Today, we finished watching the rest of the videos.
Jerald: although I had watched Jerald’s video several times previously, I had not noticed any flaws in his video other than the fact that his video is more editing than footage. However, the class miraculously managed to criticize it quite heavily, and I do agree with some of their comments. Someone mentioned that his subtitles were hard to read because it was white and blended into the background, and after rewatching it, I found that this is true. I also agree with Ms. Wong, who said that footage could have been put into the beginning and the end, when we were basically looking at a wall. However, I really liked Jerald’s editing. Not many of us had played around with effects, and that made Jerald’s film unique.
Joe: I liked Joe’s use of lighting and music. He has obviously put a lot of thought into his film because of the setting and costumes used to make the scene as realistic as possible. Although the storyline was a little too dramatic, I don’t think it was a major problem; I think it made the film more interesting rather than over-exaggerated and unrealistic, as many other people said. One problem was that Chris opened his eyes while supposedly dead, which detracted from the overall realistic-ness of Joe’s film.
Justin: Justin’s clip was very entertaining and unique for the upbeat tone it adopted for most of the video. He made good use of lighting and music to enhance the whole mood, and his sudden change at the end from cheerful to serious was smooth because of his good use of music. The best thing I liked about his video, however, was the nice range of shots he used – it made the video so much more interesting than always looking at things from one angle. This is something I have to improve on as I know my film was very monotonous in that aspect.
Kevin: I think Kevin should have cut the beginning parts shorter so that he could have included an ending that actually made a point about intellectual property. The first part was too long and very repetitive – we already get the message that someone is copy-pasting from the internet. The acting also made it a bit confusing as the actress scratched her head at one point, making it look as if she was actually working, instead of effortlessly stealing form the internet.
Nick: Nick could have chosen a more dramatic piece of music for the background sound. It was a bit strange because Nick had obviously thought about the location and props a lot, but didn’t put a lot of effort into costumes. He could have made use of a wider range of angles and the acting could also have been more dramatic.
Tiffanie: I think Tiffanie has the same problem as Kevin. She does not make a point in her film. The clip of the Google search ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ could have been sped up to make it less boring and also to leave more time for her to make a point. I think she made good use of the camera, however, and had some nice shots of the computer screen. I remember that in LokLok’s video, it was just a sraight almost screen-shot feel, but Tiffanie included other parts of the room as well, which I thought was good.
Clare: the orange font at the beginning was quite hard to read because there were multi-colored vehicles zooming around behind the text, and it was a bit dizzying to read with things zooming across the screen at the same time. I think she could have used more video, because hers looked as if it was made from pictures, which made it seem more like a slideshow than a film, and it was quite static. The ending was also too abrupt.
Francesca: Francesca had a lot of repetitive footage, and the whole video is basically a process of her sharing files, which was a bit boring. Added on to that, what happens on the screen is not very clear, and the music doesn’t suit the theme.
Stephie: I liked Stephie’s film because it was humorous, something that not many others had tried. The choice of music was appropriate to her light clip, and her storyline was very easy to understand (she was criticized for having too simple a storyline, but I think it’s good because the viewer can follow it easily). However, the filming was not so good. More extras could have been used in the beginning, because Clare was the only one sitting in the ‘cinema’. The jail shot was also very unrealistic because of the lighting. The page of information at the end was too much for the viewer to read, and defeated the whole purpose of the film, so that should have been taken out.
Shun: I thought that Shun’s video was not very well executed. As Joanna said, it seemed like a homemade video, rather than one to submit for a film project. The change in background music for his video was too abrupt. His video also does not have a clear point.
Josh: The deep voice he used for the voice-over at the beginning didn’t really match the atmosphere. I also wonder if his statistic was true (45 000 or so songs being downloaded illegally during the time it took us to watch the 30-second clip.) I remember someone having used that same statistic, but the Josh applied that statistic to 30 seconds, while the other person applied it to what I assumed was a longer period of time. I also noticed that one of his shots was a bit grainy.
Isaac: The atmosphere for Isaac’s video was too light. Even when Isaac was in jail, happy music was playing. However, his shot of the jail was considerably better than Stephie’s. I also think that the subtitles Isaac used took attention off the actual footage, and he could do something about that.
