Monday, March 31, 2014
Organization Promotional Videos versus Picture Documentation
In the light of this week's topic about visual documentation, and the power and problems it presents, especially when portraying human suffering, I wanted to share a promotional video for the organization I'm working with (Coaching Corps).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44pTRVsdrxA
I really want to hear what you all think of their portrayal of these low income children and their suffering.
According to Coaching Corps there are over 21 million children in the U.S. living in low income circumstances. The video really attempts to draw on the viewers emotions to make us sympathize for these children and Coaching Corps's cause. What is different about this form of visual documentation versus what was discussed in the articles for the week is that this is a video and not simply a picture. Schonberg and Bourgois go into the great benefits of pictures, but also there drawbacks as they are open to interpretation. The "thousand words" they express could be a "thousand lies" depending on who in the public is viewing the image. That's why they emphasize the importance of context and a small line of description below the image. However with videos, that context is inherently embedded. Thus it is more effective. The only issue is pictures are much more accessible and easier to advertise on a large scale, which videos are a more complex form of media.
So can a technological movement towards videos help correct the faults within the portrayal of suffering through pictures? Or do videos introduce a whole other set of issues in the depiction of human suffering? Is the way this video uses children, music etc. to make us feel sympathetic an even larger wrong or simply a part of the context?
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This video reminds me a lot of the commercials on TV showing very malnourished children in need of "help" in order to encourage donations and support for an organization. The images are very powerful, but do indeed portray suffering in a specific way in an attempt to make us sympathetic. I agree that videos have a greater potential to show the reality of the situation, as a video can actually give a voice to those it captures, rather than relying only on the viewer to construct their own notion of what is going on. However, in this video the voices and responses of the children seem almost artificial, or at least only show one perspective. This is not to say that the struggles of the children are not real, but in my own experience with Coaching Corps, I remember much more happy and energetic children than the video portrays here. In the making of the video, there is clearly an unequal power dynamic in that the filmmaker is given the freedom to choose what they want to include or exclude, and they choose what questions to ask, possibly even suggesting what the children should say, and how they are shown on the camera, the volume of the voices, the music, etc. A bit of this is necessary in making a promotional video for an organization, but I do agree that it is important to realize that there is more going on than the video shows, and that people often have more agency than that which is demonstrated on an image or video clip.
ReplyDeleteImages are more accessible when advertising for a greater public, but like you and Bourgois mention, these images are open to interpretations and even though a picture can be worth a thousand words, it can also bring a thousand lies and problems with it. For example if we leave image 7 of Renards picture essay open to interpretation, different people will interpret it differently. Here you see a vulnerable man on the floor while it seems like a second man is about to do some harm with a needle. In reality this picture is depicting a man helping one who is highly intoxicated by putting eye drops on his eyes to counteract constriction of the eye pupils and not get arrested. Because of images like these that tell us little about what is happening, sometimes in order to get a point across, vides are a better option. In this coaching corps video I feel like they make the kids seem like sports is the only thing that they have to feel “free” or to get away from home. The music can feel a little depressing at times, at least for me. It makes me want to help these kids and see what I can do for them. The ending paragraph outlining what coaching corps does is a great addition to the video because it tells you specifically what their mission is. Also I feel that a white middle income seeing this video might not see the problem, and through this video might see happy children playing basketball, while a low income colored person might actually be able to relate to this video, thus having more incentive to go out and help children like these. Lets not forget that videos can also be problematic, because a video can be edited, whereas a picture not so much. A video can be missing a lot of positive things, while only showing all the negative things we might want other people to see in order for us to be more persuasive in our topic.
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