Week Ten Activity One

Element #1: Take a look at the two examples and see if you can identify the purpose behind each story. What is the point of view in each? Whose voice do you hear?

The purpose behind story one is to teach the audience how to make salt. In this video, we hear the voice of children giving instructions. It seems like this video is told from the 1^st person point of view, because we can tell that the speakers have performed the steps they describe.

The purpose behind video two is to inform the audience about how solar power makes electricity, and in turn through a cycle, supplies life for these fish. The main voice that we hear is the uplifting background music, but sometimes the music lowers and we hear an adult male voice providing more details about the project. He tells his story in first person, and the scrolling text provides the main information.

Element #2: See if you can find a dramatic question in the examples for this section. Is the question resolved in each movie or are you left without a resolution?

The dramatic question for video one is: Why are they making this beautiful island of Guam ugly? The question is embedded through the music we hear and the actions we see. The question is not resolved in this movie.

The dramatic question for video two is: Hawaiians are taught to never waste their food and only to harvest as much as you and your Ohana (family) can use. The question is stated through the young girls voice in the video. There is a resolution to this question. By creating a salt water pool, we can fix the problem of wasting food.  

Element #3: See if you can identify the emotional paradigms behind these stories.

The emotional paradigm is video one deals with teenage depression. It displays pictures of teens feeling alone in school, and will capture a large audience of teenagers who can relate to this feeling.

Video two’s emotional paradigm is dealing with the loss of grandparents. This story can be relatable to many individuals around the world.

The emotional paradigm in video three is dealing with the abduction of a child from school. It focuses on how children perceive strangers. The video focuses on the content that everyone that you do not know is a stranger and could possibly be dangerous.

Element #4: What impact that the voice plays on the overall effect of the story.

In video one, the older ladies voice plays a vital role in the overall effect of the story. She is answering a question that was not provided in the video. Through her voice, the audience can tell that she is enjoying her reflection.

In video two, it truly shows the difference a child’s voice can have over an adult’s voice. We hear young children singing together and then one young child narrating. Although we cannot understand anything, just by hearing those young children singing you can tell it is an emotional video!

Element #5: What impact does the music have on the emotional content or purpose of the story?

In this video we hear chanting. Although we cannot understand the soundtrack, we can tell it is part of a traditional song played and cherished in their culture. The pictures do a wonderful job of displaying this culture, but the soundtrack definitely enhances the emotion.

Element #6: Look at the examples in this section and consider the decisions the authors made about length of clips, types of transitions and sequence of events. Are you able (as a viewer) to fill in the missing pieces? Give an example?

For video one, viewers can definitely fill in the missing pieces. Through the narration and timely displays you can connect the dots and see that the young child finally got a room of her own. They displayed enough detail for us to understand, but not so much that we became bored.

Video two is the same focus, but with a little bit different narration. This video seems to give more detai and it is easier to connect. We now know that she wishes to have her own room because her uncle is coming to visit. The same structure of the video is being used. It display the images, along with a narrator speaking over a soft soundtrack. The transition from slide to slide is longer than video one.

Video three is a little different, using pictures from four different stories. This video seemed a little too long. The transitions from slide to slide lasted longer than an audience would enjoy. The images also did not seem very put together, and made it somewhat less clear to understand than the other videos. Although the audience can somewhat piece it together it didn’t seem to flow as smoothly as the other examples.

Element #7: How does the narrator use their voice to pace the story? Give a specific example.

The narrators in the first story are pacing at a very rapid rate. For example, the audience could understand what was happening, but if they needed to answer specific questions about the video, they would probably need to rewind it. The video discusses how 131 people were left dead from a certain earthquake. The emotional effect here was lost because the narrator was speaking too fast at this time.

The narration in video two is focused on the on-screen text and music. Humor is introduced through the music and short video clips. The pacing of the narration seemed alright, but there were certain times when things seemed very slow, and then other clips seemed to go by too fast. For example, the clip at the very beginning where the children slowly walked into the house took somewhat too long to complete. On the other hand, the quick glimpse of the students in elementary school, middle school, and high school seemed to flash by too fast. There are times when there is no music or narration, just images, and this makes the emotional content less effective.