To Do This Week
Assignments
DUE: AI Cinema Project (5%)
Watch
Blog Prompt
Watch the above videos that introduce the popular video essay form and its history in the “essay films” from the past. Then, search for additional video essays on YouTube or consider a favorite one you know.
In your post, share the video essay along with your thoughts/opinions about the use of language (spoken and/or on-screen text) with image. How are voice-over, text, sound, graphics, and video combined to explore an idea or make an argument? How would you begin “writing” your own video essay?
Class
Activities
- View AI Cinema videos
- Discuss the video/film essay
- Brainstorm video essay projects
- Editing techniques 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
Using the cinema to explore, investigate, or “essay” the world and experience.
Michel de Montaigne – “essai”
- An attempt or effort
- Personal writing on a particular subject
- Open-ended (not like a traditional college essay)
Explore an idea cinematically:
Questioning, divergent, meandering
Subjective/Objective
Evidence/Argument/Speculation/Imagination/Documentation
Poetic Real, Surreal “Documentary”
Capturing the mundane real, “pure cinema”:
Sans Soleil, by Chris Marker, 1983
Video Essays / Audiovisual Presentation of Subjects
Personal Essay
Daniel Liss
Jessica McGoff
The Wizard of AI (2023): Single Channel HD Video Essay, 19m 19s, subtitled.
In-Class Exercise
Brainstorm Video Essays
- On a sheet of paper, diagram your ideas for the video essay. Make connections between thoughts, images, and sounds.
- Turn the page over and write a few paragraphs about your idea.
- Write a paragraph about the style or approach you will take. Will you use video that you shoot, search for archived media, or public domain images/videos? Will you use montage and/or continuity editing? How will you use sound: voice-over narration, music, sound effects, asynchronous sounds?
Favorite Place Mini-Video Essay
Next week’s post (not graded separately)
Create a 30-60 second video essay about a favorite local place.
What is special about this place for you?
Is there anything important about getting there?
Is there anything you like to do in this place?
Does the place bring back memories or stimulate thoughts?
What connections can you make through this place?
Visit the place to capture images and sound for editing. Use voice and/or text to express your ideas along with the images and sounds. Besides the images and sounds you capture, you may incorporate other images and sounds to help express your thoughts.
Video Essay (15%)
DUE March 20th
Project Overview
Create a 1-2 minute video essay on a subject of your choosing. This task encourages you to blend a variety of visual storytelling techniques learned throughout the course, such as continuity editing, montage, temporal manipulation, loops, compositing, and special effects. Your video essay should reflect your personal insights and style, incorporating a mix of your own video, existing clips, AI-generated visuals/audio, screen captures, graphics, and still images. Use text overlays and/or voice-over narration to enhance the communication of your ideas. Written text and/or voice-over is required.
Project Development
- Subject Identification: Identify a central theme or idea. Articulate it concisely to guide your project while allowing for creative divergence.
- Visual and Textual Material: Collect and create visuals and text that support your essay’s argument or narrative. All elements should serve a clear purpose.
- Essay Form and Pace: Decide on the structure and pacing of your essay. Draw inspiration from examples of video essays.
- Editing: Assemble clips and text in Premiere. Refine your narrative as your project evolves.
- Supplementary Media Collection: Gather or generate AI materials (graphics, sound, music) while adhering to copyright limitations. Cite sources in credits.
- Drafting and Refinement: Draft textual content, refine it during editing, and aim for a conversational tone.
- Audio and Visual Finalization: Record and fine-tune voice-over or text overlays, ensuring clear and impactful communication.
- Final Touches: Add titles, credits, and sound mixing for a polished final product.
Evaluation Criteria
- Innovation and Creativity: Originality of subject choice and narrative approach.
- Technical Proficiency: Effective use of editing techniques and integration of media forms.
- Narrative Coherence: Clarity and impact of your central theme or argument.