2. Examples of an informative
video- video essay
One example of an informative video would be a video essay. Video essays are exactly what they sound like. A
video with information set in a structure similar to an essay. One of the most popular for of video essay are
ones looking at the film industry, whether its looking at films as a whole or how superhero films use musical
scores. Phillip Lopate described a video essay in his “in search of the Centaur : The Essay-Film” as “an essay
film, at its core, is an essay namely a piece of written work that is a search to find what one think about
something”. Video essays are not exclusive to just film and tv, but can be based around anything, including
technology, recent trends and even music. The main criteria for a video essay is that there is an overarching
theme, a script, a single perspective, good reasoning and a strong personal point of view. The main difference
between a video essay and a essay film, is that a video essay has far more critical thinking, meaning that their
opinion is not as subtle, like they are trying to persuade you to have the same opinion as the maker of the video
essay. There are many reason for one person to make a video essay, for example, a reason to make a video
essay is to explain why an opinion on a film is so popular “Joker- Why this Tragedy is so great”. Even though
most of the audience of joker enjoyed the film, people who are not well informed on the techniques of the film
industry might now understand what made it so well made. This video essay is to show the creators opinion,
but in a way that helps to justify other peoples opinion. On the other hand, people who have the minority opinion
would use a video essay to try and explain their ideology behind the opinion that contrasts with the general
audience. Since the internet is such a great place for people to hear your opinion, someone with an unpopular
opinion can voice their opinion to try and reach people with similar views “why Avengers Endgame was trash”.
The creator may want to put his opinion onto a social media platform just to get himself attention linked to the
social media account or actually want to try and act as a speaker for a small group of people trying to voice
their opinion to the main audience.
3. Examples of video essay styles
Subjective
This film essay has a very opinionated approach as it focuses on the creators subjective opinion rather than
objective evidence. The video consists of her explaining why she enjoyed rogue one and what made that film
more enjoyable for herself. With the lack of information and facts, this essay has no real platform to stand on
for it to persuade other people to share her opinion. Rather it is just the creator trying to justify her own
opinion and explaining her interpretation of the movie. Since the creator is using mainly her own opinion to
source the information for the video, her artistic conventions affect the outcome of the video. Although it is
enjoyable to watch, it is less of an informative essay than others which means it doesn’t fill the criteria for a
video essay as well as other videos. Because these forms of videos are subjective, they are typically lower
quality which means they wont have the same software for animation and post production as the more
objective video essays. This is especially noticeable when you look at the animation style, subjective uses
stick figures when the creator is talking, objective uses quotes and images that help to potray his thoughts.
Although the animation style is different, the tone changes to a very humane and personal tone which
matches the video style and makes the viewer feel like the creator is talking directly to them.
objective
This video essay was based on Christopher Nolan's dark knight and what made it so enjoyable to watch,
more specifically, the antagonist. In the video essay itself, the creator speaks a lot about joker and how he is
such an effective villian, especially against batman. Many film theories and quotes are used as evidence, and
brought up with a comparison to show exactly when its used which helps to clarify their point. This kind of
video essay is a lot more informative than the previous example due to being far more objective and backing
up their points with evidence sourced from reliable sources. This structure of a video essay is the best way to
get your opinion across while also backing it up with valid evidence, as it shows how the points said are both
correct and valid. The animation and transitions in this type of essay have to be very professional and sleek
looking as the tone as drastically more formal than a subjective approach. These forms of videos also have a
bigger target audience as although the creator is talking about the dark knight, the theories and studies can
be applied to other films, meaning that it is an informative video on film in general.
4. Examples of an informative video-
documentary
A documentary by defininition is "a film or television or
radio programme that provides a factual report on a
particular subject". The first known documentary was
known as "nanook of the north" which was based around
an eskimo called nanook and his life within canada in
1922. Despite the documentary being based around
nanook, it was actually made by a fur trading firm trying to
advertise the fact that "if Eskimos could tame nature, then
the rest of us could tame our more advanced civilisation".
