From my studio, a piece of work that I engaged with was Elsa and Kai Tong’s experimental video titled Hurt. As described in the synopsis it showcases the emotions of growing up with already experienced injuries prior. This is conveyed through providing the inanimate objects with a facet of being a living thing with items being the mandarin and the egg. Throughout the video with the use of poetic techniques such as close ups, it created a disturbing tone as it focused on how these items get injured and have their shell ripped apart but, at times, also showcased intimate scenes with these items getting repaired. I really enjoyed how Elsa and Kaitong also used split screens to convey the explosive list in how these items can get hurt over and over again as well as how they become temporarily fixed and also contrasting between getting fixed and becoming ripped apart. Towards the later half I thought the change in colour towards purple definitely changed the tone of the video as it enhanced its disturbing tone in the close ups creating a dark type of tone and emphasising the hurt these items experience. Even though not a lot of layering audio was used , it allowed more attention to the visuals which I thought was very effective so the audience can focus on thinking more about how what is shown makes sense to them. The question “Are you still you” ended the video well and in an engaging way where it made me question myself to what I just saw as well as trying to find the similarities with the items being broken but then repaired again.  

Another work that I engaged with from my studio was the video titled To Verb made by Jason Jia, Ziyi Ning and Charlotte Duanmu.Throughout To Verb, it took note and showcased mainly through split screen the details in the perspective of the authors as well activities of the mundane with a prompt being a verb . The stock motion in one of the shots was quite clever as it really accentuated  the details of the verb being crumpled and its action on the item. The split screen gathered a list of different perspectives to be shown expressing the authors thinking about the verb and their relation to it. Towards the 2nd chapter of the video the camera angle movements became more dynamic and engaging with being accompanied by audio. The sound effects were also successful in  enhancing the visuals in creating a disturbing and unpleasant feeling and almost exposing the dark side of what these verbs can do to items. Whilst chapter 1 and 2 had someone saying the verb the audio and visuals were based on, the 3rd chapter removed which was a successful technique in making me contemplate more about the visuals even more with the type of verb they were trying to portray. 

For the studio Deconstructing and Reconstructing genre, a video I watched was Spiral made by Annabel Cohen, Sarah Menegon and Courtney Joyce. A key idea to me that this video was trying to convey was of the horror, thriller type of genre where a repetitive cycle and loop of  the main character who is living in isolation and by herself . She is also repeatedly shown to be in bed with watching the news reports of a murder which overtime i found out that it was actually her.  The dark color tones and the distorted audio varying in pitch highlighted the loneliness the main character is living in but later developed into emphasising and reflecting her evil intentions. With the use of repetition in audio and visual effects and consistent use of colours, it definitely was successful in conveying the endless cycle the murderer is living in and that she does not want to leave it and instead embraces. This is especially shown when she is happily holding a vinyl and a glass of wine as if that is her coping mechanism to not feel guilty in murdering people as compared to the start where she is in blue lighting emphasising her loneliness with her looking sad and hunched over.