It's coming along, for sure. It does feel a little diffuse in terms of your position. If you could imagine a research paper with no thesis statement and no conclusion, that's a little bit what it feels like. It's shot and edited well, effective in many ways at putting the viewer in the position of someone playing the game, but it feels like it needs something more to push it past being raw documentation set to music. There's no one thing that could be, lots of things could work to give it an armature: interview voice over, text, other footage inter-cut with the game footage. I'm not sure. But it's a bit too reliant on the music at this point. I like the moments where you allow the ambient audio to creep in, but I feel like loosing the music altogether for the majority of the piece would do it good.
I think there are a lot of interesting directions you could go with this footage. I actually think you might be able to combine it with some of your video game footage from your first piece to make something really interesting. Paintball is kind of the real life equivalent to Counterstrike or other first person shooter games, and I'm sure the experience of actually being shot at is very different to sitting in front of a screen. Maybe you take an angle like this. Perhaps you frame the piece as an investigation into simulated violence, which paintball and videogames both are. It doesn't have to be for or against these things, necessarily, but it needs to take some kind of a stance, whether inquisitive or otherwise.
I'm going to give you some links to some essay/documentary videos that deal with similar subjects and maybe they will give you some ideas. Take a look:
I also just want to say that the choice of Rage Against The Machine might be a tricky one. They have such well defined associations with activism and social conflict. I think if you were going to use their music, you would want to be well defined about your political stance, otherwise viewers might wonder where you're coming from. Just a thought.
I like the effects that you put to make it seem more badass. But I am not sure I understand what the video is about. Is it a music video?
ReplyDeleteHey Ian,
ReplyDeleteIt's coming along, for sure. It does feel a little diffuse in terms of your position. If you could imagine a research paper with no thesis statement and no conclusion, that's a little bit what it feels like. It's shot and edited well, effective in many ways at putting the viewer in the position of someone playing the game, but it feels like it needs something more to push it past being raw documentation set to music. There's no one thing that could be, lots of things could work to give it an armature: interview voice over, text, other footage inter-cut with the game footage. I'm not sure. But it's a bit too reliant on the music at this point. I like the moments where you allow the ambient audio to creep in, but I feel like loosing the music altogether for the majority of the piece would do it good.
I think there are a lot of interesting directions you could go with this footage. I actually think you might be able to combine it with some of your video game footage from your first piece to make something really interesting. Paintball is kind of the real life equivalent to Counterstrike or other first person shooter games, and I'm sure the experience of actually being shot at is very different to sitting in front of a screen. Maybe you take an angle like this. Perhaps you frame the piece as an investigation into simulated violence, which paintball and videogames both are. It doesn't have to be for or against these things, necessarily, but it needs to take some kind of a stance, whether inquisitive or otherwise.
I'm going to give you some links to some essay/documentary videos that deal with similar subjects and maybe they will give you some ideas. Take a look:
http://www.vimeo.com/3637023
http://vimeo.com/8112183
http://blogs.walkerart.org/filmvideo/2010/03/11/o%E2%80%99er-the-land-of-the-free-deborah-stratmans-epitaph-for-american-freedom/
I also just want to say that the choice of Rage Against The Machine might be a tricky one. They have such well defined associations with activism and social conflict. I think if you were going to use their music, you would want to be well defined about your political stance, otherwise viewers might wonder where you're coming from. Just a thought.