The article below is from the Video Ideas email list.
Today I want to talk about a certain style of filmmaking which I’m going to call a video slide show. It’s a style that I find very inspiring, and honestly, the films in this email are some of my favourite on the internet. I hope you enjoy them!
Birth Control Your Own Adventure | Sindha Agha ⭐ — A video slideshow illustrates a personal essay
Sindha Agha is the first director that made me really notice this approach as a style – and in fact, this email could just be made up entirely of her work. In the film above she describes her experiences of different forms of birth control and their effect on her body and mental health.
Sometimes the visual is a literal representation of what’s said, but often it’s metaphorical. For example, a mild oral contraceptive is represented by spreading soft butter on a slice of bread, or the pain of an IED being inserted is represented by stabbing a tomato.
BBC Three later commissioned a series shot in a similar way called Body Language, featuring interviews with women talking about issues like antenatal depression and painful sex. It’s crammed full of beautifully creative ideas. Pearls roll across the screen to represent “ripping each others’ clothes off” or “passion” is represented with bubble floating in front of rustling silk.
Imposter syndrome | BBC Ideas ⭐— A psychologist explaining imposter syndrome, illustrated by video slideshow
It’s the low-key moments of humour in this film that I really enjoy. A man’s wig blowing away illustrating an “intense fear of being found out” or a picture of urinals (above) illustrating the issue of men thinking they’re “not man enough.”
Words | Will Hoffman and Daniel Mercadante ⭐ — A video slideshow riffing on various words
The title of this film is “Words”, but you don’t hear many in the film. Rather it’s a kind of word-association game played out visually. The visuals riff on certain words like “run,” “break,” and “split” cutting across varied people and situations. It’s fun to spot the words being referenced, while the panorama of human life on show is moving.
The film is directed by Will Hoffman & Daniel Mercadante and commissioned by Radiolab to go alongside an radio podcast episode which was also all about words. This wasn’t their first partnership, they also made the brilliant “Moments” in 2009.
Today, although the two directors work separately it’s a style they still both to use. Mercadante appears to to call them “collection films“, and Hoffman (alongside director Julius Metoyer) has taken it to an kind of epic scale with short films like Where I End And You Begin, which is worth seeing for its incredibly range of powerful — almost overwhelming — moments.
Na Na Na [Official Lyric Video] | My Chemical Romance — Lyrics video illustrated with a video slideshow
This film is also great if you’re looking for something to get you going in the morning.
A star (⭐) means particularly recommended. While all the films I include in these emails are worth knowing about for some reason, these are the ones you definitely don’t want to miss watching.