February 25, 2011 Mashup with sound and video
Now that I’ve added video and sound to my mashup, I think it communicates much better and doesn’t have quite the cheesy slide-showy feel that it had when it consisted only of still images. So let’s talk about the choices I made in producing this stunning work of genius.
Basically, the mashup can be divided into two main parts. In the first part, I used only still images, going back and forth between illustrations from an old children’s book and pictures of the darker reality of coal mining. It’s all about juxtaposition and irony in the first section; the giddy instrumental tune “Blue Grass Special” by Bill Monroe plays in the background while we look at a pictures of a filthy mine and a former coal miner who is hooked up to an oxygen tank. This is supposed to give the viewer a sense of distaste in the immorality of this issue being taken lightly. A photograph of the Appalachian mountain range dissolves over top of the “some coal is in a hill” illustration. The intended effect of which is partially to highlight the understatement of the illustration.
The sound of an explosion cuts “Blue Grass Special” short, beginning the second part of the mashup. I overlapped several pieces of mountaintop blasting footage in the hopes that it would communicate that blasting is done with some regularity. I didn’t include music during this short segment in the hopes that it would give it some added presence (I know that’s vague, sorry), and perhaps that it would give the sense that energy companies blast without feeling, or something like that.
The song that comes in for the second half is the intro to The Magnolia Electric Co’s take on the Nina Simone classic “Trouble in Mind.” I wanted something that fit, but didn’t sound too regional. The hope is that mountaintop removal comes across as an issue for everyone, and my concern with playing something regional (I was originally thinking I’d use the Carter Family) was that I would inadvertently be making it an issue of the “other.”
The rest of the mashup relies on the visual element to communicate the environmental effects of mountaintop removal, and uses the visual and aural elements to communicate the health problems. The mashup tends to focus on the water issue near the end, and does not fully come back to the broader picture. The reason, or excuse, for this is that the broader issue cannot be distilled into something small enough to fit into a succinct video. The broader issue is a composite of several widely varied issues, and the water issue happens to not only be a particularly salient one, but also well suited to the video mashup format. Honing in on something specific gave concretion to the imagery. The message is clear when we are hearing a man listing diseases while we watch bright orange water pour from someone’s tap.
The interview piece at the end was essentially a lucky find, as it played off the text at the beginning of the video.
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