I wanted to do something a little different with my video project because I have worked with video in the past. Usually, when I work with video the footage is the main focus, which is to be expected with the medium, but for my project I wanted to try something different and focus on the audio.
I went for a concept of train announcements and used stock footage of someone on the L train so that the video felt like being on the subway while an announcement came on. I used the editing software Adobe Premiere to create a special effect on my audio recording and make it sound like an announcement. At a certain point in the video the actual train announcement can be heard which is, admittedly, odd. Unfortunately, if I wanted to keep the sound of the train I would also have to keep the announcement since this video was the only footage I had. The video is from the Creative Commons library [link] I couldn’t go out to shoot footage out of concern for my health, as I have preexisting conditions that put me in the at-risk group for severe illness from Covid-19.
Lately, there is a lot of talk about what is essential. I felt that many people were making misguided judgments and doing things that would put people like me at risk. Thinking about the difficulties I would face were I to contract the virus naturally stresses me out, so I aimed to do something a little humorous. I considered situations I had heard about online and on the news and thought about what was truly necessary and about who was being hurt the most; Tenants, minimum wage workers, “low skill” labor workers, basically, most people in the lower class. I included ridiculous parts of the current state of the world (“Franchise Mascots: Unnecessary”) as well as some personal information. I did actually ask my friends to rank rice, bread, potatoes, and pasta, and while it was entertaining at first… two of them ended up upset with each other and the rest of us were left in awkward positions… the WWE wishes it could ensue as much chaos in five minutes as four 20-year-olds left to their devices in a group chat.
Making this video was an interesting experience, it isn’t something I would do of my own accord and I’m glad that despite being a medium I don’t typically use to express myself (my work with video is usually just that, work) I could still make something that felt representative of my design identity. I was surprised to learn that my video was interpreted as spoken word poetry, as that wasn’t my intent, and poetry is a medium that I never really considered for myself. I was just trying to make something entertaining, and in that sense I think I succeeded. Really I made something for myself, that I wanted to see. I’m tired of the news; everything around me has become exhausting, it seems only natural that other people would feel that way too.
