Multiscreen:

The parameters behind this assignment left me wondering how I would be able to show an effective multiscreen video because I felt like I tried to focus on the similarities between the films (as I thought the point of multiscreen was to emphasize what they had in common or notable differences). You can see that as the video progresses I started to get comfortable with exploring the different ways to use multiscreen – realizing that, like many videographic forms, multiscreen can serve a purpose outside similarities. I had a great time messing around with the different ways the screens could take up the space it was in. I thought one of the best parts was being able to select a scene I thought was interesting and try to in some way to highlight that.

Epigraph:

Upon hearing about the epigraph exercise I thought it would be a simple task but I think this was one of the most challenging assignments that I had to do. I tried to have some sort of comedic timing with the text on screen but in my opinion I don’t think it was very effective especially after the first time it came in. I found myself struggling to find other sources of creativity with what my text should be (the content of it, font, color) Seeing what other people presented I liked that the text was not related to the piece of media they chose to use and it did not necessarily fit the space they were working with, so, I wish I had done the same but it was a learning experience that I enjoyed after it was done.

Deformation 1:

From what I can remember this was not a popular exercise but I had a lot of fun with it. It did feel a little too close to “tiktok trends” but I think being able to “alter” a piece of media that doesn’t really relate to multi-screen and text on screen helped me find ways to make a point in my form. My favorite part was trying to make the screen move in the same way the audio was. It also produces an interesting foreshadowing effect (if you have seen fleabag I think the ending part of the deformation is notable). It was definitely hard to make things precise and the final product is not exactly what I imagined it to be – it still shows the effort I put into the deformation. 

Response:

I had a hard time finding a video I wanted to respond to but when my friend recommended I find something Sex and the City related – it became a whole can of worms that I could not put back in. I chose the “Sex and the City: Love at the end of history” because I really enjoyed what the creator was talking about but as soon as she said something I did not agree with, all of that washed away. I produced a response video that I think is not a traditional response video. I ended up going through a lot of ideas but ultimately I decided on focusing on what I didn’t like (I talk about that in the beginning of the response) and then I shift into doing my own “research” to show that if some further surface level digging was done the creator of the video could have gotten the same idea of Miranda as I did. I ended the video with another creator’s opinion on Miranda (that matched mine) – ending the response with a video I wanted to hear. It was definitely one of the more difficult assignments because the voice over became trickier as I continued. 

Videographic essay:

This was definitely one of my favorite assignments to do as I found picking apart Brian De Palma’s Sisters to be satisfying. One of the things I had a difficult time with was deciding whether I wanted to make my videographic form noticeably different from De Palmas, (and though  in a way I did end up making some obvious changes) I chose to try and blend my form with his. The video essay I hope shares exactly what I am trying to say – which is that both main women in the movie were severely overlooked and undermined by male presence in the film. I did emphasize this more with Grace because although she is undermined by many, her overlooking caused her to lose some of her sanity at the end. The videographic forms I pursued in my video also had much intention behind it but I believe it would still be difficult for those who haven’t seen the movie to grasp the overall concept of it. Additionally, the video exercises that I wrote about previously really helped me shape my videographic essay as it helped narrow down the direction I wanted to go into. 

For the Multiscreen, I had a lot of fun messing around with the clips. Although they were time consuming, I enjoyed aligning the chase scene from Barbie with Robin Hood. One of my favorite techniques I learned while using this project is how to quickly crop a video. It made this assignment run much more smoothly once I learned how to crop. It was cool to see how many effects Premeire had that you’re able to tamper with. Side note: Youtube messed with the quality of a lot of my videos so feel free to just look at them in our Google Drive lol.

Robin Hood Pecha Kucha

I’m not sure if it’s because this was our first assignment or that I spent an ungodly amount of hours on it, but the Pecha Kucha is by far my favorite project. It was difficult to find the perfect minute-long audio and six perfect clips to align with it, but I did it! Learning how to quickly crop each video and learning the fundamentals of Premeire made this project more bearable. I really enjoyed how we agreed as a collective with this type of restrictive project, its bound to be messy, but that’s where the creativity comes in.

I started off with the Response Essay with a good attitude and a solid plan. Although I still enjoy the topic off my essay, there were a lot of technical errors that I had to work with that made it a little less exciting for me. Once I finally finished my final draft to present in class- you guys saw it- there were so many errors that I didn’t realize were in my final draft until I heard it. The audio was the most difficult part. I appreciated the feedback given, and the positive comments, which I later tried to fix for my final draft. But after attempting to create a more concrete final, I felt a little defeated. I didn’t like my voice still (which is why I didn’t do a voiceover in my final), and the outcome of the draft. I felt like I took on a big project with big ideas and didn’t deliver what I’d hope to deliver. But I hope to look back on this project with a little more experience and confidence to polish and finish it.

The Abstract Trailer is also one of my favorite projects. When deciding what to talk about, it was Jason who thought of the similarities between the two mediums, which caught my attention. I’ve watched The Bear but stopped on episode 6. But it was episode 7 that had every element I saw in Boiling Point. And during the introduction of The Bear (the audio used for the trailer), it conveyed every theme between the two worlds, and that fascinated me. Finding clips for the trailer felt like I strucked a goldmine. The two were literally the same: characters, interactions, and shots. So using the audio and combining the two clips, as well as typing the audio, was really fun to do. It felt like a huge accomplishment to get it done. To be honest, I feel a more proud of the trailer than my final project. I felt more in tuned with it.

