Project #5: Video: Pregnant Pause
- Abby
- May 4
- 3 min read
"Video Project (time related media)
Concentrating on common everyday activities, create a video (120-300 seconds in duration) that primarily uses sequencing, pacing, editing and shot rather than dialogue, action, or music to construct a narrative that gives the activities poetic, visual and/or metaphoric impact to communicate something that is not directly expressed. Consider the idea of a pregnant pause which is a meaningful lull in a conversation, or a delay in speech used to give time to consider the consequences of a statement. In this project focus on the kinds of common, generally unnoticed activities that exist between the “big” memorable events of our lives. Also, I am asking you to primarily rely on editing your video to create meaning (as opposed to dialogue or plot). Editing creates a “third meaning” that exists in the spaces between shots. You may choose to have audio or not but NO MUSIC OR DIALOG so you can use ambient (actual sound)."
The easiest part of this project was brainstorming to come up with everyday activities and common occurrences. I developed good size lists for both sets and then just played around with mixing and matching until I found something I was satisfied with.
I found a storyline I was very happy with and something I felt I could place "pregnant pause" within. As explained in the assignment description it's described as a "meaningful lull in a conversation...". To me I best thought of it as almost a dramatic pause, like what you'd see in movies and shows, it is intentional to add more effect to what is coming afterwards. It adds to the anticipation of the moment, but you can't just go throwing it around or it will lose meaning.
The following step in this process was to then storyboard what I was going to do. While I had started a storyboard, I didn't complete it as I felt I was losing time and needed to start filming. Also, during this part of the process I was starting to realize that I wouldn't have as much time as I thought to do everything I had really wanted.
When I started the filming process, I had filmed video game footage to include but it would later be cut. Most of these planned shots did stay in the final product and I used them as bases for later shots as I liked how the camera would be positioned. The final overall story ended up being trimmed down to the long process of making my coffee and the end of night and morning routines. I felt the pregnant pause would be best incorporated in two spots within the video, while the kettle was boiling and after I had gone to bed in the video leading into the next morning.
My thought with the kettle boiling specifically is that is not something that can be rushed, waiting for it to boil has to happen before you can move onto your next steps. This is similar reasoning as to why I placed a pause between the evening and morning. Sleep is something that is important and takes hours to do if you intend to be well rested in the morning.
As for the pacing of the video, I left things sped up intentionally to give more meaning to the pauses. Although I did intentionally slow down the unplugging of the lights and going upstairs, as this is the part of the day where everything seems to slow and calm down. The rush of the day has dissipated. At the start of the morning, I gradually increased the sped from the original pacing up to 2 times speed as the rush getting the coffee takes over. Once the coffee is made everything slows down a little again. I feel like noticing this pacing is more subtle than originally intended, but I think it still works.
When playing with the pacing and the pauses I had so much concern about going over the time limit (which I still did, but only by 31 seconds). I only went overtime because I extended pauses more than what they were originally, which I would call a win. Overall, this project went rather smoothly all things considered and was a good final project for the semester.
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