirdest cine I have ever seen was someone pulling their hair out of their head, literally,” Kovtun said.
However, even if the cines are more interesting, they take more time and are harder to make versus just posting a photo on Instagram. Both Ellman and Maki agree that their love for Cinemagram may be short-lived due to the length of time it takes to make the videos.
Whether it’s a phase or not, this app has Staples students hooked. “I think people like [Cinemagram] so much now, just because it’s a new app to use and all of the usual ones are getting boring or less interesting,” Eldh said.
