Faced with the prospect of producing both a video essay and an audio essay, I had to ask the question: what are they? So, as it was a long weekend and I was expected to be 1.5 times more productive, it was research time.
First up,
THE VIDEO ESSAY
This is a voice over type of video essay. The main information is relayed through voice over, matched with visuals, in this case copyrighted footage from films that underscore what the narrator is talking about at that point in the video. At certain points, text is shown on the screen that reinforces the narrator’s argument by providing another visual representation of what is being said. The background music is quite faint so the speaker is easily heard. Clearly, this particular style of essay would not be appropriate for PB4 in terms of its heavy reliance on copyrighted materials, but then again, it is also a film analysis essay, and not a strictly academic one.
Next is the video essay Adaptation’s Anomalities. Like the video essay above, it is also a film analysis style video essay (the majority of the essays I found, if not all, were related to film) that relies on copyrighted material, in this case from the film Adaptation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o47Lr9GXEnI
So I moved on to What Makes A Video Essay Great? by Kevin B. Lee. This video was interesting as it offered more insight into what exactly a video essay is. Lee discussed video essays such as Tony Zhou’s, from the Youtube channel Every Frame A Painting. His style, also similar to the videos I’ve previously discussed, is to produce short, smart video essays. Zhou’s style is, as Lee puts it, “assertively opinionating” but delivered in a conversational tone that makes it appealing. The words and images are fast paced and compressed, delivering a “high impact sensory experience” (Lee). Zhou’s videos are engaging and easy to watch, which perhaps aligns with the almost superficial way in which modern audiences consume media – but that’s a topic for another blog post.
Another video essay Lee mentioned is Thomas van den Berg’s On (Un)Reliable (Un)Reliability. Van den Berg makes the distinction between video essays and essay videos, the former of which is van den Berg’s. Where video essays, like those of Tony Zhou, consist of instructive, formal analysis, video essays incorporate theoretical framework, citations and references, and audiovisual rhetoric. Van den Berg’s essay video is, I think, more in line with what we are expected to produce for Project Brief 4. However, I found this format less engaging than the first examples. This was due to the flat tone of the hyper narration and the dreary academic language, not to mention the video’s considerable length.
Moving on,
THE AUDIO ESSAY
Examples of these appear to be scarcer than video essays. I found a guide here, that helped shed some light some light on the process of producing an audio essay. This website suggests:
- Use a conversational style.
- Use vivid details that paint a picture in the listener’s mind.
- Use a simple and clear method of organising your essay.
Also, the exercise we did with the Zoom recorder in the Workshops will also come in handy, no doubt.
I found another audio essay here, Remembering Those Who Serve. The figure, the main sound, is the narrator, who is crisply recorder and clearly audible over the background sounds. At one point, snippets from news recordings from the 70’s become the figure, which are in turn clearly audible. The key to this audio essay is the mixing and balancing of the different sounds. Notably also is the skill of the narrator to create interest and drama through his manner of speaking, for example, pausing to create dramatic effect, and thus heightening the audience engagement.
These are just a few examples, and I will likely further my research, especially to find more audience essays, but I feel I have grasped a basic enough understanding of these formats to contribute to the discussing amongst my group members.