A video essay is a short film that, much like a written essay, advances an argument. Video essays take advantage of film, images, animation, music, narration and other audio to advance their arguments.

While the medium has its roots in academia, it has grown dramatically in popularity with sharing platforms such as YouTube.

Your assignment for this unit is to first break down what are the main components of a Video Essay. Then you will break down those components and analyze them in different video examples.

Finally you will choose a topic and write out an argument in text, and then use the technology in this classroom to create your own professional video essay.

Argument & Structure

The primary function of an essay is Analysis. You are not simply telling us about something we can find out anywhere. You are giving us your own informed opinion about an important issue. Of course you want your video to follow a certain structure. Most Video essays take on the following structure:

1. They Begin with a question
2. State your thesis briefly and clearly
3. Provide useful Background information about your topic
4. Present the visual evidence that proves your thesis
5. End with a strong conclusion to close out your argument.

Research & Data

Most professional Video Essays provide well researched and relevant information, though some are focused on data, like this Vox video, while others use the ideas in books as sources like Flow video above.

If you are bringing up a source you want to start with "According to _______" and you want to show the book of the source material and then explain what that source says.

Par of your video is informational because you want to introduce your audience to the specific terms and conditions that set up your argument.

Narration

The Sound quality of the video essays is of extreme importance. This is actually the first thing that you record and fix on a computer. But also important is the tone and pace of the narration. Depending on whether you want your video to be fun or serious, you want your narration to fit that mood. The more you see examples of good video essays, the more you will notice how much care goes into the narration of your project.

Video & Images

The quality of images and video is super important for your video essay. You have to gather the pictures and videos that you can use in digital form from movies, music videos, magazines, etc but they must all be at the highest resolution. Once we get access to YouTube you will be able to download some of the material that you need depending on your topic. Remember that you can use clips of Copyrighted content so long as you are using them for educational purposes and not selling them.

Editing & Pace

The way a Video essay is edited and paced is also incredibly important because it's what keeps it entertaining and what makes it believable. Editing means how the images transition from one to the other. The pacing is how quickly or slowly one scene transitions from one thing to another. In some video essays the pace is quick and there are a lot of scenes in the edit. In other videos, the durations are slow and so the pacing is slow.

Animation

Great video essays have excellent animation that complement the argument. Animation does not have to be elaborate (Sometimes it is, such as this Vox video), it simply has be informative and flow well. In your own video you will only need to create a few animated sequences, if you are bringing up sources, showing the structure of something or breaking down visual elements into parts.

You will use your knowledge of Adobe After Effects to create your animations. Though if you don't remember how to use it you can look at tutorials to help you remember how to do certain things.

Soundtrack

Notice how Nerdwriter uses sound in this particular video essay. It's subtle, quiet, strange sounds in the background. Those sounds add to the mood, to the creepiness of the video because the theme is a bit creepy. But that's the point. If you do add sounds or a soundtrack it has to add to the argument. Some videos will have sound effects or music, but the music never has lyrics and is never louder than the narration.

Argument & Structure

Pick a topic and within that topic begin to formulate an argument. This is very much like a regular essay in that your argument will be the Thesis that you will prove in your video essay. Except your evidence will come in the form of images and animation.

Remember that the primary function of an essay is Analysis. You are not simply telling us about something we can find out anywhere. You are giving us your own informed opinion about an important issue.

Write out your argument in the form of an essay. Your final video will be between 5 and 10 minutes long so your essay should be between 450 and 750 words. Your written essay should have five distinct sections.

1. Begin with posing a specific question
2. State your thesis briefly and clearly
3. Provide useful Background information about your topic
4. Present the visual evidence that proves your thesis
5. End with a strong conclusion to close out your argument.

Data & Research

Gather your data from credible sources for the parts of your video that require explanations. If your video will be making an argument through multiple visual examples then you have to gather the pictures and videos that you can use in digital form from movies, music videos, magazines, etc. Remember that you can use clips of Copyrighted content so long as you are using them for educational purposes and not selling them.

Record your Narration

Once Sarabia has approved your script, you will be charged with recording your narration on garage band. Sarabia will provide you with the microphone but your narration should be recorded after class to minimize noise. You need to pick the person in your group who can read clearly and whose voice carries the most impact. Recording always takes longer than you think. You should set aside and hour to record your 5-10 minutes of audio.

After you record your narration, edit the pacing of the sound. Leave spaces where there should be pictures and export your audio as an .mp3

First Edit

In the first edit you will create a rough cut of your video. You will drop in your audio first and then begin dropping and arranging the clips and pictures you will use. Your responsibility in this part of the process is to get the structure and pacing right. Don't worry about the animations yet as you can have placeholders or titles that tell me where things will end up going at the end. You will be using premiere pro to create your edit.

Transitions & Animation

Over your first rough cut you will begin adding transitions and animations that you have created in adobe after Effects or Premiere Pro. All your animations need to have Easy in/out transitions and your transitions should be simple. Here is also where you can add the sound effects and the music.

Soundtrack and Details

At this stage you will want to finalize the audio and make sure you video flows well. All your transitions, text, title and animation are integrated and finalized. This is where you can see if your video is effective because you will get feedback from your peers.

Exporting & Presentation

When all is said and done you will get to publish and present your video essay to the class. Congratulations. You are now a video essayist.