YouTube Review

Although it might take some searching through the random webcam posts, YouTube stores many creative and compelling film clips.  These files use many of the techniques that are described in The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video.  The book serves as a solid introduction for those interested in making film clips and movies.  An example of a creative and technically interesting YouTube video is titled “Awkward Faces” by knowdat007.  The film shows a series of people who are asked to sit in front of the camera.  These subjects become extremely uncomfortable and make for a hilarious video.  There is no dialogue, there are no settings.  There is a solid background, and a face that says it all.  

Because there is little in front of the camera, one may asked why it is worth analyzing.  The simplicity of the shots and the vivid focus of the face makes this film compelling.  Anyone could have made this film, but the filmmaker uses music, lighting, and focus to make his piece beautiful.  

In every scene, there is bright light that accents the face.  Although the eye already goes to the face immediately, the artist wants to make his point clear, the face is all there is.  After reading Photo Idea Index, one might argue that a quartz light or diffused floodlight was placed on the various subjects.  After reading Bare Bones, however, it is clear that lighting can be captured in so many ways.  The videographer could have used a low ISO  film numbers that are more sensitive to light.  Also, they could have intentionally slightly overexposed by opening the aperture to f/2.  

Because of the nature of the film, there is little to say regarding composition and depth of field.  Each scene is consistently a blank background and a face.  The filmmaker is successful in keeping the background in the background, without any distracting elements.  That way, the viewer can focus completely on the face and how subtly it moves.  The simplicity of the videography plays into the film’s success.  Not much is going on, but there is so much to see.  The shot durations are long enough to show the subject get uncomfortable, but not too long that the viewer loses interest.  

If the filmmaker were to revise this piece, it could be interesting to see the camera pan across the eyes or the mouth, to add motion and more detail.  Although the film is interesting and striking, it gets quite predictable after several scenes.  The various camera angles and pans described in Bare Bones could add interest.  The still simplicity  of the camera adds beauty, though.  It is possible that change and motion would take away from the main idea.