Video Critique Number 2

Video Critique Number 2
September 10, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11482829" width="400" height="338" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11482829">la biblioteca: two students explore alternative studying strategies for spanish</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

http://vimeo.com/11482829

Title: La Biblioteca (from Vimeo)

This video is about processing different kinds of information at once; in essence, how the brain can focus and make sense out of things as our eyes read one thing and our ears hear another. In this case we see English words on screen but we hear words spoken in the Spanish language. This constitutes for an interesting juxtaposition and an original concept. There is also a dynamic and pop art like quality to the piece, which is unique. The repetitive imagery of cameras and moustaches that appear on screen resemble an Andy Warhol silk screen. The transitions are fairly smooth, the music has a good, catchy beat, and the clip is entertaining to watch. Aesthetically it is well done but could certainly be tweaked a bit to make everything “pop” more. The ending feels a bit sudden/rushed though and there seems to be extra time latched on at the conclusion of the project (it concludes at 35 not 43 seconds). But the pacing works well and is easy to follow (not too rushed or slow) and the colors palette chosen is sophisticated and ties together nicely.

Some criticism is that there are far too many competing typefaces used in such a short clip, some of which don’t relate to the words being depicted on screen at all (randomly chosen). “Doll” and “disco” are the exact same size, color, and typeface, and yet have nothing to do with each other. A bit more manipulation could have occurred in the reconstructing/deconstructing of type and image rather than just having words slide in on screen. Also there is some evidence of see and say. For example, when the artist mentions a library, books are shown, and when he/she mentions disco, a disco ball appears. This could be avoided by using more interesting typography and other, less obvious illustrations to hint at the word being described.

At 0:06 the placement of the “is” appears strange because it enters the screen beneath the word “Where” from bottom to top when our eyes naturally read from top to bottom.

At 0:10 the word “spider” is not lined up with any threshold on the “Y’s” baseline (looks like the word is floating into space).

At 0:14 the phrase “big mustache” should have been aligned with the letter “r” in library
The placement of the phrase itself is confusing and lacks clarity (reads “is in big mustache” right now).

At 0:18 the word “Huge” followed by the tiny “little” is too stark of a contrast. The “little” gets lost altogether and is doesn’t remain on screen long enough for the viewer to notice the juxtaposition.

At 0:26 the leading needs to open up between the words Cameron and Diaz (far too tight right now and the words bunch together). Also “Diaz” is altogether too heavy in weight

At 0:29 there is an awkward negative space between the words “Yeah” and “Boi” and the big letter Z that it sits inside of. This could be fixed by aligning the type with a baseline and eliminating small gaps.

At 0:31, near the end of the show, the 2009 that runs across the screen is static/boring. Should reanimate it differently to leave a lasting impression. The texture is also a bit arbitrary (maybe do a mask and have one of the pop art images used earlier play as the text background).