Category: Uncategorized

Hello class, apologies for the low quality, I tried exporting several times at 1080p and it wouldn’t change the pixel quality. My suspicion might be because I used some stock footage to assist, as it helped me with my effects practice. I used a combination of green screen, crossfades, and zoom techniques to help create smooth transitions. Enjoy!

-Jeremy Sauter

Abstract experimentation

In the film Devils Playground there are many examples of visual evidence and scenes where it is almost apparent that it is true/real. There are many scenes of parties taking place and drugs being done which just showcase the severity of the situation, and while it may or may not be exaggerated or staged I dont know but it does a good job of providing evidence to the audience that life outside of the Amish culture is vastly different. The scenes where the kids are being interviewed also portray very strong emotions in which also play a significant role in the visual evidence aspect. Those scenes are specifically important because it is in those moment where we can truly see the vulnerability and almost form a connection to the individuals in the film. These are just a few examples but there are so many others that support this as well.

effects used, Time warp, Lens Flare, Color Correction

This video was generated through the use and reference of VEED Ai and Runway ML.

Note: Original video is 30 seconds long, an extra second added by Youtube during upload.

Devil’s Playground explores a key issue: will young Amish people stick with their community or join the “English” world? Many parts of the movie show this dilemma. We watch Amish teens partying, drinking, and driving cars. These images clash with what we think of as the Amish way of life. They give us a strong picture of the inner conflict these young people face, whether to stay Amish or become part of the wider world. The images we see here work well to show these young people struggling with personal issues, torn between their religious rules and what modern life offers. The filmmakers capture this clash by moving from peaceful Amish farms to wild parties giving us a clear picture of the tension. Some bits of these scenes might seem set up because the filmmakers get so close to these private moments, but it’s tough to say for sure. The way things play out looks real, but people might be acting up a bit for the camera to make things more exciting.

There are many moments in Devil’s playground that gives the audience easy visual evidence to follow, such as the scenes where Faron is spiraling down in life by taking drugs, and looking out the window thinking somebody is going to hurt him because he snitched on the drug dealer.

Another one would be the scene where Velda reads her college acceptance letter, we see her reaction and it’s obvious that she is happy that she made it. Whether these are staged or not, it still gets the point across that 1. Faron was depicted to be struggling with addiction at the time, and 2. Velda was happy to enter a new chapter in her life.

These examples are good visual evidence for giving us context and ideas about what their lives were like.

This was generated using in-video AI with a bit of help from runway and canva.

Visual evidence is a key piece to any sort of documentary styled film or short. I view documentaries and non-fiction shows or videos as almost a visual compilation of just straight evidence to explain a concept, story, or idea. It’s also very important for fictional works but its required for anything non-fiction like The Devils Playground. In the devils playground the concept of amish life is explained din great detail and focuses heavy on the life of the teenage amish and how the complete loss of religious structure will send young amish teens spiraling and possibly bonding amish life as a whole.

This concept is conveyed through a mass amount of visual evidence. For the conveying of how amish life works and how limited the amenities of the amish are we see a lot of shots of the clothing, the wagons and horses, the farming, house hold objects, and one thing that really caught my eye, the use of oil lamps. The oil lamps were never commented on but it just adds to simple nature and technologically restrictive life the amish live.

The visual evidence in this documentary was very compelling and effective. Everything shown is such stark contrast to the life we live that it pushed this story much farther than just briefly explaining the amish way of life and then focusing on the fallout of amish teenagers. It’s like it set a strict boundary and example of how the kids should be acting vs how they are actually acting.