Skip to main content

My Next Climate Video Unveiled

This time I narrated it myself. Probably again quite amateurish, but I think it came out reasonably well considering my lack of experience. Check it out:



Comments or suggestions appreciated, though please remember I'm still a noob at this stuff.

Comments

  1. I thought it was swell, Ryan. Succinct, punchy, interesting. I was wondering why such a quick pace? Your normal speech pattern is not that swift. I could follow you, but just. I'd like to debate the comparison of the danger of a nuclear war with the danger of climate change with you one day. But in the end, I agree with your conclusion. Hope you make some more video comments. I really liked it. B

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with B. Excellent video with the right tone and arguments but you could have slowed down a little bit. I don't know what the right pace would be but somewhere between how you normally speak it the speed in this video would probably be the sweet spot. Most important is that you make more videos because this one was great. Good job man.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks guys! Part of the quick speech is probably just imitating one of my favorite video game reviewers, though I think it does make you pay attention a bit more. I'll have to experiment with that. Any suggestions for the next subject?

    And Noah, what are you up to these days?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with the other commentators. It was a great video, with good material and interesting narration, but the pacing was a tad too quick. Looking forward to the next.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You're a fast learner, Ryan, so the noob argument is null. First off, it is much more focused than your first entry, and it shows that you're more willing to experiment with editing possibilities. That being said, here's some feedback from which I hope you will benefit:

    In my opinion, the juxtaposition of a slow and deliberate narration against flash images often depicting what is already being spoken, either directly or vicariously (and not without added [often personal] emphasis), is contrapuntally ineffective. By providing little to no contrast with the subject matter depicted in the visual imagery, the only variation we detect occurs in the pacing -- as every commentator has indicated. The solution to this is simple: break the dominating rhythm established by the narration by focusing on key thematic elements and advance them in sequences, rather than laying down a complete audio track and assembling -- like a motion collage -- a set of corresponding images. This splitting process does not dismiss what the narration states by any means; rather, it provides ample breathing room for the audience to allow the meaning of what is being said to settle in, giving time for accompanying -- and (I would recommend) contrasting -- visual imagery to reiterate through counterpoint a deepening sense of ethical iteration to what is essentially being addressed through the audio. Setting musical cues aside, consider the possibility of laying down an ambient track of various (preferably relevant) environments beneath the narration, meshing with fades out and in from the narrative track, to provide you with a continuous bed of sound for arranging your images. I think you'll find this really works wonders for cathartic poignancy. As a last suggestion, I would ask you to try and watch the video (i.e. just the visual imagery) without the narrative track upon completion and to take some notes about how progressing from one image to the next produces emotional responses, e.g. heightened suspense, sorrow, hope, etc., and to see if the subjective cadences match what you would like to have resonate from the material being discussed. (This final step is often best reiterated through second and third opinions from people who have not heard the audio track.)

    That being said, I think your next vid on Climate Change would benefit greatly from some of the philosophical issues presented in Stephen M. Gardiner's "A Perfect Moral Storm", though any form of conversation on this topic is valued.

    Keep up the good work, editing is all about practice and learning what styles suit you, and I look forward to your next entry. Cheers, A.B.P.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Did Reality Winner Leak to the Intercept?

So Reality Winner, former NSA contractor, is in federal prison for leaking classified information — for five years and three months, the longest sentence of any whistleblower in history. She gave documents on how Russia had attempted to hack vendors of election machinery and software to The Intercept , which completely bungled basic security procedures (according to a recent New York Times piece from Ben Smith, the main fault lay with Matthew Cole and Richard Esposito ), leading to her capture within hours. Winner recently contracted COVID-19 in prison, and is reportedly suffering some lingering aftereffects. Glenn Greenwald has been furiously denying that he had anything at all to do with the Winner clusterfuck, and I recently got in an argument with him about it on Twitter. I read a New York story about Winner, which clearly implies that she was listening to the Intercepted podcast of March 22, 2017 , where Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill expressed skepticism about Russia actually b

The Basic Instinct of Socialism

This year I finally decided to stop beating around the bush and start calling myself a democratic socialist. I think the reason for the long hesitation is the very long record of horrifying atrocities carried out by self-described socialist countries. Of course, there is no social system that doesn't have a long, bloody rap sheet, capitalism very much included . But I've never described myself as a capitalist either, and the whole point of socialism is that it's supposed to be better than that. So of course I cannot be a tankie — Stalin and Mao were evil, terrible butchers, some of the worst people who ever lived. There are two basic lessons to be learned from the failures of Soviet and Chinese Communism, I think. One is that Marxism-Leninism is not a just or workable system. One cannot simply skip over capitalist development, and any socialist project must be democratic and preserve basic liberal freedoms. The second, perhaps more profound lesson, is that there is no s

Varanus albigularis albigularis

That is the Latin name for the white-throated monitor lizard , a large reptile native to southern Africa that can grow up to two meters long (see pictures of one at the Oakland Zoo here ). In Setswana, it's called a "gopane." I saw one of these in my village yesterday on the way back from my run. Some kids from school found it in the riverbed and tortured it to death, stabbing out its eyes, cutting off its tail, and gutting it which finally killed it. It seemed to be a female as there were a bunch of round white things I can only imagine were eggs amongst the guts. I only arrived after it was already dead, but they described what had happened with much hilarity and re-enactment. When I asked why they killed it, they said it was because it would eat their chickens and eggs, which is probably true, and because it sucks blood from people, which is completely ridiculous. It might bite a person, but not unless threatened. It seems roughly the same as killing wolves that