Creating this final project definitely took a toll on me. I felt that after my Response Essay and Abstract Trailer that I used all my juices. I also felt that because both films were so similar, that there were so many things to discuss! So it felt overwhelming and I felt like my draft was going astray. But I created a draft and figured out what specfic topics I wanted to talk about.
I didn’t like my voice in my Response Essay, but I also felt like I had a lot to talk about, so I decided to do a Desktop video. Even after my first attempt in our earlier Desktop project and knowing how difficult it is to manage, I wanted challenge myself since I wanted to be picky. I will say that IT WAS SO HARD. I realized comparing two minutes is not for the weak. That’s twice the clips and management.
I don’t regret doing it because there is so much thought and planning going into it, on top of it making it seem so effortless, so I will definitely be giving myself credit for it. I enjoyed the style I went for because I was able to convey my ideas on top of it looking visually pleasing. I do feel like there was more I could have done to elaborate my ideas, but I’m not mad at what I delivered. This project continued to help me improve my desktop skills- although, I feel like I have a long way to go- along with every other skill I learned from this course. And I’m excited to continue creating more in my filmmaking/academic journey.

I was especially proud of my multiscreen video because I tried to put together two films in a way that told a different story. I intended to make it look like crew was shooting the film 1917. The extra shots of the crew behind the scenes added to this effect. After scrolling through the film After life, I saw the theater scene and knew immediately that I would have to superimpose a 1917 scene onto the movie screen to make it seem like those characters were watching the film that the others were making.

This might be the assignment I’m the proudest on. For a long time I didn’t know what I wanted to say with the film Minari. It didn’t help that I was confused about the specifications and deadline of this assignment. Despite this, I dove deep into the world of Minari and found something that can be relatable to anybody. I paid close attention to the editing. At times, premiere was shaky, but I made sure that I was happy with each edit.

This was one of the more difficult assignments in my opinion. I chose three films. I was going to check out all three films from Davis, but they only had one. This took time away from editing, which caused lots of stress. It wasn’t until later that I was able to rip these films and throw them into premiere. The video essay I was responding to was long, which meant that it had a wealth of information, but I also meant that I would take longer to organize my thoughts on it while combining it with my experience as a child. The rush hour movies are different than how I remembered them. Now that I understand the concepts in the film, it strikes as dirtier and less wholesome. This assignment allowed to look closer at these films and understand the context in which they were situated.

The video is having some copyright claim issues so you may need to navigate to Youtube in order to Watch. I’m really proud of how my final project turned out. Starting from just examining a few scenes and sparked by a Youtube comment I read on Sean’s Monologue to Will, I decided to focus on the simplicity of Good Will Hunting. It is incredible to me how few of the main tricks and attention grabbing tactics that the film has, yet is still such an incredible movie to watch because of phenomenal acting, and writing. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon fully deserved the stardom and credits that came their way after this film because they did an incredible job. For my film, I used the trailer that I’d shot earlier to orient the viewer to the film and present my thesis and the proceeded to break it downing each of the separate subtopics to back up my argument. As a filmmaker, I think this film should show that creating beautiful and captivating cinema is available to everyone and that you need not be hamstrung by fear and believe in what you can accomplish.

Using one of the video essays that I had responded to in my video commentaries, I felt that the authors while on the right track could have gone deeper and grounded their argument in a different framework. In my revised version I have cleaned up the lip flap, rearranged my introduction, made more clear distinctions between my own words and the video essay I’m responding to, and overall cleaned up the appearance and audio quality of my video essay. I really am proud of the chart I created as well as my inclusion of outside sources that I felt helped to enhance my argument. It was a challenge making a video essay in this format with a film that was so dialogue heavy but I feel like I worked around it well to make a final project I am happy with.

While not the first one to play on the classic ending of The Usual Suspects, I think that the screen recording style where I was “investigating” the film itself was pretty funny and a good idea to explore in this video. Yes, I did spell Kobayashi as Kobashi the entire time but we’ll just ignore that part. Overall, I think I did a really good job matching the vibe of the film and the suspense that is created by the reveal. Plus, I do believe that the question of whether or not Soze is really Verbal is pretty cool, especially since Verbal is the main narrator and we learn is completed unreliable, it is plausible that Kobayashi is someone completely different, maybe even Soze (or Kobashi).

For my Epigraph I wanted to find a quote that sealed with the theme of mystery and concealment that Verbal so brilliantly pulls off in The Usual Suspects. I recalled that in the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene he had a chapter talking about the advantages of hiding your motives and intentions. I then was able to find this passage and copy and pasted it into Google docs where I chopped it into shorter sections to be read individually. I then chose to use the scene where we see Verbal transform into Soze; for I feel it highlights this quality the best and didn’t require any additional editing. The finish product to me, almost comes off as one of the short form “edits” you might see on Tik Tok or Instagram Shorts but with a much darker twist as Kaise Soze shoots down his enemies.

While the Usual Suspects is more thought of as a mystery or action thriller, it also has some incredibly funny one liners. With my deformation, because I feel that highlight lends to something slightly less serious, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite lines that add a sense of levity to a movie about murdering witnesses. One of the most tricky elements was trying to balance the different vocal levels so that you can hear each of the voices enough but none are too strong and drown out the others. One of the cool facts I learned was that Benicia Del Toro actually came up with the voice for Fenster when he learned his character was going to die early and did very little to the overall plot.

I was smitten with Desktop Documentaries after seeing “My Mullholland”, “The Pain of Others”, and I particularly loved “With a Camera in Hand, I was Alive”. This format lends itself so well to videos about the nature of the internet and I was really impressed by how “With a Camera” used YouTube videos/internet searches so stragically to create this aesthetically awesome bricollage of media and the author’s own desktop features/personal style. I tried to incorporate this hybrid flavor into this Desktop exercise. My favorite part of creating this was Jamie Lee Curtis’s third-eye folder revealing her video interview — it’s one of my favorite JLC moments and I think she’s right on the money about horror fans being the most fun. Overall, I really enjoy this type of video and have a new appreciation for how tedious these are to make.

The Epigraph exercise is when I feel like I got my landlegs on Premiere — working with text on screen helped me understand design choices/timing and this was when I felt like I was able to grasp the role of the video essay author as a conducter of audience attention. This exercise was also when I began my semester-long love affair with the Serif font family, so I harbor a lot of fondness for this video. The dissolve effect also entered my toolkit during this exercise and I’ve been using it left, right, and center since. Regarding the message of the video, this Atwood poem had been in the back of my head when choosing Halloween and working with this film on the first few exercises so it was great to bring this text to the fore. Using “In the Secular Night” in tandem with this section of Halloween (which, to me, is the most powerful scene in the film) helped me understand how two works can speak to one another and called me to think critically about how to best convey this complementary relationship on screen.