This was used to try and sell more fur. In the present,
documentaries don’t typically have an alternative motive
other than to inform the user. The way documentaries have
changed is that the film maker is now more open minded
and impartial enough to present all sides of the researched
story.
While documentaries can be based around a business
decision or a niche subject that interest the film maker,
they can also be based on subjects that interest/affect a
wider audience. For example, documentaries based
around global warming have increased in popularity after
the sudden surge of attention towards the earths well
being. Due to nature being very cinematic and having
plenty of information to make a documentary about,
researchers such as david attenborough have become
household names for their documentaries that help
common people with little knowledge in nature
understand the complexities of animal life and the chosen
ecosystem. Documentaries rely heavily on plenty of
research and information as they have a more broad
point of interest than video essays. While video essays
try and clarify the creators opinion on a chosen subject,
the point of a documentary is to solely inform the viewer
and whether it changes the viewers perspective is up to
the viewer, not the creator.
5. Examples of well made
documentaries
Blue planet-broad genre Making a murderer-niche genre
Blue planet is a documentary that focuses solely
on the ocean eco system and the animals living in
it. The documentary is structured into multiple set
pieces focussing on individual animals and what
their life consists of. This simple structure reduces
the information in short blurts which keeps the
audience interested but also means they are not
given too much information to the point where they
are confused. David Attenborough is used as the
narrator and his enthusiasm and interest is one the
main selling points as it immerses the viewer and
creates a calmer tone. Due to the technology and
budget that the BBC have to offer, Blue planet can
capture some incredible set pieces with high
resolution cameras to create state of the art
scenes that cant be found in any other
documentary.
Making a murderer is a documentary based on the
story of steven avery who was wrongly imprisoned for a
crime then when released after 18 years jail time, was
later placed back in prison because of a murder that
placed avery as the prime suspect. The story is about if
avery was innocent or guilty, as the sentencing was
highly controversial and was believed that the evidence
was planted to frame avery. The structure of making a
murderer is that of a story, showing how the situation
plays out in real time which keeps the viewer immersed
and interested in the plot as it unfolds. Due to the many
twists in the plot itself, making a murderer holds onto
the viewers attention by providing realistic
reinnactments of what happened and also shows real
pictures of the environemtns so the viewer doenst have
to imagine each scene. This immersion and shocking
nature of the documentary creates huge intrigue for the
viewer but also builds up anticipation with each episode
due to the ever evolving plot points.
6. Examples of a well made
video essay
Every frame a painting Alien's Guide
Aliens guide takes on a more comedic and light
hearted tone to the video essay genre. The
commentator is that of someone pretending to be an
alien, and viewing the film as that of an alien. This
changes the whole dialogue and has a comedic tone
that is rarely seen in video essays due to their formal
nature. Alien guides typically looks at whole films and
genres instead of certain aspects of individual films.
For example, one video he made was one that
focussed on the big lebowski and did a complete
guide on the meaning behind it. He compared it to
noire films and showed the whole film from a different
light. Instead of trying to inform viewers and educate
them, he is explaining information that the viewer
already understood but in a way that they may not
have thought of before.
Every frame a painting is based looks at certain creators/
themes or films as a whole, and talks about a particular
subject and elaborates it to get a more in depth look at the
subject of the video while showing evidence for it also. Every
frame a painting does this by showing scenes while talking
over them, and using the scenes to help his explanations as
they are visual explanations also due to their connection to the
topic. For example, when EFaP was talking about how
Scorsese typically uses silence in a film to show a dramatic
emotion, he then shows multiple scenes with silence in to
back up his point. This helps the viewer to understand his
points more and with showing an example of it being used, it
shows the audience how it is implemented into films and what
effect it has. The subjects that EFaP talks about are ones that
arent opinion based or subjective, but instead talks objectively
about a niche technique or structure to a film/director. This
means that the videos are more about information and
educating the viewer than trying to make them side with the
creator like more subjective video essays.
