#visual glossary

[fashioninfographics]

A visual glossary of sweater types

[phoebe-is-awkward]

Fast-Motion (Time Compression). “Stick It” by Jessica Bendinger. 2006.

Observation: This scene is all of the girls competing in an in house meet. We see each event with all of the competitors performing their routines simultaneously.

Interpretation: This is just a visually interesting way to show the movement forward of time through the competition without watching every single routine. The use of this overlapping of competitors is also very aesthetically pleasing with balance and seemingly symmetrical motion. The pop art and “loud” effect of this also echoes the continuous feel of urban art and the art of gymnastics.

[generico-non-la-divertente]

High Angle Shot & Book Ends | Bonfire (2011) Childish Gambino (Fair warning, some lyrics are explicit.)

Observation: The video begins with Gambino awakening with a cut noose around his neck, and he proceeds to vomit blood. After he recovers some he looks around and discovers the noose around his neck and the cut line above his head. At this point the video cuts to a high angle shot of the top of the noose, as the camera pushes in and Gambino takes off the noose and walks off. Some time later at the end of the video Gambino has a terrible realization of why he is where he is and all that, and falls down only to look up and look bewildered at the noose above him again.

Interpretation: The high angle shot of the noose shows Gambino’s utter lack of power in the situation he is in, as well as the significance of the noose. The near identical beginning and ending sends a somewhat crushing message that Gambino in this story is eternally trapped in a loop of terror, confusion, and hopelessness. The music has essentially nothing to do with the video itself, and seems to just be there to serve as a juxtaposition to the action.

[generico-non-la-divertente]

Mood Dissonance | Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared 2 - TIME (2014) This Is It Collective

Observation: The video is presented as a Sesame Street-esque handcrafted puppet type of video, typically associated with children’s educational programs. The clock begins to sing a song about time, and there are some shifts in art style that ultimately return to the original Sesame Street-esque puppetry. The video becomes increasingly uncomfortable and horrifying until it resolves in complete normality.

Interpretation: This video sets up itself as a benign, happy children’s program from the get go. The characters are silly, and look rather goofy. The video continues this trend of child friendliness as the clock begins his song. Things retain chipper and upbeat with a couple strange or unsettling events here and there (the apple rotting at 1:30 is an excellent example of this.) Ultimately things culminate with the clock rapidly aging the three puppets until they wither and die in a gruesome fashion (2:50). And then the camera zooms out to reveal that it was all just a television show, maybe. the characters do not react, it’s as if what the viewer had seen never happened in the first place.

[generico-non-la-divertente]

Flashback | Contagious (2012) Sexualobster (Fair warning, somewhat inappropriate content matter.)

Observation: The video is largely a shot reaction shot type of composition. Near the end, one of the characters puts together all of the information put forward throughout the video. At this point, it’s revealed to the audience visually what happened the night before through flashback, where we see Fernando, Gooseman, and Randy all at the club hooking up apparently unaware of eachother’s true identities.

Interpretation: The viewer has been piecing together what happened the night before through information presented in the video before the linked time. By the time that Gooseman figures out that Fernando was the bearded drag queen, it’s likely the viewer already has a clear idea of what happened. The flashback simply exists to showcase how paper thin their disguises were, and give a solid picture of what it looked like.

[generico-non-la-divertente]

Rack Focus, Shallow Focus, & Overexposure | RISE OF NIGHTMARES Commercial (2011) Mega64

Observation: At the beginning of the video Rocco is shown playing an overly colorful motion controlled game. The shot cuts to another shot where the focus is on Rocco still playing the game shown from another angle, until Derrick comes in and the focus shifts to him, Derrick leaves and the focus shifts back to Rocco. The rest of the video retains the shallow field of focus shown in the previous scene. Later, at 0:46 both Rocco and Derrick go through a dimensional wormhole and a blue filter is applied to almost all of the rest of the video, and the exposure of light is much higher. The exposure is very noticable in the background of the scene at 1:22.

Interpretation: The use of rack focus at the beginning of the video makes the introduction of Derrick flow smoothly alongside Rocco’s reaction to playing the clearly unfun game. The shallow focus does not provide much meaning until 0:46, when the strange other dimension is introduced, at which point the use of shallow focus makes the familiar scene look distorted and other worldly. The overexposure of light’s absence in the beginning of the video solidifes the difference between our world and the alternate world in the viewer’s mind.

[generico-non-la-divertente]

Push in/Intercutting | Modern Game Journalism The Movie (2012) Mega64

Observation: The shots cut between Shaun (the blonde haired man in the chair) sitting in his chair as the camera pushes in, typing up the review (heavily implied to be him), him typing on a keyboard, and an over the shoulder shot of him playing a video game. As the sound begins to crescendo, Shaun states the score he gives Uncharted 3 as the scene ends.

Interpretation: This video is done in the style of a movie trailer, and thereby uses a very cinematic technique of intercutting between very literal actions of doing a review of a game, and the symbolic imagery of Shaun sitting in a large chair, contemplating the score. As the camera approaches shaun, the music intensifies, and as soon as the camera is at a close-up of him he gives his verdict as the scene ends.

[generico-non-la-divertente]

Three Headed Monster | A Vodka Movie (2008) Zach Galifianakis, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim

Observation: The video opens on an establishing shot of the room the rest of the scene takes place in, slowly zooming in on Tim and Eric. The rest of the video, save for one short sequence where Zach pours vodka for a lengthy amount of time, is shot in the typical sit-com three headed monster style.

Interpretation: The style of humor in this video flows most smoothly with a focus upon the dialogue, rather than the content of the shot for most of the duration. There are a couple exceptions, when Zach pours the vodka for much longer than should be possible, and the general costume design.