Now that editing software is easily available and it is increasingly simple to download/rip AV content, video essays are becoming increasingly popular. Two main trends seem to be emerging:

1. Video essays that merge text, sound and visual content in an open manner that can be read in multiple ways. These normally lead viewers towards central arguments but ask viewers to engage in their own interpretations of the content. A good example is Catherine Grant’s ‘Touching the Film Object? Notes on the ‘Haptic’ in Videographical Film Studies’ (filmanalytical.blogspot.co.nz/2011/08/touching-film-object-notes-on-haptic-in.html)

2. Video essays that follow a traditional voice-over documentary format which leads viewers through specific arguments and towards direct conclusions. A good example is Arielle Bernstein and Serena Bramble’s ‘Female Sexual Agency in a World of Blurred Lines’ (blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/video-essay-female-sexual-agency-in-a-world-of-blurred-lines)

Both types can be constructed with relative ease and are good tools for exploring and presenting research topics and/or class themes.

In this session I propose covering the basic principles of how to construct video essays with a particular emphasis on how consumer technologies such as smart phones can help produce original content to be included in the essays as well as how to use creative commons licenses in the production of video essays.