TOPICS: THE VIDEO ESSAY in Fall 2024 (FM3091A)

This advanced editing course is dedicated to working creatively with pre-existing images and sounds.

Relevant to all fields of research concerned with the study of audiovisual objects (Film Studies, but also Media and Communication, Visual Anthropology, Political Sciences, Fashion Studies...), video essays use the tools and language of cinematic montage to better understand how a given piece of media works, how it was produced, how it affects us and produces meaning. Getting inspiration from historical essay filmmakers as much as contemporary artists and online video makers, students will experiment with a wide array of videographic techniques, including but not limited to voice-over narration, supercut montage, epigraph videos, split-screen comparative analysis, parametric editing, screen recording and desktop documentary techniques. During the last part of the course, each student will be able to delve deep into the production of a final videographic project, dedicated to exploring an audiovisual object of their choice (film, online video, news report, audiovisual archive, family footage...). The class is open to students without prior editing skills.