I had a lot fun with getting to work with Miss Hannigan in this Videographic Response. She’s probably my favorite children’s movie character, and this assignment showed me how video essay occupies an analytically playful space somewhere between a fan edit and a peer-reviewed article. This is not to say that video essay is strictly fannish and celebratory, it’s a hybrid of what interests the author most in a particular work and what these traits can mean more broadly, a way to augment the original with an argument specific to the creator’s tastes and beliefs. So in “Hag Comedy”, I enjoyed getting to spotlight Miss H and relating her to a lineage of older, childless queer villains. I wish I would have had more time to further elaborate on Annie‘s relationship to the 1980s (I feel like the clip of Reagan is too quick and underdeveloped but I felt like I either needed to add five more minutes relating Annie‘s 1920s deigetic world to Reagan-era politics) and to give a more developed explanation of the legacy of Miss Hannigan in drag (the montage at the end feels a little rushed and doesn’t identify the performers). Overall, I am proud of this video and I got a lot more comfortable doing voice-over, interspersing clips from other sources, and developing an argument quickly and cohesively. To me, this video is a good handhold into Miss Hannigan’s characterization and I would love to revisit and develop the topics depicted in this video in future works.

I have no idea how I arrived at this being my final topic but I’m so glad it played out this way. I love how landlines look in movies and love that I got the chance to explore how they work as plot devices, tonal powerhouses, and extensions of a female character’s strength/anxiety. “Phone-Plex” feels like a successful scratch of tech in movies’ surface and I could have delved into how landlines function in horror movies so much further. I’m happy I chose When A Stranger Calls as a case study because despite the film’s all-over-the-place nature, it is an effective culmination of how the landline functions in horror movies. It draws on other horror movies like Halloween and Black Christmas to set a foundation for future thrillers like Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. If I had another year to work on this, I would have loved to exercised a curatorial approach to landlines and girls in horror movies in comparison with landlines and girls in comedies. One day!

This video taught me a lot about voice-over and audio mixing and challenged me to balance a conversational vs. academic tone. I don’t think I fully mastered this blend but I think I definitely took a step in the right direction. I really enjoyed crafting “Phone-Plex” and I’m looking forward to further developing these skills during my Jterm project, a video essay on movies about babysitters.

For the Supercut, I remembered choosing to compile a supercut of Levi, the robot/ comedic relief within Scavenger’s Reign. I was fairly successful in my execution. It was a short exercise that allowed me to flex my editing muscles in a fun way.

For one of my Deformation videos, I had a lot of fun experimenting and messing around on the timeline with the footage. I went into the project trying to find the line between completely breaking the footage, and editing in a way that would be too tame. And so I remember when I first had the thought of going on to adobe after effects for the first one. I also remember how I was also a little bit confused about how to “properly” deform a piece of media, before learning just how much room I had. I think that the visual example in class as well as talking to classmates outside of class were the pieces that helped me reach the point of confidence that I needed to reach.

Create a video of exactly 60 seconds consisting of precisely 10 video clips from a single film, each lasting precisely 6 seconds, assembled with straight cuts. Audio should be one continuous sequence from the same film with no edits. Include a 3 second black slug at the beginning and end of the assignment.

The Petcha-Kutcha was the other warmup exercise that we were given at the start of Class. I remember having the same level of excitement as I did for the Supercut, wanting to stretch my creative muscles. I think that this project actually allowed me to think more creatively in comparison to the Supercut. I wanted each clip to feel intentional. I felt pretty proud of the job I did. It was a fun project, and I think that it serves as a good editing practice for those who are still getting a feel for Premiere.

Ok, so my biggest gripe with this project had nothing to do with the project itself, and more with my process. I had so much of an issue that I made a joke about it in the video. I had struggled for so long to find Buzz, and after seeing DefunctLand’s video, and getting this assignment, I was ready to go on an equally long search. That being said I am pretty happy with the video, as I think that it builds on the video that I am responding to, while also being entertaining enough to stand on its own.

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Produce a video essay of at least 5 minutes length that conveys original ideas about some aspect of film and media. The video should display sophisticated understanding of the possibilities of videographic form, using sound and images to both convey ideas and create a compelling aesthetic experience. All sources should be cited, and credits should convey the work of all who contributed to the project (knowingly or unknowingly). Please indicate a copyright status for the video (such as Creative Commons).

This video was the final boss of assignments. And I think that first and foremost, I should not that I’m incredibly proud of the video that I was able to produce. I think that after making the abstract trailer, I felt a bit lost in terms of direction. Not only did talking with Prof. Jason help, but I think that the more that I began to actually explore the subject, and watch potential associated Medias, the more engaging and accessible it became to talk about the topic. Now, that should all be a given, but I genuinely think it’s noteworthy. There’s a big gap between how many people could participate in the conversation about Afro-Surrealism, if only it were more accessible for more people. And I think that’s what this video became. More than anything, I think that I was able to convey my own ideas surrounding how to best digest and understand Afro-Surrealism, all while making it a fairly entertaining and educational experience. The video itself isn’t copywritten, but I’m almost certain that it could fall under fair use?

I really loved the deformation assignment. I feel like it was the first time I realized that video essays can be more artistic and experiential instead of just straight up analytical. I liked getting to play around with Point Break, one of my all time movies, and just seeing how I could deform it to change the audience’s experience watching it. This deformation in particular I really liked because in my reading of the film Johnny Utah is gay for Bodhi and this scene is right before Utah first meets Bodhi when he is surfing with his ‘real’ love interest Tyler. I thought splitting the screen and flipping one half of it was really interesting because then it shows their divergence and really highlights their incompatibility. I think this assignment really changed my style for the rest of the semester (and for my thesis as well). I just really liked thinking about video essays as experimental art. I think it really helped me get away from the more traditional podcast type video essay style.

