Motivated VS Unmotivated Camera Movement (Video Essay)

[BadCosmonaut]

I agree this was pretty good. I don't watch movie reviews, but I would watch stuff like this, especially if it's short and direct/to the point.

I do think your point would have been more effective showing the shot only once or twice. If I understand correctly, the shot was great because it was the sole unmotivated movement of the entire movie contrasted with her chaotic lifestyle and the constantly moving, always motivated camera of the rest of the film that came before it. The shot was good because it was shown once after everything she (we) had been through. The moment of calm and growth we earned. By showing it so many times in your video, especially showing it multiple times in a row at the end, I think you lost the visual impact of the shot while trying to (over) verbally explain it.

I think a better way to do it would be showing it once in the beginning just like you did (saying it was the great shot you loved), then explaining in general terms and with general examples motivated vs unmotivated (without showing it again), then showing and explaining all the motivated/chaotic camera of the movie, and then finally showing us the shot once more and this time like in the movie we get to see it "once" contrasted with everything that has come before along with being able to benefit from your explanations and earlier examples. If what was so great about the shot was the impact, then I think you should have tried to emulate that building up to and delivering of the impact in your video. You won't reach the same level of impact compared to just watching the whole movie, but you don't need to in order to explain and emulate the effect not just verbally but also visually. I didn't feel the buildup at all or the impact at the end when you were showing it over and over. I had long understood the verbal explanation by that point, yet you kept explaining it again and again.

The greater point here is to always treat your audience like intelligent adults. Always assume your audience can understand a point without needing it to be verbally told and visually shown 10 times in a row. Brevity is wit, right? If you do a good job making your point once, then you don't need to make it twice (and especially not more than that). Don't worry, the dense people will probably understand too.

This is just one person's opinion. I'd guess most would disagree with me on just about everything I said above. (and if you're going to discuss the ending and/or show shots of the very end of the film, please give a spoiler alert at the very beginning of the video.)