OUAN501 - Practical, Introduction

For my context of practice practical, I wanted to make a documentar or video essay style piece that would reinforce and compliment my essay. Aside from the scientific and more structured approach I entertained in my essay there is a whole other side to the perception of video games that I wanted to cover. Aside from this I wanted to create an accompanying visual piece that would demonstrate some of the elements I was discussing through the use of news footage and other found videos. Ultimately the video essay would be a less serious and less academic look at one aspect of video game culture in terms of the controversy and research that has been done on the topic. Using this format also meant I could include actual game footage as oppose to leaving the audience in the dark when discussing certain games for example. News footage and broadcasts plays a large part in propagating stigmas, so sequencing different broadcasts together can effectively demonstrate the level to which this kind of idea is spoken about, and can be witnessed first hand the tone of voice and manner in which the information is relayed. My first thoughts on the method that I'll be using to approach this project is that it will start with a lot of preparation and sourcing of footage. I have a couple of ways that I can source footage, for example through Youtube and other streaming sites. It's important to note that because this is a student film and being made purely for the purposes of education without a monetery a financial gain - the use of this footage is acceptable. However, if I was making this documentary for a client or to be shown publically it would mean that I would have to contact the authors of the footage for permissions, and in some cases may have to pay for the content. Other early considerations I'll be making including the tone of the script and the information I'm relaying as well as music and sound design. I want each element of the piece to work well to create an overall tone throughout. This means making sure that the audio, visuals and pacing, combined with the editing needs to be cohesive.

I also saw this as an opportunity to brush up on my editing skills and create a small documentary using found footage and my own narration. Recently I've been watching a lot of documentary style work and the editing has been more and more obvious to me. Tied with this, I think I could use what I've learnt through watching other work and put it to use during the production of my practical piece. Work that comes to mind includes the documentaries produced by Michael Moore, specifically 'Bowling for Columbine' which in turn gave me a lot of information for my essay and some of the themes of gun control and fun violence. I suppose in a way the approach Michael Moore took with that documentary and how it made me feel ultimately inspired my practical piece. Coupled with this, looking at material published on sites such has Youtube has given me a huge range of references and insight into the way videos and editing can be constructed to form video essays that aren't too wordy, and contain a good balance of visuals and spoken information - one of the most helpful being, 'Every Frame a Painting', a video essay series produced by editor Tony Zhou.