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The point of watching the videos made from the swapping materials exercise, was to learn something, to find inspiration and to get us to think. So I’ve typed up a few of the notes for each one (though I‘m waiting to watch the rest when they‘re posted on blackboard).

Debbie/Alex/Olivia/Jo :- The video was still images of a person’s journey to university and they did a short, quickly edited piece using about six of the stills and mixing in text. I liked the use of text to add a meaning, though at times it was so fast it looked like subliminal messaging for cigarettes as the word cravings kept flashing up and then an image of a cigarette bin. I think the intention was more for quitting smokers but I didn’t really see it that way. The sound (a heart rate) was also good but I thought it could have been better used. For example if it had sped up when the video did this would have been better.

Bryony/Greg/Robert:- This group was given a video to edit. The footage they received wasn’t the best. One guy had to film it all himself last minute and so he’d gone to the park to do so. This meant the range of shots was pretty wide, but it didn’t really have a narrative. The group decided to edit the footage together but concentrate more on the sounds. As it was all natural things and footage of nature they went for industrial sounds. I liked the idea of the contrast, seeing and hearing two things is good but a wider range of sounds would have made me like it more. There was one brilliant use of sound though- the noise of an aeroplane taking off when on screen you could see pigeons flying.

Hector/Faye/Alex/Ant/Adam:- This group also got video to edit. They had a wide range of shots of a girl and a boy walking around and used these cleverly to create a different narrative. Their sound was crucial to the project. Using just one word, experience, to create the entire soundscape was really clever and helped to build up tension. You had the feeling that something was going to happen and someone was sinisterly following. The only problem they had was their footage didn’t really have an ending but I quite liked the open ending, it meant you could pick your own conclusion as to what happened to the characters.

Alex/James/Lizzie:- They were given the stills from the previous group. The idea from the stills was bridges but the group picked up on one of the random photographs left in there of an old man cycling. It basically made it a really interesting video and my favourite of the ones we watched. The idea they pulled from such a simple idea was very original and not one that anyone expected. They used text to help build an amusing and inventive narrative. The editing itself was also good but pretty simple; it was more the idea and the text that made it so good.