Jeremy Bowtells raised some very good points in this weeks Lecture. The rhythm of the editing is a key component to juxtapose meanings using spaces and gaps. Using the ideas brought up i will dissect a video ( more series) i have come to love over the past weeks.
John Winslow ‘how to keep smoking’ is like nothing i have seen before. Its purposefully bad bad video with an unconventional message (like many of his videos). John talks in a stuttery and sometimes coughy voice when he dubs over many many shots of his journeys in NYC. each sentence juxtaposes the image we see, and ends as the footage ends, continuing as if a never ending sentence, that just keeps on going and going.
He carries a VHS camera everywhere he goes, and recording random occurrences, odd things and everyday people. Its a guerilla shoot as he doesn’t go for permission to use people in his video. Its truely substance over form as the story is the most important aspect.
John always “makes a cut for a positive reason”. This reason is the rhythm of the videos cutting. Rarely does he have footage of one or 2 seconds. Virtually every shot it 5seconds long ive noticed. it is not ‘stale’ as later in the video he breaks this cycle for the underlining or ‘big philosophical’ question. its what makes his videos different and exiting to me.
I really want to explore the wittiness, awkwardness and Lo-fi attributes of johns videos further in some upcoming projects.