Looking back at past readings, looking forward to the essay about the movie-making process

I think video and writing can be as closely related as the artist wants them to be. They certainly share some characteristics. One naturally precedes the other, like speech came before writing, and video comes after writing. Like writing, video is a very new technology. Both writing and technology are changing, but video is still undergoing extreme changes and slowly becoming a widely used tool as much as writing. I think the advent of YouTube and other viral video sites are a brilliant way to get people to share thoughts and opinions (regardless of how stupid or pointless) in a sort of face to face contact.

Unless we have a script in front of us on camera, we usually speak in our normal everyday dialect and mannerisms. I think this gives video more credibility than writing because you have those facial expressions and mannerisms to base judgments on. Video sort of transcends the barriers of writing by giving you that face and voice with a text (to Plato's disgust, I'm sure).

When making video gets to be as simple as picking up a pencil and jotting down a few notes and is available to everyone as an affordable way to communicate (some of Ong's requirements in a good technology) it won't be long before we see widespread use of webcameras and videophones in everyday situations; in other words, it won't be limited to YouTube, extreme distance communication, newscasts, and the business world. This will bring an entire new set of problems to the market and will be a constant source of inspiration and new technology, much like writing still is today.

YouTube/Low-bridge videos: Are they good? Are they bad? Are they writing?

Michael Wesch seems to think that digital text is the same as written text, but with less of a linear nature. It also transcends distances and can bypass traditional publishers to reach a worldwide audience in mere seconds. As for Anderson's "low-bridge" technology serving as a type of universal education tool, I can see how it would spark interest in students, but keeping the technology simple so as to not discourage students would be more difficult. I believe that creativity is a major part of motivation; Anderson is on the right track with that statement. However, exercising that creativity in a way that promotes learning is the trick.

I think that there is a connection between writing and video, but the connection is only as deep as the writer/director wants it to be. As much as writing can be internalized and the rule memorized, the same can be said of video directing and editing. The level of planning can then vary with individuals. I know that minimal planning beyond basic brainstorming in my own group was used to plan our video. We're sort of flying by the seat of our pants, but at least we know where we're headed.

Reading and Writing About Comics ala McCloud Part Deux

I examined Rebecca's blog post at this location. It described a comic by David Gaddis in which he depicts a man's flirtatious encounter with a woman in a jazzy coffee house. The comic bears no text but tells the story with large panoramic shots of the interior and closeups from the man's point of view. Rebecca calls attention to the difference in coloring, mentioning that when the man is alone, "drab, muted colors are used. When he interacts with a woman the colors are more red and more alive with warmth." The perspectives and frames are also used to give a sense of communication between the two, and she notes that the shape of the panels becomes more inconsistent when the man is alone.

The artistic style of the comic reminded me of other art that I've seen in the past in some English comics and the whole feel of it gave me a pseudo-realistic feeling. One of the panels, in which the woman looks up in horror to meet the man's gaze, it shows his face from her perspective, horribly distorted in a fisheye-type lense. As McCloud describes it, "Expressionism, as it came to be called, didn't start as a scientific art, but rather as an honest expression of the internal turmoil these artist just could not repress" (122). The lines in Gaddis' comic are free-flowing and jazzy, full of warm energy while the characters interact with mixed emotions that play out in their facial expressions and the environment around them. McCloud writes that all lines can carry some expressionistic potential, and even "the most bland 'expressionless' line on earth can't help but characterize their subject in some way" (125).