8. Script planning
Example of a script that I could use
(the closer look)
The closer look has a very complex and formal script for
his videos which looks at very broad theme/point. To get
the point across and explain his opinion, the script is not
split into sections for different topics, it’s a constant and
free flowing explanation. The closer look links each point to
each other to have a seamless video that doesn’t lose
momentum because of title screens. With the formal
vocabulary that TCL uses, it creates a more informative
and educational video which doesn’t focus on subjective
and opinionated evidence. While most of the video talks
about his personal opinion, they are backed up with
evidence and explanation but with examples of where they
have been implemented in the past. I also noticed that the
videos have a momentum to them, for example, when TCL
was talking about dunkirk and its use of fear, the music in
the background reached its peak tempo. This makes the
final point more significant and punctuated compared to the
rest of the points and sentences. When using this
technique with the music, he made sure that the music
didn’t change volume, or if he did, the it was very subtle
and this was done to not overpower the verbal aspect of
the video. The reason why TCL has this level of
professionalism and formality is because he is an
established script write so has a lot of experience doing the
scripts necessary for a video essay. Due to him having
plenty of subscribers and views, keeping this formality is
key to having a high standard of a video essay when
looking at topics in such depth.
How to implement it into
my video essay
i plan on making my script have the same formal and
education approach as TCL as this helps with the
factual nature of a video essay. This sort of script will
help me to make sure I get my opinion but also
information across to the viewer without it being
distorted by my chosen style of dialogue. Making
sure that some sort of personality or light-hearted
tone comes though the speakers voice isn't needed
but would help to add more life to the video essay.
One key element that I would need to add to my
video essay is the ability to have a transition less
script that isn't split up into certain sections. This
seamless way of structuring a script keeps
momentum and allows the viewer to keep interest
more intensely. This also means that my script can
pair well with my cinematic music I have chosen to
implement into my video essay. The song would
match the tempo of my script, my points gradually
getting louder and more prominent until the final
sentence of my point that sums up my whole
arguement
9. Planning which kind of music to use
Relaxing jazz music
Relaxing jazz music would help to create a calmer
tone to my video and have a more light hearted and a
less intense focus on the subject. This style of music
would be best if it was more of an overall look at a
film, without a strong opinion present. For example,
aliens guides approach to the subject matter is very
calm and objective, with very little strong and
personal opinions involved. Jazz typically seems very
improvised due to its calm and unstructured form
which can help create a personal and one on one
feel to the video which can help with getting a point
across. Overall, the light hearted yet formal feel of
jazz compliments an objective yet opinionated video
essay.
Cinematic orchestral music
Cinematic music can be used to keep building suspense
and can be used to keep the viewers' attention. This sort
of music can keep the listener on edge and alert to listen
to the video more due to it being far more interesting
and grabbing their attention more. A good example of
cinematic orchestral music would be hans zimmers work
on inception or the dark knight. Although these can be
quite intense and momentum based which works for the
film, they wouldn’t work for a video essay as it would be
too overbearing. On the other hand, the more calm and
emotional pieces such as the piece called "time" in
inception. This would work best for an opinion based
video essay that used objective evidence to almost
intimidate the viewer into sharing the same opinion.
Ambient lofi hip hop beat No music
Lofi hip hop is a very common and popular choice
for background music, especially for creators
wanting to create a personal connection to the
viewer. Lofi means that the audio keeps some
imperfections in the track itself so it has a very
rough around the edges feel and feels like an
unedited track, seeing it at its rawest form. This
translates over to the video essay and helps relax
the viewer and makes the video essay itself seem
unedited and rough cut. This style of music would
work best with an slightly non-opinionated view
with subjective evidence.
no music would make the viewer focus solely on the
information being said but would also take away
any personality to the video whatsoever and leave
just the husk of the video with commentary over it.
