Category: Weekly Assignments (Page 7 of 66)

Video Essay – Contemporary skincare ingredients and practices date back to antiquity?

Health and wellness have never been as popular as it is today. As more and more people are becoming interested in their appearance, fitness, wellness, and health, the growth of the global wellness industry is booming. With the help of social media, teens and young adults are exploring skincare approaches and products to assist their skin problems. However, skin care may be the trending cure for beautification, wellness, and health today, but truth is, it shouldn’t be surprising. Unfortunately, with millennia of knowledge shrouded, many are unaware that this practice has been around since the beginning of time. A substantial amount of ingredients found in contemporary skincare products dates back to antiquity. 

To begin with, I composed a video essay by incorporating narrations, visual images, and quotations from interviews and academic articles. This was done to inform the audience about skincare approaches dating back to antiquity. Prior to this revision, I had written an article for Unit 2, in which the research question was, “To what extent do beautification approaches of the modern-day relate to those of antiquity?” Furthermore, to reach a specific audience, City Tech Freshmen, I inferred that a video essay would be the best medium. This is because the demographics of City Tech Freshmen consist of well-rounded diversity and subjects that range from teens to young adults. Nowadays, health and wellness have become an emerging trend that is growing at a rapid rate. With new information and innovations constantly grabbing the spotlight, one may ponder the parallel of such approaches to the past. For that reason, a video essay was chosen as the medium due to its ability to deliver information conveniently, efficiently, and rapidly. A video essay is a medium that teenagers and young adults are accustomed to, especially since nowadays instant gratification and fast information are favored above all. Using visuals and audio instead of text helped to revitalize the information and support comprehension.

A video essay may be the best method of communicating information about the procedures of beautification of antiquity and its relation to contemporary methods because it helps with comprehension. I often find that audio-visual aids help viewers better understand complex and intricate matters. Since my video had a series of complex and intricate materials to discuss, it only made sense to use audio and visuals to make the material more understandable. For example, instead of simply showing a collage of photos of antique skincare ingredients, a narration was added to explain each idea and material. A photo essay may have hindered the audience’s comprehension because there may have been visuals that needed an explanation. Simply showing a photo of myrrh oil wouldn’t have satisfied understanding, as most people are unfamiliar with such ingredients. For this reason, images from the article as well as videos and images related to the topic found on the web were combined and formatted into a video. Lastly, the video was edited with a voiceover and appropriate background music was added.

Reflecting back on the composition, I had some successes and some limitations. Firstly, the medium worked well to lessen the complexity of the material and offered ease of understanding with the images and audio. Nonetheless, this was my first time creating a video essay, hence, I struggled with formatting, editing, and composing it. Although I attempted my best to self-teach and educate myself on the subject of video making, the results were a bit subpar. I had several issues with the sound and video quality which I was incompetent to revise flawlessly. For this reason, if I were to do this project once more, I’d spend more time learning in-depth about video making and editing. It may also be a good idea to visit a museum and interview a researcher to enhance the venture. Perhaps instead of trying to cover an array of ancient approaches and procedures, I could simply focus on one ingredient or culture. Another idea would be to organize a personal interview with an Egyptologist, that way the questions would be more direct and specific to the discussion. I hope that my viewers find my video essay informative and interesting. I also hope that with this video, they feel encouraged to ask more questions and understand more about their ancestors.