This assignment was the trickiest assignment all week for me. I read all the different resources provide like Ebert’s essay and Zhou’s series of movement, reverse shots, and ensemble staging; yet I felt like I hadn’t learned really anything, other than just see some examples. I tried my best in my analysis of the scene.

I knew that I wanted to make a video essay about Django: Unchained because it was the movie that I recommended people watch for video week. I even knew what specific scene I wanted to make my video essay on, it was the part near the end where Django had an epic shootout after Dr. Schultz was killed. So I had to look all over Youtube until I found a video clip that had the events that caused the shootout and the actual action from the shootout. Then I converted the video clip into an MP4 to be compatible with iMovie, and turned down the sound so that the analysis could be heard.

For the recording of my analysis, I used my iPhone to record my audio while I was watching the events that were unfolding in clip. The recordings were basically live audio analysis’ of the scene. The first recording I paused so many times that things just didn’t make sense. The second recording I had cut myself off after 1 minute and redo it because of similar problems from the first recording. This process kept repeating until I got to the sixth recording where I felt satisfied enough to place it in the video essay.

Most of the analysis that I give in the scene are based on camera movement, use of blood, slow-motion use, increases in sound/movement, reverse shots for effect, and zooming out/in for emphasis. Hope you enjoy watching this action scene with live analysis.