Evaluation

After selecting my new part of the speech I began to film.  I wanted to film abstract and nothing too literal as the brief says.  However I filmed a few places where I thought I could give the viewer of the period in time of when the speech was given.  This was March, 1963.  I firstly managed to film my first idea which was the train track which looks directly into  point blank/ongoing view.  I thought I would do this because it replicates where MLK gave the speech in Washington.  Its narrow and seems to go on forever in the distance just like the train track.  This was difficult because I was trying to find the balance between not being too literal taking actual shots of whats being said or further more what was actually on the footage itself.  One of the other ideas I had was to convey freedom.  I know I could capture some shots of an open area but I wanted more than that.  I captured a bird that is in my final video as it's flying away whilst I'm zooming into it and I feel this gives a great effect.  This clip is only short as there is no need for it to be any longer.  The days in which I filmed were very dull which worked to my advantage as I needed cloudy skies and landscape to give a feeling of depression and sadness.  A different idea I had was right from the start.  I wanted to film an old fashioned alarm clock for around 1 minute or how long the selected speech was.  One of the things I noticed every time I listened to my selected part of the speech is that I feel like an explosion is about happen.  Something drastic.  This is because Martin Luther King over this short period of time raises his voice with passion when he says we won't be living in a time of poverty and sadness.  I went on to film a clock for 1 minute.  When It came to adding this to my video I decided to cut it up into parts according to how far along the speech is.  So for the first shot of the clock which is shot 5 or 6, the second hand moves for 5 seconds.  I speeded this up so in fact the length of the clip is in fact about 1 second.  I went on to do this adding more clips of the clock throughout where I thought appropriate carrying on from where the second hand left off in the last clip.  I felt like this was effective as I said I felt like a bomb was going to go off the time I heard all the speech as you could hear it building up in his voice.  This counts in his body language too when you watch the actual footage.  After looking for a a real alarm clock with ringing bells on top of it I couldn't find one anywhere so I used my own.  I feel this a let down to my video as when in the final clip of the clock I wanted the bells to ring after 1 minute as the end.  This would also of tied in with what I said about 'only a matter of time' then they would of been set off.  I feel the parts when he says racism wont continue and he wont stop fighting until it does stop makes this ever so powerful.  You can tell he's determined and strong.  I knew from the beginning as soon as his voice rises knowing he wont be backed down I visually had to accompany this with something striking/meaningful.  I heading down to the sea on a windy day to capture a hard crashing wave against some rocks.  After waiting for some time I managed to capture a huge clash against the wall which was perfect.  This part accompanies the part when MLK says ''When all of God's children, black men and white men'' etc.  This is because The ''All'' part is so ferocious and hits you hard and I could only think of one thing to symbolise this being a wave as for me, it also represents their passion for freedom.  I used a coin to symbolise motion, movement and again, a build up in what I call until this 'bomb' goes off.  I liked the way I used very short clips to keep the viewer interested.  This is not only with the coin but most of my other filmed footage too.  As the brief says, to give a 'flavour' of the speech.  I continued to film but most importantly used some original footage of Martin giving his speech.  I feel this gives a unique twist to my video using my own film clips too.  I overlapped this with a self shot clip of a puddle when it was raining really hard.  I feel this visual backed up what he was saying.  He said, ''When let it ring every state, and every city''.  As of all of the speech I chose he 'dreams' about America and it's rights.  The clip after the crashing wave is to me the most powerful part of all where he says ''Free at last, free at last, God almighty, we are free at last''.  I filmed a lighters flame and placed it behind the MLK speech and i feel this was effective.  This is because his voice almost felt and sounded spiritual.  It almost reminded me of a ritual so this is how I came about that idea.  At the end I have a few lines in which I used Apple Motion to create some text.


Successes In my video I feel is firstly learning Final Cut and producing a video but some of it's tools as well.  I used tools such as increasing/decreasing opacity levels to over lap clips as I said above.  I also enjoyed playing around with the speed in which the clips can edit that.  I was playing a game with trial and error whilst making this video and I am proud of what I have achieved.


A lot of people have emphasised what has been said in their speech by adding music and kinetic text.  I tried this but It didn't work for me and what I wanted to accomplish.  However after an ongoing search I found something in which I think fits perfectly.  This because I felt the music added elements of creativity and inspiration.  It is relaxing piano music gradually building up, just as Martin's speech.  Something which I feel made it is when he says ''Free at last, free at last God almighty free at last'' I actually cut out the music to emphasis this part, fading it out. Then after I faded another part in with more depth and power accompanying the last clock shot and the text which I created in Apple Motion at the end.   The original footage I used of MLK delivering his speech acted as a replacement for kinetic text emphasising the spoken words.  This is because the footage actually does this too so I wanted to give it a twist.


Below is a YouTube link to my selected piece of music;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94HYEe1bOFU
















































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