Macken McDonald

PechaKucha

Even though my PechaKucha was the first thing I made for this class, it still ended up being one of my favorite end products. The assignment lent itself really well to the film I would go on to work with all semester, Jojo Rabbit, with its simple guidelines; one minute of audio from the film played under 10 six-second clips. I choose the last minute of audio from the movie because I thought the music was very nice and the buildup would add a cool effect to whatever clips I chose. I believe I was right, as the music really highlighted the beauty and heart of the movie.

Multiscreen

For my multiscreen, I was at first very unsure of which of my classmates’ source materials I wanted to work with. None of them stood out to me in regards to how well I thought it would pair with Jojo, so I eventually, flipped my approach and chose what I thought would provide the most contrast with it; Midsommar. The result was pretty close to my intended effect. While scrolling through Midsommar as I had never seen it, I found myself captivated by the sound of the opening sequence and chose it as the audio I worked with. I also applied two more guidelines for myself, 1) only to use shots with no dialogue and 2) not to use and diegetic sound from the clips. Through this I wanted to keep attention firmly on the audio, which, paired with the mostly slow and static shots, created an almost hypnotic effect. Since the audio transitions from the singing to the abrupt sound of the phone, I wanted to us a shot that matched the level of surprise. Ultimately, I wish I kept just the music, as I think the jarring effect detracts from the rest of the video, but I still appreciate what I was going for.

Desktop Documentary

The main parameter of this assignment was to use the desktop documentary format to answer a question about our film. Given that I had been working with it in class for weeks at that point and already knew a good amount of trivial knowledge, behind the scenes information, or fun facts about it, I figured there was little question I could ask about Jojo that I wouldn’t already know the factual answer to. Because of this, I figured my best option would be to make my video more a performance than a real display of my discovery. I chose to approach the video with something I had wanted to showcase but hadn’t found the opportunity to; to talk about just how much range is in the movie’s tone. Incorporating three clips per descriptor, I showed how the movie is weird yet funny, dark yet light, and heart wrenching yet heart warming. Since I had been building up to the idea of focusing on the director Taika Waititi himself, I also thought the answer to my questions provided a good opportunity to make a quick joke about how he was responsible for the quality and the impressive range of tone.

Video Essay Response

For a while, I had a hard time coming up with an idea for what I wanted to do with my essay response, so much so that I couldn’t pick a video until only about a week before we were to have our first drafts ready. Since I knew my final video was going to be about Waititi’s authorship, I eventually realized it might be beneficial to watch and respond to a video about another comedic author. I settled on Nerdstalgic’s video essay “The Inevitable Downfall of the Judd Apatow Comedy,” because it was the most interesting video I found on Judd Apatow, one of if not the most influential comedic filmmaker of the 21st century. I also picked it because I disagreed with a fair amount of their argument, so I knew I would have a lot to say. While I like the script I came up with and stand by my points, this video was far and away the most difficult for me to make. I’m sure a large part of it is being too self-critical, but I just don’t feel like I utilized the video essay format to the best extent that I could have. With the exercises, it was very easy to be visually creative by working with the parameters, but since this assignment was so open, all I could think of doing was recording my argument and putting clips on top of it. I still think I constructed a good argument and selected visuals that both engage the viewer and reinforce my points, I just wish I could’ve thought of a way to make it more visually interesting.

Final Videographic Essay

I knew what direction I was going to take my final video essay in essentially when I picked Jojo as my film to work with. Watching it again before we got started with our exercises, I was struck by how moving the film and all its aspects are, and reminded why Taika Waititi is my favorite director. Then, when thinking about some his other works that I’ve seen, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Our Flag Means Death, and Thor: Ragnarok, I realized how much their styles are in line with one another. Knowing this was because of Waititi, I wanted to spend my energy for my final video on analyzing just what makes the movies so stylistically similar and what he manages to say across each of his works. Realizing I was describing authorship, I used this as the analytical backdrop of my video, choosing to look at how he employs the found family trope, his color palette, anti authority sentiments, and emotional sucker punches across some of his work. I had a similar mental issue in my approach to my final video as I did my response in that I found it challenging to think of ways to make it more interesting than a simple recitation of my argument, but I feel like I overcame this issue with much greater success this time around. Using multiscreen and on-screen text, I think I ended up with a visually engaging video that supports my arguments, and I’m very proud of the final product.