This particular assignment was probably one of my most frustrating this whole semester. I just could not get the text box to scroll the way I wanted it to and I had yet to really figure out fonts. But not being able to do what I wanted to do made me have to get more creative with the way I presented the text and I think it turned out pretty good. Again I think it helped me get out of the box of what I thought a video essay was and helped me think about not just the visuals but the text also being art. I can see a pretty direct influence of this assignment on my final video essay, not just with the red text and the weird placement but also the importance of timing. I also realized with this assignment that in a more exploratory and less analytical essay the words themselves don’t even really matter because its the symbiosis with the words and video and audio that actually matters.

I was quite proud of my pecha kucha. Off the bat I knew exactly what I was doing my super cut on and I had no clue at all about the pecha kucha. And then, I chose all my clips before even thinking about what audio I was going to use and really struggled to find a good and long enough clip to use. But then the audio I finally chose ended up syncing really well, especially at the end with the hand cuff clip. Looking back there are definitely some things I would do differently. I initially just chose clips to kind of try to present the actual plot of the movie and then I rearranged them to make more sense. So if you watch the video it does kind of illustrate the arc of Utah and Bodhi’s friendship even though it is not in chronological order at all. If I did it again I don’t think I would try to give it any kind of plot or story at all. Watching it now, I am proud of it but I also don’t think it makes much sense if you haven’t seen the movie and I would love to be able to let it go and have this video be able to function by itself.

I am really proud of my final video essay. It really does feel like an accumulation of all the skills I have learned over the course of the semester. I also think it is a great example of my own personal style. I think some elements of my style are obvious in my response video as well, lots of black screens, quite silly and unserious, and much more experiential than analytical, but I think they really shine here. When we showed our trailers for the final project I remember Jason saying that I had a very unfinished aesthetic but that it was good because it came across as purposeful. I feel like I really took that and ran with it. I feel very proud because I don’t know if it’s really all that good but I genuinely don’t think anyone else could have ever made it. It is just completely my voice and my style so I think that is pretty awesome.

I am also happy with the mix of exploratory and analytical. I had struggled making the analytical parts fun and interesting in other assignments but I think I made good analytical and comparative points here while keeping it very lighthearted and fun. I also think I did a pretty good job at managing audiences attention. I feel like it’s fairly obvious what the viewer is supposed to be focusing on at any point in the video which both makes it (hopefully) not confusing but also I think helps keep up the silly tone throughout even the slightly more serious parts of the video. This is probably the only project where I don’t think there’s anything I would really do differently, except maybe messing with the timing a bit more, like I think it says exactly what I want to be saying exactly the way I want to be saying it.

My only big criticism of this project is that I think it’s a bit too late for it. The tide has shifted on the Keanu question and I don’t think he really needs to be defended these days. It was quite difficult to find quotes criticizing him, even some of the ones I ended up using go on to say that regardless of his “wooden” acting he has a movie star quality that makes him awesome. So kind of the whole concept of this video is flawed because there are very few haters these days so my take is really not very exciting. If only I could have made this in 1995, then it could have maybe been relevant. Oh well.

My magnum opus. I am proud of how this turned out. I am a huge fan of sound editing and a massive fan of Kurosawa so I wanted to see how Kurosawa uses his sound in film, and I found that the answer was an emphasis on silence. I chose Ikiru because it’s my favorite movie of all time and because I had that clip of Watanabe confronting the mob on my mind when I came up with the idea. However, it was through this exercise that I understood the purpose of the silence in Ikiru and why it’s so effective in Kurosawa’s other films. It was fun putting my favorite films under a microscope, and I’m glad I came out of it with a better understanding of the film. 

I think the strong suits of the piece are the sound mixing between music, clips, and my voice, as I take pride in my ability to manipulate sound on a timeline. I also think that through my use of various sources, I can take Ikiru’s example of how sound is used and extend it as a way to further engage with Kurosawa’s other work. I think a slight criticism is that the first minute is not incredibly tied into my overall point, but I just had so much fun with it that I couldn’t get rid of it. 

By farrrrrrr the assignment I struggled with the most. I think that I had such such a difficult time choosing an essay to respond to that the way I responded was not as fleshed out as it could be. I felt that I had an argument and that it was a pretty solid one, but I think if I had given it a lot more time it could have been a bit more. That being said, I still put a good amount of effort and thought into it and I’m proud of it. 

Silence of the Lambs are and Cure two films that are very very different from each other, but they’ve both found a place in my heart which made me think that a comparison of the two was worth doing and I found it to be interesting. I think that It was interesting comparing two types of horror, a genre I’m not the most intimate with.  

In this essay I compared the two ways that the antagonists of the two films were introduced, and I think that my findings were interesting. I found that the different introductions relate to the inherent differences of the protagonists: Lecter is an overwhelming alien villain and Mamiya is supposed to be a representation and instigator of our own intrusive thoughts. 

The supercut I got bim bam slap. But, I struggled with the Pecha Kucha. It was difficult to find a piece of audio that I felt could work with the rest of the film, and it was a bit of a pain transcribing the subtitles. But, in the end, I think I found something special about Don Pants. I felt like using the clip to describe one of his infatuations and putting that over clips describing his other really revealed so much about his character. 

Oh my god, there were so many happy accidents with this Pechakucha. The audio just lined up so perfectly in so many places and I felt like this really gave insight into how Yuuasa wanted to structure the two parallel love stories Don Pants goes through. I think I initially didn’t really understand the point of the assignment until after I had done it, but by the end, it really felt like an activity worth the effort. 

I initially had wanted to do this same clip over a reading of David and Goliath, but I felt that it was a bit too dry and didn’t capture the somewhat goofy feel of the drinking scene. I feel like big iron was a perfect song to choose as it was that iconic showdown I was looking for and maintained a bit of levity.

That being said, I wanted to read it with a different vibe than the original song. I felt like the ornate music along with the serious tone contrasted nicely with the goofy visuals and subject matter of the clip.

