Video Critique Number 3

Video Critique Number 3
September 17, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

http://vimeo.com/album/248210/video/11321555

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11321555" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11321555">Kinetic Typography - Idiocracy</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/nhcampbell">Nathan Campbell</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Title: Kinetic Typography – Idiocracy (from Vimeo)

38 seconds

This video is concept driven and done entirely through type. The story is intended to evoke a confused and frustrated state in the viewer. Basically there are two guys conversing. One of who is not listening to what the other has to say. The main voice sounds like a game show host as he tries but fails to figure out the name of the person he is talking to on TV. The way the artist goes about animating type is not see and say, but highly entertaining and captivates the viewer’s attention. Sound effects and voiceovers are done very well and certainly enhance the project’s message. The dynamic transitions, camera angles, and quick zoom in and outs help stimulate this interest and variety in the piece. The viewer can definitely sense the absurdity and the frustration of being ignored/labeled as just another face in the crowd (a mere number). In essence, the work confirms how the world has grown to be increasingly mechanical and impersonal.

Overall the piece is well crafted, the attention to detail is impeccable, the hierarchy of the text is legible, and there is a clear sense of what needs to be read first through change in type size and font. The pacing however could be slowed down at parts because it gets a bit difficult to read, especially towards the end when the text moves fast across the screen. However, this may be the intended purpose in which case it can be left as is. The color palette is far too quiet/muted for the message/tone. Rather than using a pale aqua, yellow, and red, the creator ought to bump up the saturation and brightness a bit to stimulate more of a game show feel and to accentuate the emotions being evoked.

Other suggestions are as follows:

At 0:02 there a bunch of gaps in the phrase, “As it appears on your,” which could be tightened, and it is confusing to have random phrases of words upside down when there is no repetition of this upside down type anywhere else in the work. Also the crossbar of the E in “Name” is not aligned with the crossbar of the T in “Current.”

At 0:10 the tracking between the words “Not Sure” is a bit too big. The gap could be narrowed a bit.

At 0:17 the space between the period after “Correct” and the “I” in “Is” is again too wide. Splitting up the word “Correct” into two lines seems strange too.

At 0:22 there is an awkward amount of negative space in the word “Not” and the bounding box it sits in. The “T” in “Not” should be aligned with the “D” in “Confirmed.” Currently it doesn’t line up with anything.

At 0:32 the gap between “Is” and “Complete” is far too wide in comparison to the width of white space between the words “Confirmation” and “Is”

At 0: 33 the “I” breaks away from the word “While” and makes for an awkward gap the rest of the time the word “While” appears on screen. This is true as well when the “A” breaks away from the word “Please” to form the word “Wait”. The artist ought to reconsider the transition sequence so that there aren’t missing letters within a word on screen.

Throughout the work the floating text that randomly appears on screen is also a bit distracting. It might be better to align them on a baseline or the background grid. Over all the work though the piece is strong and well executed.