Week 8 — The Video Essay

Week 12 — Video Essay: Thinking with Images

The video essay is not a written essay illustrated with images. It is a way of thinking through images, sound, rhythm, and structure. This module brings together research, intuition, scripting, and montage to develop arguments and inquiries that can only fully exist in audiovisual form.

We move from idea → research → script → structure, understanding the video essay as an exploratory, reflective, and often personal form.

To Do This Week

TBA

Watch

In Class

Activities

• View AI Cinema works
• Discuss the video essay and essay film
• Brainstorm video essay ideas
• Explore editing strategies for video essays

Notes

“The film essay enables the filmmaker to make the ‘invisible’ world of thoughts and ideas visible on the screen. The essay film produces complex thought–reflections that are not necessarily bound to reality, but can also be contradictory, irrational, and fantastic.”
— Hans Richter

The Film Essay

The film essay uses cinema to explore, test, and reflect on ideas. It is open-ended, subjective, and exploratory rather than conclusive.

Michel de Montaigne — “Essai”

1. An attempt or effort
2. Personal writing on a particular subject
3. Open-ended and exploratory

To essay is to question, wander, speculate, and reflect:

• Subjective ↔ Objective
• Evidence ↔ Imagination
• Documentation ↔ Speculation

Forms of the Video Essay

Visual (Wordless) Essay

Essay Film

Sans Soleil (1983), by Chris Marker — a nonlinear meditation on memory, history, travel, and image-making.

Poetic Documentary

Structure, mood, and rhythm take precedence over conventional exposition.

Academic Visual Essay

Timeframing by Eric Loyer

Internet Essay

Personal Video Essay

Missed Call by Victoria Mapplebeck

Pandemic Pantheon by Daniel Liss

AI Video Essay

The Wizard of AI (2023) by Alan Warburton

In-Class Exercise

Brainstorm Video Essay Project

1. Diagram your ideas visually: thoughts, images, sounds, and connections
2. Write a short paragraph describing the central question or tension
3. Describe your stylistic approach:
   • Original footage, archival media, AI-generated content?
   • Montage or continuity?
   • Voice-over, text, sound design?

Favorite Place Mini–Video Essay

Next Week’s Blog Post (not graded separately)

Create a 30–60 second video essay about a favorite local place.

• What makes this place meaningful?
• How do you arrive there?
• What actions or rituals happen there?
• What memories or thoughts does it evoke?

Capture original images and sound. You may also incorporate archival or AI-generated materials if relevant.

Video Essay Project (15%)

DUE Monday April 7

Project Overview

Create a 1–2 minute video essay exploring a subject of your choosing. The project should integrate visual, textual, and sonic elements to form a coherent inquiry or argument.

Project Development

• Subject: Define a central idea or question
• Materials: Combine original footage, found media, stills, AI, graphics
• Form: Decide on structure and pacing
• Editing: Assemble and refine in Premiere
• Audio: Use voice-over and/or text intentionally
• Credits: Cite sources and AI tools

Evaluation Criteria

• Conceptual strength and originality
• Effective use of audiovisual language
• Clarity and coherence of inquiry or argument

Key Takeaway

A video essay is not written first and filmed later. It is discovered through images, sound, rhythm, and montage.