Sunday, March 28, 2021
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Friday, March 26, 2021
Friday, March 12, 2021
Friday, March 5, 2021
Pre-Video Assignment, Chen
Good Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oQzaS6-Z3I&ab_channel=GreatBigStory
This short documentary is a profile on Cecilia Chiang, who is a pioneer of a Chinese cuisine in America. She introduced the idea of Chinese food in this country by starting her own restaurant and cooking in California, and the documentary provides some of her experiences and current reflections on being a pioneer. I think the beginning cut is really a good hook; it provides a diversity of these detail and medium shots, which I think really draws the audience's interest into who Cecilia might be and what food she's cooking. The audio introduction is straightforward, but it's a significant statement that makes a perfect setup for what the rest of the documentary is about: "My name is Cecilia Chiang, people say that I brought Chinese food to America." I think the diversity of angles in which they captured the food she's cooking was well done, there's this overhead angle I really like, and also these detail and side photos. Even the old photos that the video used from Cecilia's past were video recorded with a backdrop (not digitally edited into the video), which I felt brought a really authentic sense of history. Lastly, I think the interview shot with her and her friend Alice Waters was well framed with the both of them (neither looked miniscule as if they were falling down the frame, and the framing felt comfortable).
Bad Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuSJPf94GWc&t=22s&ab_channel=BusinessInsider
This video is from Business Insider, and even though I really enjoy these videos from their channel, I thought there were some things in this particular video that were really lacking from a visual and audio standpoint. First, they chose not to have a narrator and instead used text to open up the video; there's barely a hook as a result, and I believe it would've been much nicer to open up with someone narrating "Welcome to Cook Out." They reused the same shot of someone holding up a cup to the restaurant in the backdrop multiple times, so there was a lack of diverse shots. All the angles and framing were alright, but not great (an example of this is when they're in the car, and you see part of a body, and part of the milkshake), and the lighting they chose to record in was not ideal. There wasn't much of a story besides a straight review, and I thought that visually, they failed to keep the attention of the audience because of the lack of diverse shots and sequences.
Pre-Video Assignment, Afful
Both multimedia projects I will be sharing are about Sketchup, UMD's sketch comedy group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_JR_7Z-8v8
This first project, titled "Sketchup: UMD's Craziest Comedians" is, in my opinion, the worse multimedia project. It shows various shots of Sketchup performing with no cohesive storyline. Overall, the visuals are poorly shot and it doesn't necessarily convince a viewer to audition for Sketchup or go to one of their shows.
https://youtu.be/ns8rkS0-VQc
This project, titled "A Single Baked Bean with a Side of Sketchup" is a much more visually and narratively attractive multimedia project than the previous one. There is diversity in camera angles and subject matter, and cast and crew interviews provide a narrative. This project shows Sketchup in a much more creative light, and paints them as a fun campus group.
Pre-Video Assignment: Isaak Elkind
Good Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hP_Zsh8Eak
This short film is about an up and coming elite rock climber – Savannah Cummins – among the ranks of the best in the world – and director spares no detail to show it. The hook is excellent; it is an opening narration by Cummins herself, with her laughing and exhibiting a positive attitude among extreme mountain climbing in Antarctica. Additionally, the multi-media aspect of the film, which contains still shots that emphasizes the danger of Cummins' climbs, are like magic. They put into perspective how small the climbers are compared to their trek, and Cummins' narration throughout them make it clear how "ready" she is for the task. Coupled with a use of background music that livens up each of the climbing scenes this short film does a fantastic job making your heart race during the extreme climbs – and ultimately melt when you get to see how passionate and skilled Cummins is about doing her job among the best rock climbers in the world.
Bad Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q39yGLPkMY
There is absolutely no hook in this commercial for the "ShamWoW." The commercial is one long take without any variation in perspective or movement of the camera. It seems like a skit was performed in front fo the camera, and the narrator is speaking as fast as a prescription drug advertiser reading off the potential side effects. Although a demonstration of the product is included, it could definitely be done in a more interesting and creative way to maintain the audience's attention. A "story" about the ShamWoW product is not told here; this is cheesy commercial and absolutely no connection is able to made with the ShamWoW's origin or benefit in the household.
