Blog Post 5
The Reinvention of Normal on Short of the Week
In Liam Saint-Pierre’s “The Reinvention of Normal,” the short profile piece takes viewers through the life and mind of quirky inventor Dominic Wilcox. In a series of A-roll interviews and B-roll of Wilcox’s wacky inventions, the world of endless possibilities opens up. Something interesting this piece chose to incorporate was the use of graphics as transition. For transitioning from ideas to interviews, very simplistic graphics are used to show some of Wilcox’s more elaborate and unfinished ideas. I thought this was an excellent idea from the director because not only does it show more about Wilcox rather than telling, but it also heavily contributes to the simple and almost childish tone of the film. The story already had a sort of fantastical tone to it, and I felt that the graphic drawings were able to put the viewer into the somewhat childish mind of Wilcox while continuing to progress the story.
Along with using graphics, the short film makes an excellent use of music. Adding music to a film can either make or break a story, and in this case, it definitely made it. During the A-Roll interviews, there was no sound other than what the people were saying. I thought that this was a good use of sound because considering the topic being discussed, the audio was all ready interesting and music could have detracted from it. However, whenever the previously mentioned graphics were showing, very quirky and happy music would start to play. I think this really enhanced both the mood as well as the displayed graphic. The music was also all the same throughout the short piece, which created a uniformity for the film.
A&B Roll
Blog Post 4
Pets Gone Wild from New York Times
Through this 12 minute informative news piece, the Retro Report team shows how the invasive Burmese python has taken over the everglades in Florida. I thought it was very interesting how video was used to tell this piece. A lot of the video used was from previous broadcasts, home videos from people in Florida, and even videos from remembered pop culture events with Burmese pythons in them. At first I thought this seemed a little lazy, but then I realized how it showed that the Burmese python infestation is a huge problem that has been going on for years. Other video included A-roll interviews and B-roll of the snakes and the everglades. Considering the massive size of these snakes, there were many of the shots that creatively showed the size of the snakes and were really impressive. One shot that I liked in particular was a low angle shot of this person holding the snake. The snake looks right at the camera and almost swivels into it. For the viewer, it somewhat looked like the snake was coming after you and was going to come out of the screen and onto your lap.
Along with the composition of the shots in this video, I think the video included a lot of diverse sources that added to the depth of the story.There were some sources who have been out of the scene working on removing the snakes safely, and other sources who thought the snakes should be completely killed off. One important news source was a past broadcast that told the story of a Burmese python that had slithered into a bedroom and had killed a baby. This source seemed to be the climax of the video and it made the viewer actually care about the story. At first it does not seem like these snakes are causing that huge of a problem, but after that past broadcast, viewers actually want to see how this problem is being fixed.
Near the beginning of the story, a data map was brought onto the screen that showed both where the pythons were most found in Florida, and also the increase of pythons over a certain number of years. I thought the use of these visual data maps did an excellent job in providing context for where in the world this is happening as well as how big of a problem it has become. Overall, I thought the video did an excellent job telling a story that surely not a lot of people know much about. With excellent shot composition, use of past news footage and multiple sources, the video got viewers involved and caring about how the Burmese python infestation is handled.
Work in Progress
Assignment 6 Video Sequencing
Blog Post 2
Living in the Shadows on david-campbell.org
In Living in the Shadows: China’s Internal Migrants, producer David Campbell and photographer Sharron Lovell document three impoverished families in Shanghai China. The piece is largely made up of photos and includes a translating voice over for almost all of the video. Where China is known for its large population and its metropolis cities, this 15 minute photo piece shows the challenges and poverty that millions of undocumented immigrants face on a daily basis.
With the excellent use of voice overs, the video is able to masterfully tell a very intimate and unknown story. While initially the story begins with text providing background information, the story then unfolds with a bit of Chinese, and then the rest in voice over. For pieces that have foreign language, much of the emotion and feeling of the speaker can be lost in the translation to English. However, the speaker in this story was very engaging and made the viewer feel as if they were having a conversation with the immigrant. On the other hand, the one issue that the voice over caused was a lack of natural sound. There were many pictures of people working on construction sites or going to markets to sell things. If these pictures were accompanied by natural sound, it would have better brought the viewer into the scene and also would have broken up the story.
When covering a broad topic such as immigrants and poverty, it is important to focus the topic and make it more personal. This piece centers on three families, thus allowing the viewer to make a connection with them and genuinely care about the story they are telling. There was also a diversity in the subjects, both including men and women. In centering the topics, this allowed for a large variety of photos and scenarios of the subjects. The photographer allows the viewer to see both the person’s work life, as well as where they sleep and their family life. This diversity adds depth to the piece and makes the viewer feel like they better know the subject.
Natural Sound: Tombstone
Blog Post 1
In this short, 8 minute multimedia piece, Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper take their viewers to Silicon Valley where a group of businessmen have started their own fight club. After a long day of work, the typical person may relax with their family, or go out to their favorite watering hole for a beer, but instead, these men choose to fight it out with hard and aggressive punches to the face, stomach, you name it.
The film makes excellent use of its surrounding environment by providing the viewer with a large variety of shots. At the start of the short piece, I was confused for as to why I was seeing business signs such as Google and Yahoo in a piece that I assumed would show me people fighting one another. But after getting more into the piece, I found that these companies made for excellent establishing shots. Where just shots of the men fighting would have been interesting, the business logos provided two different sides of the men. I also really liked how the comparison and contrast was made between what goes on when the men are fighting and when they are working. The quick cuts and sounds showed how to the men, the workplace can often feel like a fighting ring, where when they are actually fighting, that is when they feel stress relief.
Along with the variety of shots, the piece excellently used natural sound. In the scenes where the men were fighting, that was scene that many people have not seen before and was extremely foreign. However, with the use of natural sound with the sounds of people punching and grunting, the viewer was able to feel as if they were actually in the ring fighting. The directors also used natural sound in an interesting way of comparing hitting buttons on a phone or calculator to punches being thrown. The natural sound really helped tie together the polar opposites of the men’s lives and enable for a deeper connection between the fighting and work to shine through.
Tessa Patterson 