I feel like this exercise in particular was fun for me as it provided a good bit of practice with audio editing and required me to use some of my acting chops. Moreover, it lead me to a better understanding of how to pace my editing and voice over for future projects.

One of the sillier pieces of work, but still something I found interesting looking back on. In this video essay, I try to explore how love and Marriage are intertwined. What drew me to it was Kierkegaard’s views on love and marriage and how he was very much against intertwining the two. Through my research, I found that he was very much not alone in this sentiment, which I feel was insightful into what I had been taught as a child. 

Looking back on all of my work, I think this was the stepping stone for my technical abilities. I feel like I learned so much about keyframing and a variety of other premier techniques. I really look back on this assignment fondly. Making it, I was not so fond of it. I felt the recording process to be very frustrating. But, now that I’ve done it, I imagine myself doing it again for some passion projects in the future. 

My claim about humor still stands. I feel like  I resorted to humor for the last bit because it did feel like a good way to ease the tension of being revealing. I felt that this was the project where I felt the most vulnerable.

As the very first exercise we completed, Supercut enabled me to first experience watching a film in Premiere, and with an aim, i.e. finding all the shots with a shared element. I had watched the film After Life (1998) twice. Nonetheless, I did not realize until this time, by juxtaposing the clips together, that the motif of stairs, which literally frames the film as it begins and ends with two clerks ascending the stairs, signals the crucial transitions in the relationships between characters and in the clerks’ understanding of the meaning of their job, that is, to help the dead recreate a happy memory with which they will live their eternity. This significant role of stairs, which makes perfect sense as stairs are commonly used to illustrate the ascending or descending to the afterlife, would have completely escaped me had I not practiced Supercut. Thus I really appreciate the exercise as the introduction for me into Premiere, and into all its power.

The Voiceover exercise is particularly meaningful to me because there I learnt for the first time about keyframe. I was able to grasp the mechanism a little bit and apply it to my video, in which I read aloud an excerpt from “The Adventure of a Photographer,” a short story by Italo Calvino. The audio connects to the visual in the sense that the girl, Shiori, is taking photos of the living world in order to recreate memories of the dead. But Kore-eda’s camera language is subtle, documentary-like, and tends not to place the character in the foreground of the frame. To emphasize the motif of photographing, therefore, I zoomed in to the photos on the wall of Shiori’s bedroom and to every shot of her taking photos, and increased the volume of the diegetic sound of pressing the camera button. Besides, I edited my voiceover to both match the pacing of the visual and to blend in with the original audio, so that despite its different contents from the film scene, the voiceover does not seem too out of place.

Before the Multiscreen exercise, I never thought of comparing After Life with The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. The former unfolds a fantastical setting in an incredibly realistic manner, whereas the latter takes advantage of the anime form, which is inherently “unrealistic,” and illustrates an ordinary night with wild imagination. This contrast in style becomes distinct when the scenes of two young female characters walking on the street are juxtaposed on the screen. Though both set at night, Kore-eda’s scene is mostly dark, whereas Yuasa’s appears full of color. The brightness of the scenes differ so much that when I created an overlap, I had to lower the latter’s opacity to 6% for the former to be visible. Further, Kore-eda films Shiori through the crowd, and as we would observe people in real life, her figure is often obscured by the miscellaneous surroundings. Yuasa, however, centers the frame on the girl walking alone, deliberately rendering the streets empty to call attention to her figure and to the dazzling sceneries. 

When editing, I was very concerned about matching my cuts with the beats of the music. Looking back now, however, I realize that especially in the beginning, when I use full screen to introduce two films, some clips rush by too fast, and the fact that they match the beats do not help. How long every shot should stay on screen is always worth pondering upon.

After watching the video “La La Land: Using Color,” I realized that Wong Kar-wai uses complementary colors blue and yellow, in particular, to reflect the tension between the protagonists in the film happy together (1997). In the crucial scene which marks the downturn of their relationship, Ho Po-Wing wears a yellow jacket signifying his dandy character and moves incessantly, wanting to break free from the relationship, whereas Lai Yiu-Fai stares quietly at the blue lamp, desiring yet wondering whether they can ever reach the waterfall on it, the destination as a symbol of harmonious love, which they set off for together at the beginning of the film, but failed to find their way. 

I do not aim at a thorough analysis, but at immersing the audience in the poetic ambience the film creates. Thus, I use subtitled clips and only a few (after revision, even fewer) texts on screen for the colors’ symbolic role to speak for itself. I also make the texts on screen appear at a slow pace to signify to the readers that the visual from the film, rather than my words, are the real emphasis of this video. By the same token, I present the end of my argument as a single word, “alone,” at the center of the screen and have it linger for unusually long, so that the audience may realize I have reached my conclusion; the film enjoys all the screen space now. 

I have always found the title of happy together ironic. Although it contains two reunions—one in memory, one in the present time of the film—the protagonists end up being forever separated. In search of reasons for such failed reunion, I noticed Lai Yiu-Fai’s monologues by which he informs the audience of feelings and thoughts he does not tell Ho Po-Wing, his partner. Struck by this contrast, I use multiscreen to find connections between what Lai tells us, and what happens between him and Ho; except for the scene where they reunite (for the second time), the bottom screen shows exclusively Lai’s monologues as a reflection or an afterthought comment on the scenes in the upper screen. Despite that I change the audio volume, subtitles, and lingering time of the scenes to direct the audience’s attention, the amount of information can seem overwhelming especially to people who haven’t watched the film. But multiscreen is essential to mirror the breach between the protagonists; different personalities and the lack of communication defeat love. What has begun with reunion—“Let’s start over again”—ends with an escape from the other: “Po-Wing’s words still get to me, but this time I won’t let them.”

