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Thoughts of past projects

After viewing the previous videos, here are my general thoughts for what I need to do for my project.

General Thoughts:
I need to make sure that my video makes a clear argument and is somewhat pleasing to the eye. I need to make ensure that any websites posted has a purpose or advertise a cause. I like that most topics were aim to emphasizing current hot topics.

Dramatics:

I really liked the “The Conversion” video usages of dramatic emphasis on dates, similar to how movie trailers are aired. Also I liked commercial parodies because the general audience knows the original sorts (if they watch television). Furthermore the parodies have a plot flow that helps in how I will produce my video project.

Video Analysis

I feel that half the class did an excellent job on their videos. I say this because I normally don't like to watch anything that has to do with Politics. Because of this, I liked the Rich Rod video and "The Conversion" trailer the best. They used Rich Rod's poor conference skills and exploited them by asking him ridiculous questions that he would normally never be asked. The Conversion trailer was hilarious. Most of the thriller/scary movies recently have been very stupid, and this video is the perfect representation of them. I also liked the heroin video as it was hilarious.

The videos I found to be most effective were the Rich Rod Press Conference and My Nutsacks are Ripped. Both videos made effective use of humor, great audio tracking, effective titles and attention-grabbing mechanisms that made me want to finish them, and then watch them again. They were both fairly short, which is good in this day and age when attention spans are so low. I was particularly impressed by the clear audio and convincing backdrop of the press conference video, it gives the video authenticity while at the same time proving that it's trying to be funny, it's professional-level quality control all around. The skateboarding video effectively grabs the viewer's attention with a catchy title, along with a good soundtrack that doesnt interfere with the source video. The font used for the text within the video is also very eye-catching, much better than the boring, small, hard-to-read red text used in most other videos.

Analysis

The previous class did a very nice job on their videos. I found the most effective videos to be the Rich Rodriguez video and the one to stop Republican whining. I found these videos to be the most effective ones because they were short, had a clear message, and easy for the average person to understand. The Rich Rodriguez video was most effective in that I could relate to it, since I am a current student here at the University. I saw how horrible the 2008 season went for the new coach therefore, it was funny to me. The videos that I did not find effective were the long political ones, specifically the one that was over three minutes. It did not hold my attention and the red color text was more distracting and hard to read. Although very well done videos, I feel that most of the political videos were boring because they did not appeal to my sense of humor and mixed too many clips for me to follow. The "cracker" video was difficult to understand. I still don't know what the point of it was. As a positive part of the video, I found that the text popping up on the screen was effective because that was the part of the video that grabbed my attention and kept me watching. Overall, they were all good videos, but the ones that were short, I could relate to, and appealed to my sense of humor were the most effective and enjoyable.

Video Critique for Last Class

Most of them were pretty much pointless. They attempt to send out a message but clearly have either been edited to prove a point and therefore don't even look at the other side of the argument, or they focus so much on the dramatization of a topic that they don't get their point across at all. Some went a little overboard and were thus not very effective.

The Conversion was pretty effective to me. A little dramatic, but got it's point across nonetheless. If I had to choose one that I thought was the most effective, I'd probably say this video did it. It not only appealed emotionally to a lot of people, but it appealed to a topic that effects a lot of people. That to me is more effective than political bickering.

Past Videos

The videos from last term were all quite entertaining. In particular, I enjoyed the Rich Rod Press Conference and the Conversion. The idea behind the Rich Rod press conference is not a new idea and has been used in many Coors Light commercials. We therefore know people are entertained by mash-up interviews such as these. They asked bizarre questions which made it funny and the movie was made very well. I would definitely recommend that video to someone else.
I also found the Conversion hilarious. We all know that movie trailers can be successful viral videos and this movie trailer is made very well. It over exaggerates something that will have minimal effect on our lives as if it would be apocalyptic. The concept of a conversion having such a large effect on our lives is what makes it funny.
After viewing all the videos, I realized the majority were mash-up videos. When done well, mash up videos are very entertaining and have great potential to go viral.