The purpose of a video essay is to inform a viewer
while also trying to justify your personal opinion with
facts. On the other hand, the music can be seen as
distracting and can sometimes divert the listenners
attention if its overly loud or bassy. This option
wouldn’t be very good for any style of video essay
unless it needs to be extremely formal and used
within an education system.
10. Video essay script
First paragraph that is used to inform the viewer on what the video essay is centred on and to set the tone so the viewer knows what style of video to expect-
Cinematography.....By definition, is the art of cinema. This is a very broad definition and does not even come close to explaining how much impact cinematography
has on the film overall, turning a bland and lifeless film, into a piece of art with craftmanship coursing through its veins. Cinematography is used to show certain
aspects of the story without being said verbally such as thoughts and emotions, in simple terms it is all about communicating with the viewer. Communicating whos
point of view we are looking from, how the character is feeling or even how time has passed.
Give an example of a film that does cinematography well in a broad sense with a very popular and shared opinion that the film community will have already seen-One
of the best examples of this is Christopher nolan's 2008 Dark Knight. The dark knight featured some of the most in depth and gripping scenes in recent cinema due to
its immersive and atmospheric setting it creates within gotham. The city of gotham feels like a living and breathing character due to nolan filming the city from multiple
angles such as ariel shots and street level shots, showing gothams multiple personalities and its stark economic divide. But instead we will be looking at arguably the
most standout scene, the interrogation scene between Batman and Joker. This interrogation scene features over the shoulder shots that slowly reverse between joker
and batman which is used to show which character holds the power within the conversation and the fluctuation of said power.
Use this section to set up my comparison section, bring up a point that focusses on the different era's of cinema so can include older films also-This is one of many
great examples of how cinematography helps the story and script seep through to the viewer visually, instead of just verbally. When comparing techniques and
scenes like these to earlier cinematic pieces, its easy to see just how far cinematography has come with its use of world building and emotionally driven character
development. Despite the clear advantage modern day directors have with a much larger budget and greater technology, certain early directors learnt how to
implement these techniques very early on, yet in a simpler form.
First example of the comparison im gonna make, talking about the older film first-Rob Reiner’s Misery (1990) is a film that shows this well is based on suspense and
fear, making it completely acceptable for it to be branded as a horror as well as a thriller. The suspense of the film is brought around in a realistic and brutal way that
the viewer cant help but imagine themselves in the protagonists position, adding to the horror aspect even more. Each camera shot is used to make the connection
between paul and annie feel very close and create a sense of claustrophobia, even when annie is not in the shot with paul. This presence that annie has is very
volatile, switching between overbearing, joyful and furious within a matter of seconds. This creates suspense in almost every single scene with annie in, even before
she reveals her true motive of keeping paul hostage. Multiple times we see just how controlling annie is with camera shots that show annie looking down onto the
camera, symbollizing looking down on both paul and the viewer in an overbearing way. The grounded and small scale horror misery creates in a realistic environment
was incredibly unique for the era it was released, as many horror films relied on supernatural/religious tones to carry the weight of the films horror.
Final film to complete comparison, modern film-Another film that does this well is Christopher Nolans Dunkirk (2017). Every camera movement, every shot in Dunkirk
is meant to riddle the viewer with fear except dunkirk handles fear differently from misery, there is more buildup and suspense to each shot, with an increase in
momentum to make the viewer feel the intensity of each situation the 3 characters are thrown into. Take the scene with the drowning soldiers covered in oil for
example, the suspicion of the oil catching fire and killing the soldiers lingers in the viewers minds and nolan plays with that. Constantly teasing that possibility with
different scenarios that also affect the other story lines. Another example of this is the scene where german soldiers are having target practise at the old boat where
the protagonist is hiding. The possibility that the germans soldiers actually know the british soldiers are in there stays in the viewers mind, keeping the suspense in the
scene while the ship slowly and gradually starts to flood with water. This lingering sense of uncertainty creates an uneasy atmosphere and keeps the viewer on the
edge of their seat from start to finish.
11. Mood Board of potential clips to use in the
background video
