Assignment Three – New Version

Following the feedback from my tutor, I have produced what I feel is a much improved and hopefully more ‘professional’ version of my video in response to Paris Photo.  I’ve taken on board most of Jesse’ comments, used some better editing software – and spent a few more hours on it, of course!

Here’s what I’ve done:

·         Purchased ‘VideoPad’, a more versatile piece of video editing software than the ‘freeby’ that I worked with originally, and used elements of the original video to help me learn my way around it – effectively creating the whole format again, from scratch.

·         Listened to the soundtrack again, and come to the conclusion that it works, and that it provides a good structure around which to re-do the video.

·         Reviewed all my original images again, making a similar but slightly different selection, based on the fact that I knew I was working towards this video, as opposed to the original ‘generic’ selection.

·         Taken on board many of Jesse’s suggestions, such as:

§  Reduce the number of zooms and be careful about using ‘portrait’ format images (fewer used, and better control of the way they’re panned in the new version);

§  Don’t repeat images (only one repeat in this version);

§  Come up with a better title – hopefully achieved;

§  Deal with the ‘glitches’ – the new software seems to be much more effective a generating the video file;

§  Improve the precision and rhythm – just one quibble here, I wanted to have about eight ‘rapid fire’ images at towards the end, but even the new software couldn’t handle it;

§  Incorporate some other images and pick up on some of his cropping/zooming suggestions.

·         To help plan the new version, I printed all the selected images at 2”x3”, cut them up and arranged into a narrative sequence that worked best with the soundtrack.

·         I left that new version for a few days (whilst I was away in London, during March) and came back to it ‘cold’.  Whilst happy that it was an improvement, I felt it need a stronger start – recalling the message from Peter Rudge at the Leeds Workshop and the need to get the viewer’s attention in the first few seconds – and perhaps a cleverer ending.

·         Another piece of advice from Jesse was to look at some of the experimental videos on Vimeo.  There are a lot, and a very varied bunch, but it was the avant-garde category that most caught my attention; and I guess my own video might, loosely, fall into that category.

·         Since then, I‘ve been quite busy and it has nagged away in the back of my mind.  I’ve even occasionally been tempted, once again, to abandon the whole thing.  However, it is now ‘topped and tailed’ in a way that I think works successfully.  The three images at the start, with the short soundclip (downloaded, free of charge) do have a bit of an avant-garde influence, reflecting the Vimeo research.  The ending could be a touch ‘Monty Python’, perhaps even a bit ‘naff’, but Jesse did comment on the irreverence of my approach and I think the ending maintains that.

So, the new version is available on YouTube & is being shared with my tutor.  I’ve had enough of it for the time being.  I’m reasonably happy with it; certainly think it is a vast improvement on the original; and will now press on to other things, perhaps revisiting again when Assessment time approaches.  But, any comments and suggestions will be gratefully received and stored away until then