Video Critique

The previous class did a very nice job with their videos. However, one constant remains clear, mash up videos that combine with unique material are clearly the most successful videos. Combining original footage with excerpts of Rich Rodriguez pressers, this developed the Rich Rodriguez Press Conference video into the most successful video of last semester, in my opinion. The use of time was very effective; not too long and not too short. As a result the video kept attention. Most of the other videos did not effectively use time in relation to their content, making them seem boring. This video was clearly the most unique and entertaining, helping it make the most concrete argument. Some videos relied too heavily on mash up material and lacked uniqueness, as a result. You must include an original component to make your video successful and unique. Uniqueness sells. Republican Leadership. Fail. and Stop Republican Whining are examples of videos that do not include original content. They essentially, just rearranged existing video footage. By adding unique material, they could have created a stronger argument to unify the different clips they used. However, because they did not do this, these videos did not interest me and lost my attention. As a result, it weakens the argument if the audience becomes bored. Anyone can go to YouTube and find ALL the footage used to compile these videos. For these reasons they are not successful, in my mind. They needed to use unique material to make a cohesive argument. Think Before You Speak is an extremely stupid video with a muddled argument, however, people who enjoy doing stupid things may find this video very interesting and thus successful. The same holds for the skateboarding video. These videos seem to appeal strongly to a niche audience. Overall, a large number of the videos lacked unique and engaging content, and this is what differentiates the Rich Rodriguez Press Conference video from the rest of the videos. As a result, it presented the clearest argument and put a humorous spin and parody to Rich Rodriguez press conferences. Who would imagine Rich Rodriguez addressing the economy? This video developed the most cohesive argument of all the videos because of its’ use of time and uniqueness. By combining existing material with a unique idea and original content, one can easily develop time with the use of content to make an engaging argument. The best videos use time wisely. Additionally, these videos present unique content with the use and aid of time to engage the viewer. An ideal video is 2:00 of strong and unique content, with content naturally determining the time of the video. A video that manages content and time is successful because it creates viewer engagement. An engaging video makes a successful video. To make a video engaging one must use content and time to engage the viewer.

Jeremy J. Petersen

Response to Videos

I can see that the students from the last class put in much work on their projects. They all turned out quite nicely. I found the Rich Rodriguez Press Conference the most effective. It presented a clear message that Rich Rodriguez does not know what he is doing, and it was pretty funny seeing the two actors taking his words out of context and putting on a humorous spin on them. The “interview” was easy to follow, and it had a professional quality to it. After the interview sequence, there was also a conclusion that summed up the purpose of the video to make fun of Rich Rodriguez. Finding a purpose was helpful for seeing the point of watching a two-minute-long video.

In addition, I also liked the zombie apocalypse video. First off, I could understand that the video was about a zombie apocalypse, so the clarity of the message was there. In addition, I liked the music that accompanied the video since it had a catchy tune. The theme of music also plays into the Joaquin video, since I liked the background music. Thus, I like videos with music. I particularly liked the sound in “The Conversion” because it was so dramatic and made the entire video dramatic. It was also humorous that the actors made “The Conversion” so serious, as if this incident would end life as we know it.

In conclusion, I liked the Rich Rodriguez video because it had clarity of purpose and humor. I also liked the fact that the Zombie Apocalypse, Save Joaquin, and The Conversation video clips had music in the background. Overall, good job to all student videos.

Reflection on Student Videos

I enjoyed watching the various student-made videos from last term. It was very interesting to see the approach that each video took from how they incorporated their subject matter with viral video techniques. One of my favorite videos was the RichRod press conference where the group used a mashup technique by taking one of his press conferences and integrated their own hypothetical questions to make his responses seem comical. It was interesting to see how they drew upon that approach from the Coors Light commercials, which have been successful. Also, I noticed how many of the videos incorporated politics since last term was during the Presidential election cycle. After looking at all the videos, I realized that one of the best approaches is to combine some past footage of celebrities in either a parody or mashup since celebrities can draw a lot of attention and this is clearly the easiest way to have one in your video. All in all, I felt that the students did a very nice job with their videos and it was interesting to see how they incorporated some of the techniques we are currently learning about in their videos.

Response to Videos

I thought some of the student videos were cleverly made, especially the Rich Rod Press Conference. The video may have placed Rich Rod’s vacillating statements deeply out of context, but this technique only made the video that much more humorous. The video seemed to play on the fact that the UM coach’s responses during the press conference were vague and ill supported. This video is a comment on how ill suited Rich Rod is for his job as a football coach, seeing as how our season was a severe disappointment. The parody then involves the two ‘journalists’ questioning Rich Rod on a serious topic (politics), thus illustrating how ridiculous his remarks truly are.
I would say the Rich Rod video was quite successful, and definitely has a chance of going viral. The Cracker video, on the other hand, left me a little confused. It did not seem like any apparent message was being sent to audiences….the video itself seemed more like an inside joke between its creators. There didn’t seem to be any logical reason behind why the girl was cramming crackers in her mouth, and the definitions of ‘cracker’ that showed up in text. The video did not have any persuasive, ethical, logical, or emotional appeals either.