When we were first given this assignment and listened to Andy Rush’s presentation, I thought, “How hard could this be?” Boy, was I in for a surprise! It’s not that the assignment was necessarily hard, it’s just that I couldn’t get any of the recommended programs from the Internet to work on my Macbook so it was REALLY annoying. AND I was sick all weekend so I was freaking out about getting this assignment done but nevertheless with some perseverance (and some canceling of some things to give me time to make up for the homework I wasn’t able to get done over the weekend) I have finished my video essay!

I tried using VLC but it froze every time I used it. I tried using MPEG Streamclip but when I tried to open up the DVD it gave me an error message and wouldn’t open up the DVD. I ripped the DVD but then I wasn’t sure what to do. So I watched the DVD of The Lion King, wrote down descriptions of scenes I wanted to use, looked for those scenes on YouTube based off my descriptions, added the YouTube download extension to Fire Fox, downloaded the YouTube videos, imported the YouTube videos into iMovie, edited the clips, added voice over, edited the sound, exported the movie to Quick Time, tried to upload the video to YouTube but it was too large, uploaded the video to Vimeo, and voila!

I chose The Lion King because I love Disney animated films and thought the theme of identity would be interesting and relate able. So click the link below, enjoy!

The Lion King with Commentary from Alex Jaffee on Vimeo.