Just saying, you won’t see Kris Bryant or Mike Trout here, but you definitely will in like next ten All Star Games.

I’m just gonna talk about my This I Believe video here, which is probably cooler than the actual World Series. But there’s a lot of stuff to be covered, so get a coffee!!!

Visual Choices

Although baseball was not the central topic discussed in my essay, I used a lot of baseball footages to show my dedication toward baseball. Implementing multiple baseball films also show consistency with the title of my essay- “The World Series with Gold.” I simply tried to relate my trust in money with the sport I have been watching since five. I believed the purpose of it was perfectly conveyed through the video as the audience would be fully aware of the frequency baseball appeared on the video. It would be really really hard for a person to not notice the intended use of baseball. It was EVERYWHERE.

At the start of the video, I added “cheering voices” in my video to show the intensity of my personal “World Series.” This was achieved as the cheering was clear and perceived to be nerve-wrecking.

From 0:17~0:20, I intentionally made the background gold to stress the point that the baseball is “golden.” However, the effect was hardly achieved since the audience could barely see the flying baseball.

At 0:24, I dropped the camera to the ground(and stuffed it inside a bunch of leaves) to emphasize defeat.(falling down usually corresponds to failure) This action further illustrates the importance of the discussed baseball scene and how a single at-bat determines my future. I believe failure was perfectly shown in this action.

From 0:57~1:02, I intentionally made the camera shake to mimic walking.(no one could walk in a perfect straight line) The sudden change of motion of the ground(from advancing really fast to an immediate stop) served as a reminder of how “abrupt” the stop was, as stated in my essay. This was successfully achieved.

From 1:18~1:21, I repeated a single film twice to show that I actually kept replaying a specific segment from the Youtube highlight. This effect was self-explanatory.(definitely achieved)

From 1:23~1:24, I intentionally shaked the camera vertically to capture the motion of “looking up.”(usually one would adjust his eyesight by moving his head vertically while being called to look up) This effect was perfectly achieved; it would be pretty easy for the audience to tell that I was looking up.

You would see a cute kiwi at 1:38. In the self direct section, kiwi = me eight years ago and I = my dad eight years ago. By the way, the pillow below that kiwi was a cat, but she was too ugly to be displayed… Cats are SUPER DUPER CUTE, but that one is an exception. No means to undermine cats, Ms Barrow!

===> The TV behind was an electronic board playing baseball highlights. This helped made the scene more realistic.

From 1:38~2:14, I used self direct to illustrate the dialogue with my dad. Sometimes, I zoomed in to a specific character to show that the character was talking, which added coherence to my video. With certain zoom-ins, the audience could easily follow the script. There are also several occasions when I included both characters to show what the conversation was like.

From 2:12~2:14, I increased the size of a “high-five” gradually to inject humor in my video while the audience is befuddled by the cuteness of that kiwi. That “high-five” also serves as a clear contrast to the whopping $32.5 million mentioned before. It is the buildup of the following phrase… I believe the effect is successfully achieved because the “high-five” looks really cool and laughable.

From 2:23~2:35, I animated a function of wealth and success to support perhaps the most important sentence in my video. Using some artistic elements(not that artistic really since I am the drawer), the audience might be more interested in my video and make them willing to spend an extra 90 seconds to finish it. The effect is pretty successful because the graph is understandable and it is probably the most artsy thing I have produced in my life… I’m not even joking.

From 2:36~2:38, the screen suddenly turned from black to bright yellow. An immediate turn from “midst of abyss”(total darkness) to enlightenment(brightness) vividly illustrated the script. Also, notice that the light was blurry at first.(I blurred it using digital skills) It WASN’T a technical error; it WAS intended. When a person stays in darkness for a long time and the light is suddenly opened, his eyesight would be blurry for few seconds since his eyes are under adjustment. I tried to create that type of effect using blur. Overall, the effect was really really subtle and the audience would just regard it as a technical error… Ikr, sad.

From 2:51~3:15, I made the background colorless to illustrate poverty, frustration, and desperation, which were all conveyed in the script.(the script showed how much I fear poverty and the emerging negative thoughts if I were poor) Using black and white background could construct melancholy images; paired with a sad oral tone, the audience could clearly perceive the internal emotions of this section. This effect was pretty successful.

From 2:51~2:57, I intentionally zoomed in to detailedly capture poverty.(portrayed every single detail of a poor society) This effect was partially achieved because while the nuances of poverty were shown, digital quality was also lost during the process.(zooming at an insignificant object significantly decreased the quality)

Notice the music turned from pessimistic(quiet and low-key) to optimistic(gradually becoming louder), signifying a chance in attitude.

From 3:15~3:22 and from 3:27~3:38, I intentionally produced an unfocused film to show that I was rigorously studying these materials for my future. The shaking camera showed that I was working really hard.(overall rigorous study) The effect of it might be controversial; part of the audience might consider that as a digital issue, others might understand the true meaning of it. Personally, I would take the latter part because c’mon, who wouldn’t use a tripod when he has one!

From 3:47~4:00, I showed myself! I figured that it would be really weird if I just kept talking without showing my face. There isn’t really intended effect for showing my face.(just have an awkward feeling without it)

New Techniques 

VideoScribe(an animation app): I used VideoScribe for a great chunk of animation: from the story telling of Shenzhen to an f(x) between wealth and success. The purpose of using VideoScribe is straightforward: create artistically acceptable images without my hand.(my art is worse than a normal first-grade kid) Creating animation also formulates a realistic journey of my anecdote in the video, making viewers feel like as if they actually visited Shenzhen. VideoScribe also smoothes out the scenes with some actual drawings.(instead of a series of segmented films) Both effects are perfectly established.

Time lapse(from 1:07~1:10): I time lapsed a night scene at Kaohsiung Exhibition Hall.

DUDE, I lived really far from there and still went there for a three-second film. I am a VERY good kid.

I used quick motion to establish my impatience while watching boring political news on the electronic board. Quick flashes of near surroundings showed my lack of attention towards any object around me, including the electronic board. Apart from the time lapse, I blurred and dark & whited the night scene to further build on the portrayal of impatience. With these two additional tools, the impatience was perfectly established.

Quick motion: I don’t think this is a new technique, but I used it numerous times in this video to speed up the pace. Using quick motion made the video less dull.

Other Imovie techniques include: Picture in picture, light adjustment, adding default voices(first time using it), reducing background noise, and many other more.