Wikipedia states that it“is a piece of video content that, much like a written essay, advances an argument. Video essays take advantage of the structure and language of film to advance their arguments.” Others find it a little more difficult to nail down an exact definition.
Like most things, there are multiple ways to approach it. We will look at a handful of examples that approach video essays differently. It will be up to you and your group to approach this project how you creatively see fit.
Description
You will form a 3 person team and create a video essay that is at least 5 minutes in length. Because we have an odd number, there will be one group of 4. That group will be responsible for creating at least a 6.5 minute video(or substitute time for a more intricate/complex means of production).
The subject matter of the video essay is up to you and your group, but it must pertain to some form of design criticism. I use this loosely. Just be prepared to justify your reasoning if the subject matter is at the fringes of design.
The subject matter will greatly influence the production. Form follows function. It might be necessary to shoot your own video, construct sets, edit from existing film, etc.
Verbal elements(i.e. voice over, written text in some form, etc.) It can’t just be a visuals. There has to be a verbal element to it.
Process
You will form a group of 3(and 1 group of 4).
A printed proposal(include names of all team members) of three different ideas must be submitted on October 15. Each idea must be a 3–5 sentence statement explaining what the idea is and why that particular idea. Other relevant information like goals and intended outcomes might be appropriate to include as well. I will review the three ideas and help select the best option.
A rough outline and storyboard of your video essay must be submitted on October 24. There is not an exact format to follow. I would suggest actually writing out the entire dialogue of your essay. That could be in a screenplay format and/or a storyboard format. Regardless of how you approach this, it is important to think about both the verbal and visual aspect of your essay.
Tentatively, the classes on November 5th and 7th will be used as workdays. It will be a time devoted to working on this project and allow me to check in with all of the teams.
Final videos and critiques will be on November 12th and 14th. Your team will be assigned a day(at random) to present your video and receive feedback. The file will be submitted as a MOV file.
General
Description
The essay must include the following items:
Process