Module 2. Compelling Video

            Making a one minute compelling video is not as easy as I expected.

           I was inspired by my messy kitchen and a fly in my house. I tried to express the fly’s transient life through its perspective. From the fly’s perspective, the kitchen is a big unknown world to explore. The fly would be excited to explore the new world. Everything seems enlarged to the fly. To express this feeling, I started my video from the window seal (kind of weird place, but the common place for the fly’s perspective), and tried to keep the higher view point and focus on the enlarged food. I also hope that the audiences feel the fly’s free and light movements through the motion of the lens. By flying together with a fly, the audiences can equate themselves with the fly. Then, the audiences can have fun and enjoy the peaceful moment. When the fly finds the real food (pasta), they can be excited together. However, the fly’s view must be very narrow and limited, which also means that the fly cannot really expect their near future. For this effect, I never show any kind of threat or danger to the audiences so far. Then, I expect the audience feel the tension when the fly finds pasta, because the pasta is not only its real joy, but also its real trap. With a big smashing sound, the video reaches the climax. The slow motions and beautiful sunshine elaborate the last moments of the fly’s life. I expect the audiences feel both sympathetic and relief (as a human) together. The last scene (a boy with a fly swatter), is for the cute conclusion. The audience can realize that their perspective was the fly’s by seeing a boy’s naughty face. My original video did not have the fly’s sound. It was my choice to emphasize the smashing sound. However, I realized that it was not easy to express fly’s character without a sound. I was concerned about leading the audience on too long without some hint. (The audiences may not know what they are watching until the end of the movie.)

            Throughout the whole video, I expect the audience to feel curiosity, fun, and identification in the beginning part, tension in the middle, and the humor at the end. To make this video compelling in the given time, I used variety of angles, sounds, and slow motion function. I thought that was the best way to express the actor’s (the fly’s) character and the mood which I tried to created.