Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Comments
Peer Review
This video was well composed and had great overall flow. I liked the sense of movement all the different "fighters" conveyed and I think that gives the piece an aspect of both direct translation and abmiguity. One of my favorite frames was when the man kneeled down in the rain in the beginning. I also think the narrator's voice was very fitting with a lot of other stylistic choices you made. One suggestion I have is that I like your ending frame with just the gun but I feel like it cuts off. You could possibly fade it to black and slowly cut off the music.
The way the piece is mixing…
The way the piece is mixing audio from the clips with the voiceover of the poem is working well. There is also a nice sense of pacing in the opening. In spots, you can check on the letterboxing and the way the clips are set on the canvas to standardize as much as possible. I also wonder a bit about the imagery. It is effective and the editing keeps things flowing. For some reason, the Rocky clip (and to a lesser degree the Gladiator) felt out of place. I also wondered a bit about the figure waking at night at around 33 secs. That imagery is a bit more mysterious and adds a layer to the piece that creates some possibilities beyond the battle motifs. I feel like the poem has speaks to all kinds of challenges and circumstances, so these city scenes that point to something a bit different might be worth developing. You can polish the clip placement, transitions, and any other technical elements, but experimenting first with weaving in another layer that opens things up might be a good place to start. Nice work.
Peer Review
This video was very powerful. I liked the consistent imagery and I thought using a narrator instead of just music was a good choice. I particularly liked the combination of action footage and non-action footage (ex: the clips of the guy walking). It allowed me to process the action packed imagery and take time to interpret the poem itself. One suggestion might be to vary the way the words appear on the screen (like one letter at a time etc.) to add another layer of interest. Nice job!