Thursday, March 4, 2021
Pre-Video Assignment, Jordan Cox
Good Example: https://youtu.be/BCqJCOWUc-Q
I found this short film a good example of a multi-media project for various reasons. Firstly, I really think that the intro grabs the audience's attention with the close up shots of the dog and intense music. I also think it has a good use of laying audio on top of the videos in addition to the audios that match with the actual videos. The interviews frame the subject in the outside third like we discussed in class. Overall, there was also great video an audio quality. Additionally, there is a good contrast between the videos showing the dog’s sensitive/family side and his aggressive side when he is working, which also switches between shots/scenes with music or just the natural sounds from the video.
Bad Example: https://youtu.be/e_4rOqIMQfc
I am not a fan of this short clip discussing a Mentor Program. There is no hook to draw the audience in, the person speaking and being interviewed is looking straight into the camera, and the music is way too loud in the background, making it hard for me to focus on what the person is saying. It is also one singular shot the entire time, and I think it could have incorporated other shots to make it more exciting for us to watch.
Pre-Video Assignment, Matthew Gouzoulis
The Good
https://vimeo.com/181856947 (Long Term Parking)
This is a fantastic multimedia project that follows a clear story about airport parking. It follows the same aesthetic throughout the video and provides a clear in depth look into different lives of people. The framing in the video is always amazing and helps not only provide proper framing to see the person, but framing to see the environment and help shape our perceptions of who they are as people. The story is told through interview clips, which allow the interviewees to tell their story in exquisite detail.
The Bad
https://vimeo.com/49976310 (The Dogmatic )
Certainly not a terrible film but compared to the latter multimedia project it is clearly very amateur. The lighting and framing is shoddy at times. Also, it is unable to properly tell as clear or compelling a story as it cuts from many different wordy frames and interviews. It is not as consistent as the latter in its method of telling the story which makes it not as strong in many cases.
Pre-Video Assignment: Li
Good: The Art Assignment's Better Know: The Starry Night
Since this is a video about a painting, there is a good variety of media in it/how the media itself is presented. Transitions and zooms are smooth, coupled with a good sense of design in some of the animations. There are quotes overlayed on paintings, photos, video clips. Also when talking about specific aspects of the painting, it zooms and labels the specific section. The narrator has good inflection and the subject matter (although well known) is presented from a new perspective. Videos about paintings are often hard to make engaging as the paintings are static, but this video kept it visually interesting enough to watch.
Bad: WatchMojo's Top 10 Painters of All Time
I thought something similar in subject matter would make for a good comparison. This one is much less engaging. There's not much variation in transitions: a lot of the time it was consecutive panning (or a zoom). The voiceover and images are only tangentially related, so it feels more like a PowerPoint slideshow than an interesting video. As for audio, there's some royalty-free music over the voiceover, but doesn't really suit the informative nature of the video. Since I'm watching this because to learn more about the subject, it doesn't do a great job of that either as most of the paintings shown are unlabeled/undated. All in all, while it does the job of being a top 10 list, the information presented feels generic and quickly put together.
Pre-Video Assignment - Lily
This is the example of a very good multimedia project film. What I liked about it were how each frame was edited to have the same type of aesthetic, lighting, and quality. The quality was so good, and the film is about the 5 senses. A lot of it used a lot of ASMR-y natural sounds that really drew the audience's attention to the film. Even though it was about something simple - literally defining our 5 senses - I liked how the student was able to make it so satisfying and enticing through close-up shots, aerial views, rule of 3rds in cinematography, and slow-motion shots as well. Transitions were excellent.
This was a bad project because it just jumbled everything together and the quality looks really tacky. Everything feels blurry and none of it included film work by the student or any voice-overs. It looked like something a middle schooler could do despite the fact it was a college student. The music did not align with the transitions or content and it threw me off a lot. It was so long and hard to follow.
Pre Video Assignment: Waltz
An example of a good multimedia presentation that I found shows the process of an artist creating Anasazi style pottery. I thought this video was so intriguing because it had such visually interesting camera shots, beautiful natural sound, and it showed a process from beginning to end. The video followed a woman creating bowls and pitchers from clay that she harvested herself, and although there was no voiceover or interview, I couldn't look away because the videos, the natural sounds, and the music that the filmmaker chose told the story. The filmmaker had a wide variety of different camera shots, detail shots of the pottery itself, the artist painting designs onto the pottery pieces, or washing them in the stream, as well as medium shots of her harvesting the clay, or starting a fire, and finally overview shots of the beautiful wildlife of southern Utah. I thought that the natural sounds like the sound of the creek, the artist scraping the clay with a rock, and blowing into the fire made the video so memorable and interesting. Overall, it was extremely unique and fascinating.
