A/V Reflection
I had several thoughts about how to go about making this argument that I felt would meet my rhetorical needs. One would be to stage a takeover of the lounge, in which I get a group of friends together in ski masks, with the long sticks and homemade shields, to make it look like some Black Bloc tactics. NWA or Run the Jewels plays, and then everyone just pushes the furniture together, unrolls sleeping bags, and goes to sleep. It looked funny in my head, but pulling all of that together was challenging for multiple reasons. I decided to go for something that imitated what an institution would put out for promotional reasons, whether that's to attract money from donors or attention from prospective students. Think of what would go up on the website: facilities presented in pristine condition, enjoyed by a multi-ethnic group of friends, while a soundtrack that's upbeat yet inoffensive plays. What I felt was really key was the attempt to portray a close-knit community animated by that classic Bobcat vim.
Visuals:
An opening pan seemed like a no-brainer, since its an easy way to show off the space. I jumped to the art installed around the lounge next because their function in the space itself is to highlight significant alumni, speak to MSU's significance in the broader world, or to try and communicate some cultural roots. I think the idea is to construct a sense of place and significance in the space (rhetorically speaking), but it's always felt shoddy to me. Those metal bobcats in the fireplace are especially egregious, since at this point the fireplace isn't the focal point the way it would be if it were used regularly. I presented myself as the multi-ethnic group of friends, smiling and enjoying my college experience, but also very serious about my academics. I knew I had to really sell it with my smiling or grimacing, and then oversell it by licking the page of my book (Thomas Merton's American Prophecy by Robert Inchausti; highly recommended) if I wanted to effectively move from playing the genre straight to using it as a vehicle for satire. I tried to use the title cards to the same effect. They are distinctly amateurish, which I hope clues viewers into the fact that this is all nonsense. Light is also really important. The Leigh Lounge is a cave once you get past 4 or 5.
Music:
All I did was Google "Upbeat Guitar Music" and I got the exact type of banal, background-to-an-instructional-video music that I wanted. I made sure that when I was cutting it to fit the length of the video to keep the dismount, a beautiful strum and fade out. I added the music after I had cut the visuals together, and I felt that they played off of each other in a way that really made this video look like campy promotional material before I even added the narration.
Narration:
I think I would describe this as creating a persona, namely the persona of a functionary in a university bureaucracy. I felt that an even and positive tone, with slightly over exaggerated diction, would effectively form the placid surface, which would then be broken when I start mocking my student character, who just wants to take a nap. One thing that I really wanted, and feel that I pulled off, was effective play between the narration and the visuals.
The narration is definitely distracting in those moments where I'm ad libbing and end up crafting some truly horrendous phrases, so writing and practicing would have helped quite a bit. One thing that's definitely different from writing is that, with writing, that last revision is the presentable version, but with narration its as if the writing is only the first step, and even when it goes right there can still be bobbles in terms of delivery.
Visuals:
An opening pan seemed like a no-brainer, since its an easy way to show off the space. I jumped to the art installed around the lounge next because their function in the space itself is to highlight significant alumni, speak to MSU's significance in the broader world, or to try and communicate some cultural roots. I think the idea is to construct a sense of place and significance in the space (rhetorically speaking), but it's always felt shoddy to me. Those metal bobcats in the fireplace are especially egregious, since at this point the fireplace isn't the focal point the way it would be if it were used regularly. I presented myself as the multi-ethnic group of friends, smiling and enjoying my college experience, but also very serious about my academics. I knew I had to really sell it with my smiling or grimacing, and then oversell it by licking the page of my book (Thomas Merton's American Prophecy by Robert Inchausti; highly recommended) if I wanted to effectively move from playing the genre straight to using it as a vehicle for satire. I tried to use the title cards to the same effect. They are distinctly amateurish, which I hope clues viewers into the fact that this is all nonsense. Light is also really important. The Leigh Lounge is a cave once you get past 4 or 5.
Music:
All I did was Google "Upbeat Guitar Music" and I got the exact type of banal, background-to-an-instructional-video music that I wanted. I made sure that when I was cutting it to fit the length of the video to keep the dismount, a beautiful strum and fade out. I added the music after I had cut the visuals together, and I felt that they played off of each other in a way that really made this video look like campy promotional material before I even added the narration.
Narration:
I think I would describe this as creating a persona, namely the persona of a functionary in a university bureaucracy. I felt that an even and positive tone, with slightly over exaggerated diction, would effectively form the placid surface, which would then be broken when I start mocking my student character, who just wants to take a nap. One thing that I really wanted, and feel that I pulled off, was effective play between the narration and the visuals.
The narration is definitely distracting in those moments where I'm ad libbing and end up crafting some truly horrendous phrases, so writing and practicing would have helped quite a bit. One thing that's definitely different from writing is that, with writing, that last revision is the presentable version, but with narration its as if the writing is only the first step, and even when it goes right there can still be bobbles in terms of delivery.
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