Video Versus Traditional Essay – Hope Mitchell

One of today’s videos that stood out to me was “The Marvel Symphonic Universe.” While watching, it felt very personal with the taped interviews of regular people on the street. It showed me how video essays are more personal and visually-connected than traditional essays. For example, I enjoyed hearing the voice of the person who wrote the essay narrating the video, so I could connect with and attempt to learn about the person who actually knows all the information being shared. I also feel like video essays open the creator and viewer up to more possibilities than traditional essays; for example, this video starred clips from the movies, along with audio. For this type of essay, one based on sound and music, it is much stronger (to me) as a video essay because it reaches all people, even those who do not know music well. I have little experience with music and was able to understand the video because I could listen to the music as it was in the original movies and then manipulated (like for the Iron Man scene) to show me what the narrator thought the scenes could convey if scored differently. That way, I could hear it rather than be explained it in writing, which might involve musical terms I do not understand. Therefore, this combination of moving visuals, audio, and well-written scripts allows for something to be said that cannot be said in traditional essays. As the “Instagram Activism” article showed, by using images of infographics, visuals are important. While this article did have images, to me, it still did not hit home as much as the videos, especially “The Marvel Symphonic Universe,” perhaps because video essays are engaging on all levels, not just words (and sometimes pictures).