Today, I watched a video ‘The art of nonfiction’ from the course guideline. I deeply enjoy videos that create meaning by combining a bunch of diverse footage, that are rather incompatible if you look at them separately. The art of evoking emotions and touching people’s feelings without a depressing plot or a gloomy dialogue is something I have great respect for. But what really got me thinking in this particular video, is the words:

The art of nonfiction lies in the tension between chaos and structure.

I feel like maybe that’s what I find so appealing about atmospheric montage videos – they are pure chaos that has been structured to make sense. “The art of nonfiction” video itself is a great illustration of these words- it’s just a contemplation of random videos that manage to create a story when put together. In my contextual studies, we are now talking about semiotics and how people are constantly creating, extracting and reshaping the meaning of pretty much everything that surrounds us (Danesi 2008). That’s how videos like that come alive – when a person watches this video sequence they fulfill it with a meaning of their own.

Now that I think about it, that’s how most of the fan-made videos are structured. Of course, its a different story since these videos are fictional by definition, but it doesn’t change the fact that they still conform to the chaos-structure paradigm. I am a follower of more fandoms that I want to admit, and all those videos that make a fan’s heart beat faster are almost always a contemplation of random movie/series scenes that create meaning when put together. It doesn’t have a plot, a narrative, sometimes not even a dialogue, yet it overwhelms people with feelings and emotions. It creates a meaning from chaos because its structured to make sense. Have a look at the video below:

Once again, it’s just a bunch of random videos that are in no way connected. They are even from different movies/series. Yet, when put together they tell a story of friendship and loyalty, they invoke strong feelings and send shivers down your spine. They create an atmosphere and communicate meaning. For me, this is incredibly powerful and important.

I don’t think that for our final project we will be doing a montage. I had fun experimenting with it for assignment 2, and I feel like I should move on and explore different approaches to documentary. However, this little discovery I made is really meaningful to me and I will definitely keep making montage videos later in my studies and personal life.