This week is about the very powerful language and images of the video essay. It is important to have a great balance between the spoken word, the soundtrack and the visual footage you use in an essay. You don’t want to bore your audience by showing them a picture of a duck accompanied by duck quacking. You have to find a way to tell your narrative along with powerful images.
Lisa Purpura uses a very strong visual language and metaphors in her essay called “Autopsy Report” from 2006. I honestly didn’t get why we should read this essay, when we talk about video essays. But as I was reading her poetical piece of writing, I pictured her detailed descriptions of the dead human body in my mind, comparing the mass of internal organs with the piled up groceries in the supermarket. I don’t know if I actually want to see what Purpura is describing, but her way of storytelling and use of language is very effective for the reader’s imagination.
One of my favorite video essays so far is Biss & Bresland’s “Dust Off”. I am fascinated by their use of powerful footage of the beautiful sensations of nature to visualize a very sad topic, the death of three young men in the pursuit of pleasure. In the first part, Theo dies because he inhales some toxic gas from the chemistry laboratory, which was supposed to make him high. Bliss and Bresland use the image of a snow storm to picture his story. The second part is about Curt, who dies in a car accident caused by speed driving. The directors depict the blue horizon/sky, showing the sun and the cloud of smoke from a rocket. The third and last part displays jellyfishes while talking about Elijah, who died of self-strangulation trying to have a more intense orgasm. There is no camera movement, the depicting objects move in slow motion. In addition to the great idea to actually NOT show what they are talking about, I also liked the recurring theme of the swing. Bliss and Bresland use a swing with three seats as a metaphor for the three dead boys at the beginning and the end. This video is epic! I think I am going to use their technique in my own essay…