Category: nonlinear editing

Week 8 Blog Post

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Caleb

Hey everyone,

I myself am relatively new to the video essay genre of content. That being said, I’ve seen a fair share of these works over the years. One that I find particularly interesting is a video essay by Jeffiot about finding the creator of the skull trumpet gif.

I believe this video works incredibly well as a video essay. From the editing to voice-over works, graphics, and sound effects, each piece has purpose and creates an overarching flow for the narrative. Narrative is a key word here, the video is structured almost like a feature film or documentary. A prologue is provided followed by an actual introduction with proper credits and calling card of the episode. There are clear sections designated by the narrator, acts if you will or parts, as the video continues.

The structure appears very well thought out, especially for a channel that isn’t insanely well known, but one with over 100k subscribers. Learning from this particular video, I have several key takeaways that I can and will most likely use in my own video essay.

  1. Script: A carefully written script that progresses the narrative effectively and in a logical direction.
  2. Video clips: The creator utilizes a mixture of their own captured footage and clips from various other sources when discussing ideas relevant to the visual imagery.
  3. Clear topic: The idea of this videos essay is clear, from the title to the content of the video, every piece of information correlates or traces back to the skull trumpet origin in some way or form.
  4. Editing: Each transition and cut has a purpose, following the speed of the narration smoothly and making sense with each word spoken.

These are only a few ideas that I feel would work very well in my own work, yet they convey the success of this type of video essay regardless.

Thanks for reading.

-Caleb

Week 2 Blog Post

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Caleb

Autumn Mists

I find interpreting silent films fascinating, especially since I grew up watching sound cinema. Watching silent films comes with a challenge, however, of relying solely on imagery to understand a silent films meaning. This challenge arises while interpreting Brumes d’automne by Dimitri Kirsanoff, but I believe I’ve gathered a good comprehension of the twelve minute silent film.

While there is no established plot outside of the audience’s perspective, the film does include a very poetic story. I believe this film is about a person’s emotional experience with the loss of love. This experience is expressed through intricate montaging techniques and visual storytelling as the world around the main character distorts and blurs. Close ups, stills, panning, transitional shots, film distortion and blur, just to name a few forms of editing this film employs. This love seems to be potentially romantic given the time period this film was made. Various scenes also suggest this theme, including the burning of letters, the shaking of hands with a figure, the scenes of a person leaving a house, and the close up shots of the main character tearing up.

I managed to get a few screenshots to note the scenes I mentioned above to illustrate my reasoning behind my interpretation of the films plot. To start, we have the scenes where the woman is clutching letters that they ultimately burn in the fireplace.

The woman seems reluctant at first to dispose of the letters as she holds onto them for multiple beats. The film shoots from the shoulders up in these scenes, allowing the audience to see the characters whole face and movements with the letters. For these particular scenes, the spatial shots work well to convey this type of emotion.

A montage then follows the rest of the film as we see the woman shake hands with someone, the camera holding position until the hands slowly slip away from one another leaving the woman still in frame. Cut then to a person leaving a building while a piece of paper falls out of their pocket. Then cutting back to the woman, then back again, and so on until the whole scene changes.

Once again, the film’s editing succeeds at conveying the emotion of the woman as we experience her point of view while the figure, assumedly lover, leaves her. Sudden, confusing, and without explanation.

Next up are the usages of montage express the woman’s feelings after her loss of love. So much so that film depicts scenes of nature with a lens distortion/blur while cutting to the woman staring into the distance. Much like the technique we discussed in class where directors will transition scenes based on where the character in the previous scene is looking. The film then cuts and follows the woman walking through the woods while cutting to a scene of a leaf flowing in water. These scenes could be depicting the woman flowing through her emotions and finding some form of acceptance through nature. Once again, here are some screenshots of said scenes.

Camera rotates the shot of the water, cuts back to woman.

 

Shot of the lake blurs and distorts, almost a radial blur.

 

Shot drastically changes into something jagged and sharp.

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A shot of a tree slowly blurs and appears somewhat human-like as it cuts to the woman closing her eyes.

 

A simple shot of a dock as the camera blurs cutting back to the woman opening her eyes.

 

The last few scenes of the woman walking down a river and a leaf flowing down a river. A comparison shot of the two.

 

Overall, Autumn Mists tells a melancholy story through the thoughts of the main character and very intricate film editing.

Thanks for reading,

-Caleb