Compelling Video & Commentary

Director’s Commentary

How am I possibly going to be able to do this assignment? When I began the thinking process for this module, I really had no clue what I was going to focus on for the compelling aspect. Even more of an issue of concern had to do with my personality. Being a very shy individual when it comes to cameras, I knew I would have to push myself.  The first attempt resulted with feelings of embarrassment and even more anxiety. In addition, I found I wasn’t really focusing enough on the nature and even more, the design elements. After a few more failed attempts, the lightbulb finally clicked on. Why not focus on the issue I’m experiencing at this exact moment.....dread.

The design elements I attempted were zooming, angle, and lighting. In my opinion, they worked pretty adequately for the nature of the scene. First with zooming, I wanted the main focus to be on just me. In particular, my face, it needed to relay the message or idea of the story by itself. I wanted the background of the scene to be minimal in effort to keep main attention on the focal point of the story; the emotion I was trying to convey to my audience. Since I was using the web cam on the computer, I wasn’t able to focus in as much as I would have wanted, which was a negative aspect for achieving this design element. I believe if it was zoomed even more on the character, instead of the wide screen shot, it would have reduced background attention that might occur. However, the web cam was essential in adding to the story line; student working on a computer to finish assignments for class. The web cam angle gave an alternative or unique view to someone at work on the computer. An angle that one wouldn’t traditionally see unless you are the computer itself. Also, this angle helped to achieve additionally focus and attention on the character’s face. It reveals straight forward the facial expressions and reactions to what they are working on at that moment. This was my favorite aspect of the scene. The last element I attempted was the lighting. I really wanted it be darker in the room for a couple reasons. One, it dulls out the background and assists with keeping the viewer’s outlook directly on the person; less distractibility. Second, the darker lighting allowed the main lighting for the scene to come  directly from the computer screen. This creates validity for the focus and storyline of the scene. The viewer believes that the character is really using the computer, and the lighting also plays nicely on the face in the emotion revealing process. This design element could have been improved upon with darker lighting in the background. Unfortunately, the room itself made it difficult to achieve this aspect, unless shot at night. 

      Overall, even though this was an assignment that I had reservations towards, in the end it was a positive experience. Not only did I make myself come out my comfort level some, it was somewhat fun. In addition, I feel as though I was creative in my approach to make 'dread' an experience by making it personal. This is something that I have learned with NDCE. Compelling comes from looking from within but also by taking on new perspectives.