Final Video Essay

I was really proud of the trailer I created for class, where I combined two of my favorite historical films, Gladiator and 300, into a visually striking piece using masking, on-screen text, and carefully chosen music. The positive feedback from my classmates, who found the trailer captivating, inspired me to carry that same energy into my final video essay. Building on the trailer’s engaging style, I focused on analysing three key elements: colour grading, fight scenes, and sound design. These topics allowed me to organise my ideas clearly, providing both a helpful structure for myself and a clear framework for viewers to understand my arguments. By grouping my analysis into distinct sections, I ensured the essay remained cohesive and engaging, while also highlighting the fascinating comparisons between these two iconic films. This project deepened my appreciation for both movies and taught me the importance of structure in creating effective and compelling video essays.

Response Video Essay

After watching a video essay about the evolution of James Bond’s pre-title sequences, I was inspired to explore the changes in Bond movies through the lens of their theme songs, examining how these shifts reflect the character’s transformation over time. Earlier portrayals of Bond presented him as an idealised figure, charismatic and invincible but lacking emotional depth, and the theme songs reflected this simplicity with their focus on glamour and high-stakes adventure. Over time, the songs began to evolve, capturing a more complex Bond with greater emotional vulnerability, purpose, and a sense of consequence. This project became an opportunity to bring together everything I had learned throughout the semester, combining video, desktop movement, music, and narration into a cohesive piece. The biggest challenge was balancing all of these elements to create a final product that was engaging rather than overwhelming. Although I worried that I might have taken on too much, I believe I succeeded in producing a meaningful and entertaining project.

Multiscreen

Looking back at all the exercises we had been assigned over the course of this semester, the multiscreen project might have been the most enjoyable of them all. I decided to take advantage of the creative liberty, which opened the door for limitless possibilities, to produce an abstract piece of art. I thought it would be really cool to construct a musical composition, by cutting and stitching different sounds from 4 different pieces of media from our class. Whether it was the clinking of cups, a person speaking their name, or a gun being fired, it was essential that everything was as perfectly timed as possible. This requirement of precision made this project extremely time consuming. To be perfectly honest, when I was in the midst of editing, I didn’t really know where I was going. I kept discovering new sounds and layering them together, and eventually, it snowballed into something much larger. It was the kind of process where you could keep going endlessly, but I had to make the decision about when it felt like the right moment to stop. At the end of it all, the final result was truly unique and looking back at it, I would do it all over again because the effort was absolutely worth it.

Supercut

When I was first assigned the supercut project, I struggled to grasp its purpose. It initially felt unclear, as though we were just practicing how to stitch together various sections of media without a deeper meaning. As I tried to choose a theme, I found myself thinking back to the first time I watched Inglorious Bastards. One thing that stood out was the laughter that echoed throughout the film, so I decided to comb through the entire movie and compile every instance of laughter into a single sequence. At first, I wasn’t sure what this would achieve, but when I watched the finished supercut, I was pleasantly surprised. This seemingly simple exercise revealed something profound that I hadn’t noticed during my initial viewing. I realized that most of the laughter in the film is either forced or laced with tension. It often fills uncomfortable silences or acts as a mask for the characters’ true emotions. The laughter is a façade, a way to conceal fear, unease, or manipulation beneath the surface. This discovery was eye-opening and transformed the way I view the film. What had once seemed like a comedic layer became a tool for exploring the emotional complexities of the characters and the narrative. The project not only enhanced my understanding of the movie but also demonstrated how such a small detail, when examined in isolation, can unlock entirely new perspectives.

Desktop Video

The desktop project was a fascinating and unique form of video essay, unlike anything I had encountered before. However, as we discussed in class, it’s a bit like marmite—you either love it or hate it. What stood out to me about this project was how it shifted my approach; it felt less like an artistic endeavour, as with previous exercises, and more like a deep dive into research and analysis. For my project, I chose to focus on exploring the theme of violence in Quentin Tarantino’s films. This format pushed me to adopt a more argumentative tone, presenting my ideas with a level of critical scrutiny I hadn’t emphasised as much in past projects. While I was initially concerned that the slow, deliberate nature of typing might come across as mundane or boring, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my voice and personality still shone through, even without me literally narrating. In order to keep my audience engaged, I balanced how much on-screen typing I had by integrating desktop exploration and playing videos, otherwise I could see how the silence could drive someone crazy. Ultimately, it was a rewarding exercise that challenged my understanding of storytelling and communication in video essays.

Pechakucha

Multiscreen

Supercut

Videographic Response

Final Video Essay

Doing the exercise of a Pecha Kucha video was my introduction to editing and the first time I used premier. It allowed me to find scenes within the movie Scream that could go together to show what the movie was about with an audio that doesn’t necessarily belong with the specific clips. This was a nice introduction to editing because it wasn’t a complicated assignment and allowed me to begin with the basics of capturing a specific scene and place them in the order I wanted. Similarly with sound I was shown how changing the audio could change the mood of the scene and this exercise reminds me of creating a trailer that showcases what the movie is about without giving up the major plot points. I really enjoyed this exercise because although it was simple it showed me the different aspects of editing and what could be done to create an interesting video.

The deformation exercise was one I really enjoyed completing because it really highlighted how certain film elements (audio, staging, etc) are detrimental in creating the final shot. The idea of having all the kill scenes together was interesting to see because it demonstrates how some kills were more personal while others seemed more to be driven to induce fear or they stood in the way of getting to who Ghostface really wanted. Something I noticed is that his kill is drawn out, almost as if Ghostface has fun when instilling fear. Since this exercise was completed later in the semester I felt more comfortable using premier and it’s one of the videos I like more than other one’s previously done. It really showed me how repeated practice is essential for grasping a new skill and creating projects that don’t turn out how you desire isn’t a bad thing cause things don’t always come out as we envisioned. 

The desktop video was the most challenging for me and I’m not sure if I like or hate this technique. I found it challenging because I had to plan everything out so when I went to complete the action it seemed seamless. It took me multiple tries to get the clip correct because sometimes I felt like I took too long when searching for the content I wanted to show or when it came to text sometimes I went too slow and other times it felt like I didn’t have enough information to support the content I showed. It’s a lot more personal because you are the one dictating what is being searched/shown and that kind of establishes the connection between the creator and the audience. I think I would use the technique again because it’s different from the typical video essay and it’s an interesting technique to use.

