Digital Story Critique

Wasting Away - Malnutrition in Benin from Leonie Marinovich on Vimeo.
The aesthetics in this video are amazing. The music and pacing are what I found to be most poignant. The pictures speak for themselves. The choice to not use a voice over worked well with the video, mainly because the images told the story all on their own. Also the text worked in most places but in some places it was hard to read. I also liked that the content was about community members helping community members and not someone from outside if this community giving a naive expert opinion on how to get rid of malnutrition in Benin. Beautiful.



Paul Thomas Clements -- Just Being There from Daniel Weinshenker on Vimeo.

The context of this piece is powerful because it is so personal. Paul does a wonderful job introducing his line of work and the child Rasheed. He uses pictures and a comfortable rhythm that leaves the audience attentive and wondering just where he is going. He stays monotone which is relaxing however Pauls' words are poignant and emotional. I do not feel like the music behind his words is appropriate. It makes the piece feel a bit clinical. Maybe that's what Paul is going for since counseling children is his profession. I love the fact that when Paul reveals that he does not know how to solve the problems of the children he sees he fades to black. It gives the audience a feeling of unknowing as well. Here we start to relate. We don't know what's coming next. I also thought the monotone voice let the images speak more than Paul's words. Paul's tone in his voice allows the viewer to be captivated by the photos. Also the drawings Rasheed has drawn are the most striking. The rhythm of the piece is not rushed which allows the viewer to think and evaluate what Paul is saying throughout the entire process. The digital story is not complicated in terms of aesthetics, but  I feel it doesn't need to be. I enjoyed the text of questions scrolling across the screen in the beginning, I don't feel Paul needed to articulate those questions with his own personal voice but rather allow the audience to imagine the children he's working with to be asking those disturbing questions. I didn't care for the picture behind the text, it added to the clinical feeling I was talking about before.