An example of a bad multimedia presentation that I found, seems to be some sort of school project. Although the project was well intentioned, it seemed to be just a collection of screenshots of google earth with a voiceover on top. The audio quality was not great, and you could hear other sounds coming from the microphone. The images that were used were often blurry or seemed to be irrelevant to the project. The project certainly isn't bad and I could tell that it was a personal topic, but it seemed a little unoriginal or boring.
Pre-Video Assignment- Casareto
This video is not only creative and unique, but it offers a fun way of viewing everyday things. It has well put-together scenes, interesting transitions from one part to the next, and very nice editing of video and sound put together (a not so simple task for this type of effect). A light thing to make you laugh and brighten up your day.
This video isn't necessarily bad, it's just kind of boring. It makes use of a slideshow of images with dramatic music in the background and text on the screen, but it doesn't really offer variety because of that. While the text is a dramatic poem (or song, not sure), it doesn't go beyond that. It utilizes various stock photos that are certainly good pictures, but have little personal meaning. The very generic photos that accompany very personal lines of text leaves a disconnect that evokes little response from the viewer.
Pre-Video Assignment, White
I think this video is an example of a good multimedia project because it hold your attention from the beginning. It's also quite eye-opening when the younger girls come in and are asked the same question as the older ones. It's a very clean shot with an empty background so it draws the focus on the subject. It's also really poignant as it hits on something most (if not all) women/girls can relate to.
I think this video is an example of a bad project because the sound quality is poor as it echos. The camera angle is also not ideal and the subtitles flash up instead up being more subtle which pulls the viewers attention to the pop of words every few seconds.
Pre-Video Assignment, Warwick
Good project:
I thought that this video was an example of a good multimedia project. It starts by giving a clear setting that really draws your attention in from the bustling city to the smaller restaurants and shops, eventually focusing in enough so that the viewer can see the hallmarks of the COVID-19 pandemic (masks, plastic shields, empty streets, etc). When the subject begins to speak, I was a little surprised to not hear English, but I appreciate the choice because it shows the culture of the owners of Spicy Village. As the video went on, I liked the comparison between pre-pandemic life and current times, along with the backdrop of the Chinese New Year. There were a variety of shots and footage of the restaurant and people, all while the subject described her experiences. This multimedia project really showed off the struggle of Chinese restaurants due to coronavirus and had a strong emotional appeal, in my opinion.
Bad project:
I thought that this video was an example of a bad multimedia project. The vlogging angles are odd and the lingering shots on the ground while walking were unnecessary. A lot of the camera work was shaky because the creator was holding the phone. In addition, the sound varied a lot based on the location of the video (car/store/parking lot), with a good amount of background noise. Overall, I think this video was poorly made and lacks an interesting story and editing.
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Pre-Video Assignment, Ioannidis
Good multimedia project:
I think this video is a great example of a good multimedia project. I think the hook was solid, with the techno sounds and retro-looking view of the skyscraper. I also think the video takes an interesting turn a little bit more than halfway through that recaptured my attention just when I felt the video was getting a little bit boring and longwinded. The use of sound and music was also really good in complementing the visuals and the story the video told.
Bad project:
On the other hand, this video shows an example of a not-so-good video project. It felt like the dialogue was not very well scripted and the gentlemen that made the project never considered using multiple camera angles for when different people spoke. It just felt like it was not taken very seriously (I assume they made this for a class), and it suffered. I also had trouble hearing them talk in some bits.
Pre-Video Assignment, Spaur
Good multi-media project:
~I love this video because it is deadmau5 (electronic music artist) describing some new technology he is implementing into his concerts. There are lots of good angles that show this massive LED cube interlaced with cuts of deadmau5 talking about really complex digital design programs in simple terms.
Bad multi-media project:
~Although this video is hilarious, it is kind of hilariously bad. This weird history of Dr. Pepper soda is filled with awkward dialogue. It does have a variety of nice shots, which I will give it credit for. I highly recommend watching this video.
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