When I watched the video “Queering the Slasher: Scream” I found it fascinating how there is such a connection between queerness and horror movies. Especially with older movies and the queer-coding they included within the characters because there was a lot of stigma around queerness and it being shown in films. So going back and watching Scream after learning of the connection between queerness and horror I could see how the relationship between the protagonists Billy and Stu could be taken as gay love story. However, Scream wasn’t a film I could see as a gay love story because of the actions taken by Billy, and so my analysis focused on how it was unrequited love.

In my video I use some scenes of them individually, to demonstrate their characteristics, but mostly focus on the scene of them together which best represents the love Stu had for Billy that wasn’t returned. The queerness of the characters was never in question, and I did agree with some of the points made in “Queering the Slasher”. And using voiceover allowed me to fully explain my thought process and explain why the actions committed in the scene did not line up with requited love. 

Since the first time I watched Casablanca I thought the narrative and filming style were incredible. It’s extremely engaging, with ever-evolving characters, and it’s a movie that’s left an impact in film history. It spoke to me because it follows a love story that doesn’t adhere to the traditional narrative of meeting, falling in love, overcoming a hardship and having a happy ending. It’s a lot more real and possibly reflective of relationships during the time of war. The ending is the most impactful as it’s bittersweet because the love interest don’t actually end up having a future together. When creating the video essay I used voice over and scenes that showed the evolution of their relationship. In doing so I was able to express why it spoke to me and the connection I have with the film. I like how this turned out because it’s a very casual tone and I think it’s able to capture the importance of the film to me. 

Unfortunately I’ve reached my monthly video limit for Vimeo and Youtube is blocking my videos on grounds of copyright so I may have to make this without the videos themselves embedded.

Epigraph: This was one of the first exercises where I really felt proud of the final product. I took the reveal of the alien in The Thing and overlaid it with a section of the Bible that I think is Revelation 6:8 (the one about the horsemen). I was particularly proud of how I worked in the ability to make certain words stay longer than others, by making them separate text boxes but making them line up with the rest of the text, and I feel that I was able to make that work really well with dramatic timing. I do think that having the text slide in from outside of the frame, while it helped satisfy the technical exploration of the assignment, was kind of goofy.

Multiscreen: For this one, I combined the scene of the assimilated Bennings in The Thing with the doppelganger encounter in Scavenger’s Reign. I did have to cut out a large chunk of the sequence from The Thing, as while it is a very good movie it is also a very slow movie. I do think that, in my effort to demonstrate and expand my keyframing abilities, this one was somewhat goofy in execution. Nevertheless, I do think the narrative parallels made between the alien doppelgangers and their deaths by fire were interesting, and I am proud of how I lined up the sound of lighting flares in The Thing with the ignition of the tent in Scavenger’s Reign.

Visual Deformation: This one is a deformation of the scene where Norris is revealed to be an alien in The Thing. This is likely my most simple work technically, as all I do is mirror one side of the screen along a vertical axis. However, I found that I liked it a lot, especially within the context of the ‘deformed’ nature of the aliens in the movie. Mirroring often not only made the creature more monstrous (sometimes giving it two heads, sometimes erasing the head in-between the monstrous parts), but it also helped to make the humans look monstrous, which was an interesting concept thematically.

The Christmas Colors of Fear: This is my video essay in response to “The Color of Fear“, which analyzed Green as a color associated with the supernatural and horror. I approached it through trying to explain the relative absence of green in The Thing, and the prevalence of the color red in exchange. My favorite part personally was the opening sequence, where I not only was able to imitate the original essay’s introduction, but was also able to break the 4th wall to explain the imitation and segue into the content of the response. The open-endedness of the essay was deliberate, as I felt unsatisfied at more-or-less copying the format of the original to explain the color red, and I felt that combining the color theories and creating a chicken-and-the-egg question about horror philosophy was a good way to leave the audience considering the principles laid out in the essay.

‘Behold, A Man!’: My final essay was focused on what I see as a connective theme between The Thing and Annihilation, that of human identity, imitation, and monstrousness. This was partially borne of convenience, as I was watching Annihilation for another class, and noticed some similarities between it and The Thing; both heavily feature mimics/doppelgangers that mutate humanity, and both have ambiguous endings where the last two survivors could very well not be human. In the essay, I present arguments for the mimics both as overtly monstrous and as basically human in their own way, creating a dichotomy between a “monster” identity and a “man” identity. The essay is effectively split into two parts: the trailer, which became the intro and outro, and the body of the argument/exploration. The intro/outro were very fun to work on, as it involved much editing on the beat of the music, “Little Dark Age”, with some use of deformation techniques. The body of the essay was in many ways several pecha kuchas, with a heavy amount of epigraphs. Since my response essay had been narration-heavy, I wanted to lean away from that in this one, hut since the concepts were fairly complicated, I needed a significant amount of text. I arrived at a solution that was reminiscent of poetry, striking a balance between being understandable and simple/abstract enough to not detract form the scenes of the movies.

ASSIGNMENT: Choose one element present in your film/episode, and create a video compilation gathering all of the moments of that element. Assemble these moments together using straight cuts of linked sound/image tracks. All sounds and images should come from your film.

This was the first assignment we tackled in the class and was a great way to introduce one of the most basic elements of video essay creation. This exercise helped me realize how variable a video essay could be. Just by following a very basic set of parameters we were able to create a unique video which linked together elements which are otherwise easy to ignore. While I don’t truly think a compilation of all the times the Jason Funderburker croaked in Over The Garden Wall will conjure any grand revelations, the act of assembling one specific elements from a film helped demonstrate the possible new connections such an exercise might reveal.

Assignment: Select a sequence from your film, and a quotation from a written text (not specifically related to your film; it could be academic, poetic, narrative, etc.) of no longer than 5 sentences. Alter the video sequence in some noticeable way using at least two different types of transitions or effects. Either replace or significantly alter the soundtrack. The quotation should appear onscreen in some dynamic interaction with the video.

