Self- Portrait Analysis

 

 

After given an assignment to create a visual self-portrait, it made sense to get inspiration from others who may have been assigned a similar topic. After being exposed to several videos I’ve come up with a top three that contained features I would like to incorporate in my self-portrait film.

My Most Important Self-portrait  

5 seconds into the film “My Most Important Self-Portrait”   I was unsure of in the direction the film was going. No words were said, but the dark contrast setting along with the uneasy movement of the man caused a suspenseful feeling from what I was watching. Within minutes I feel in love with the animation of the words. Words beside visuals are more powerful than words alone.  The words only outlined the body of the man allowing me to relate the message with the person who is being affected. The drawings told a story and his body language correspond. I didn’t necessarily receive a topic from the narrative, but the story is what I was most impressed with. It’s easier to comprehend an interesting story verses grasping a theme may not actually represent the message trying to be given. What’s a message if it can’t be passed along?  The story telling feature in this documentary makes it a great video! I wanted to share this video with my friends, even if I couldn’t get the video to them; the visual was so strong I was able to give them a play-by-play of the scenario. I really want my self-portrait to give my audience the same fulfillment. After viewing the video I had no questions for the motives of the film.  The strength of this man to rise above his situation amazed me; even more amazing for him to be able to display to the word his shortcoming in a way for any viewer to appeal to him.

 

Cooking Self-Portrait

For some reason I love video’s with weird angles. Inclined, unfocused, and even point of view shots force more thought from the viewer without them even being aware they are doing so. I also want these kinds of shots in my self-portrait. The still frames in the beginning gave me direction; let me know regardless the message of the video cooking will be included. I watched the video twice: once with audio, and again without. With audio I learned this young man is optimist who appreciates the positive things in life. The narrative lead me in this direction using phrases such as “ you can’t go wrong” and “ what usually tends to be the case is, it turns out fine”. Without audio somewhat got the optimistic message but not exactly. The visuals were a lot stronger, I didn’t have to focus on that he was saying. Long narratives force the viewer to focus on either the visual or audio. For this video I think the visual is so settle the message could have been translated the same without the storyline. I enjoyed watching him prep, chef and present the food. It gave me satisfaction; beginning, middle, end, which is made it a suitable video to watch.

My life

The quality of this video is AMAZING! Talk about HD! The music was very upbeat and it flew with the pace of the video. The video starts out with a room which full of things that represent his life; great metaphor although I didn’t realize it until the ending.  I love the categories of the film, it kept the film very organized. The text was just enough to explain what was being seen; “MY...” let me know indeed this was his labor being presented.  I like the way the creator of the film showed instruments followed by their actual pieces of work to connect how important the crafts are to him.  He used this link in every category he presented.  I noticed a couple hidden messages as well. Not sure how accurate I am, noticing a painting of chess, I concluded he liked chess. I drew assumptions based on his symbolism used in the beginning of the film, that every visual had a hidden message. When “MY PRODUCTION” grouping was being watched I became confused. I didn’t know whether the video message had been changed or if the new video had intentionally been placed in. Overall the video was busy, a lot was going on. Even though the parts where separated by text, there were such a quick change in locations it was hard for me to adjust to the new images being presented.  The video was far from bad, it achieved in giving the creator a sense of character. It was just a lot of character to take in.