Our objective in this essay is to provide a primer on digital video, focusing on the
technology as a methodology rather than simply a new medium for recording social
behaviour. A primer, in traditional terms, is an introduction to a subject that is well
known. We use it to emphasize the sense in which both the technologies and social
practices of relevance here are fast becoming part of the life world of the cohorts coming
of age in the twenty-first century. Digital video refers to an ensemble of technologies for
visual and audio documentation, editing, and presentation. It is both a noun in that it
represents independent things that can be put into action and a process in that it is used
within an organization of actors (researchers, technicians, and subjects) to accomplish
pre-planned data collection, following agreed upon strategies which take into account the
research matter, subject, location, and environmental constraints (weather conditions,
natural or artificial lighting, background noise, and institutional restrictions).