This was perhaps my favorite exercise we did in class. The combination of choice clip selection, video transformation, audio alteration, and on screen text helped give a strong sense of what a complete video essay might be. Perhaps my biggest takeaway from this class is how juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated media (audio, text, video) will create new and interesting connections which otherwise would never have existed. How many other people have linked the space rock band Duster with the late poet Louise Glück and a 2014 animation for kids? There is a certain joy and power in creating something unique like this, and I hope to carry that joy into whatever I make in the future.

Assignment: Use a multiscreen process as a compositional technique to create a short piece (3 minute max) engaging with at least one other (significantly different) video source uploaded on the shared media folder that other participants have uploaded. The video must contain moments of both fullscreen and multiscreen, including images from multiple sources. All audio and visuals must come from your film and the videos posted on our server. Each editor must impose an additional parameter upon themselves. A goal of the exercise is to engage in spatial montage to make a meaningful juxtaposition between two or more sources.

This was maybe the most difficult assignment of the class. Perhaps the linking of animation with live action media was what made it so challenging, or the fact that I’ve never actually watched Afterlife (sorry Christmas), but either way this assignment required me to figure out exactly what I wanted this video to be doing; I needed to come up with my own parameters outside of the ones listed in the prompt. Since the medias were so difficult I struggled for awhile to land on something which felt fitting. I finally decided I wanted it to appear as if Over the Garden Wall was bleeding into the reality of Afterlife. I’ve always liked stories about some other world peering into our daily life and the promise of escape they offered. I still of course had to find clips which I felt vaguely matched between the two pieces, but overall this was an incredibly instructive assignment.

Assignment: Create a video essay that directly responds to another published video essay. The approach you take to the response is up to you, as long as it engages both with the content/ideas and the form of the original video. You might think about responding by extending the original’s ideas to other examples, debating particular points, “remaking” the ideas via new forms, or otherwise building upon the foundation that the other video constructs. Your response video should be comprehensible on its own, not just as a response that requires familiarity with the original. It should be at least 4 minutes long.

I believe I am more comfortable with pieces that lean towards the artistic side of video essays rather than analysis, which is why I wanted to push myself to attempt something outside my wheelhouse. I’ve always found myself to be a strong speaker, and so while I wasn’t particularly thrilled about hearing my voice recorded back to me, I was willing to tackle voice over as a new element to incorporate into my works. Despite this, I found myself struggling when I compared my work to that of schnee’s. Perhaps this is an obvious conclusion, as one of us is a procrastinating and overworked college student while the other is a successful content creator who makes his living on publishing compelling video essays. Still, it was difficult to hold my work in comparison to schnee’s. Nevertheless I hope my arguments hold up at least a little and managed to convince a few people that Ashitaka is actually secretly one of the best written characters in fiction.

I also really enjoyed messing around with the audio mixing of certain clips. Most of the music I listen to these days is more beat focused with piles of samples all coming together to form something which really makes you nod your head and tap your fingers. While I am no expert audio mixer (and you truly must forgive me for the silliness of my opening lines), working on this project helped me identify a style I want to pursue in the future. Bringing clips together, overlaying audio and images, and syncing it all up to some marching beat is something I find incredibly satisfying. I am eager to continue working on pieces in this manner in the future.

Final Project

The Soundscapes of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

This final project took me a great deal of time to complete. In the end, I am proud that I was able to put in so much time, as the final product reflects that exact effort. I remember my first time watching this film and being in awe of the soundscapes used. I wanted to simulate that same feeling and questioning that I had when considering why the director had decided to create such a noticeable soundscape. The same soundscapes are interwove n with the visuals and impact our perception of the world around Riggan. I create a more explorative first half of the video, introducing the audience to the key soundscape of The City, showing various clips of the film, and comparing and contrasting these clips to gain some insight into their significance. Towards the end, I describe the exact feeling of Riggan’s reality becoming a fantasy, where he then dictates what is diegetic.

Epigraph

I am presenting this exercise first, as it was the video I am most proud of, apart from my final project. Initially, I was somewhat dreading the idea of being forced to use captions in my video for an assignment; However, to my surprise, this exercise opened my eyes to a multitude of possibilities to communicate and convey messages to audiences in a creative medium beyond narration. In fact, this exercise enabled me to succeed with my final project in allowing the composition of the video to speak for itself while communicating through captions sparingly. At large, I am extremely pleased with how this video turned out, and I believe its minimalist style enables it to stand out.

Desktop

I was excited to complete this desktop assignment, as I had previously created desktop videos but had yet to be in an academic context. I wanted to imitate the feeling of discovery and simulate this by asking quite broad questions a viewer would wonder about, knowing little about the movie. In fact, the video itself was an attempt to replicate the authentic surprise I experienced learning more about Miles Teller and his past experience that has an uncanny relationship with the car crash sequence of Whiplash. Ultimately, I am quite satisfied with how my attempt to recount my initial discovery turned out.

Multiscreen

Although quite chaotic, I decided to include this video, as I spent a great deal of time sifting through many different films on our Google Drive to think of a film or even a single scene to splice with Whiplash. Then, I came across a scene in The Matrix where Trinity smashes through a glass window. That sound of the glass shattering immediately put the pieces together for me. I would create a Multiscreen between the two sequences, creating a chase sequence spliced together. In the end, this video achieves its purpose of being quite entertaining, which also serves as a good training exercise to improve my multiscreen and masking skills.

Response

This videographic response essay was quite interesting to make, as quite enjoyed thinking of interesting ways to interconnect books with movies. I like the comparisons of history and the liberties taken in film, but obviously this film experiences a number of adaptations. I still think it is fascinating to compare to the source material in order to see how truths have been lost for the sake of dramatisation. The narration for this video was quite fun to do; However, I do believe I am able to be more creative with captions. Although, captions do take a far longer time to complete. It was quite fun to create the highlighter and 3D book effects on Adobe After Effects, but it also took far longer than I expected. Overall, I enjoyed making this response essay to history and how they are depicted in films.