Video Critique Number 4

Video Critique Number 4
September 24, 2010 | Melanie Lerner

http://vimeo.com/11480679

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11480679" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11480679">We are all connected</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/cdes">Communication Design at UNT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Title: We Are All Connected (from Vimeo)

1 Minute and 15 Seconds

In this video the artist’s main message is that things, no matter how different they at first seem, are really all the same and connected in some form or fashion. The concept carries through the entire presentation and the type and graphics accurately and meaningfully reflect it (they all have a role/purpose). The project itself is entertaining, sustains visual interest through great effects, good use of pacing (lots of dynamic zooms and camera angles), and attention to craft and detail. The combined use of illustrations mixed with typography and maps is a nice touch, adding multiple levels of hierarchy and information into the piece. Some of the images are a bit see and say but necessary in this case for the manner in which the artist is portraying her point. The style seems very appropriate, the informational hierarchy is easy to follow and understand, and over all the video is aesthetically pleasing and fun to watch. The sound effects are chosen well and further enhance the piece (especially in the intro with the walking footprints popping up on screen). In addition, the voiceover’s casual tone and lighthearted, matter of fact nature helps evoke the right response/feeling from the viewer.

There are not many things in this work that need fixing and those that do are minor, mostly dealing with better alignment. The quality of work is high and it is obvious the artist spent a lot of time fine tuning, constructing and deconstructing letters, and paid attention to time, space, and sound to make the work flow nicely. The feedback for areas of improvement are as follows:

At 0:01 the introduction screen could have larger type and the artists’ name would look better if justified with the title rather than merely centered (already close in set width).

At 0:11 “Is this” should line up with “Part” and there is a little too much space between “Part” and “Of.”

At 0:12 the slant of the “L” should be mimicked by the B in “Blanket.” The alignment looks awkward as it is now because we see a harsh vertical against an italics diagonal.

At 0:20 “Everything” ought to be aligned with “Nothing has been left out.” Optically this will look better when justified than as it is now.

At 0:33 the bulleted list needs to be centered vertically in relation to the picture drawing (there is more space beneath the list than above).

At 0:43 the placement of the type “Over here” seems forced/strange as it sits at right angles on a dotted line, creating weird gaps of negative space.

At 0:49 the “&” needs a better placement on which to sit than in the middle of a dotted line. Right now it looks tacked on (more consideration needs to be given to it).

At 1:00 the “Y” in “Exactly” and the “B” in “But” should align. The “B” currently extends beyond the natural threshold.

At 1:04 the words “Separate” and “Limited” should be paired up in alignment.

At 1:05 the serifs on the “T” would look better if aligned with the bottom of the illustration (again the artist seems to disregard some natural thresholds).

At 1:08 some things on the map lack any type in the middle of the connectors whereas others have it. There needs to be more consistency here.

At 1:10 the type would look better if there were not serifs on the lines linking “We are connected” (they seem odd and unnecessary).