January 28, 2012

My Master's Thesis - Activism with Video Editing

Finally I have decided topic for my master's thesis! Last wednesday I did 1st presentation so now it's real and (hopefully) I'm going to graduate next christmas. So what's the idea? Working title is now 'Activism with Video Editing'.

My personal motivation behind my thesis' idea is that I've been editing television promos professionally for seven years. And while I think there's nothing wrong with entertainment promotion, there are times when I found myself thinking how could I utilize my skills to do something 'good'. Maybe to promote some concept I really deeply believe on.

Falling price of digital technology and the capacity to distribute information rapidly have created the conditions for millions of people to record and exchange moving images. And one important genre in this realm is video remix. To take existing material, edit it and that way communicate some new meaning. For example some fans are paying tributes with video remix to their favorite football players but also activists have found remix very powerful way to communicate political and other messages.

What I try to do with my thesis is to found out by analyzing some successful video remixes if there are some general elements etc. what makes video remix effective. And based on these findings and my former knowledge create 1-3 minutes long 'how to create effective video remix' video. My written part will be of course academic but I target how-to video for novice creators who just want some simple instructions for making effective video remixes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your ideas - I do really like what I find here at your site, especially in your Master thesis "Activism with Video Editing"
I'm interested. Once it is finished I'd be happy to find it here to have a closer look or even find it published as an ebook and book for purchase.
I do remember searching for my topic for ages and just couldn't decide how to condense the most important approach and still do it in a different way than what has been
discussed before already - finally it helped me to read other peoples papers to exactly know what I do not want - on my way Grin.com was a great help.
They have a huge archive of topics and now I'm thinking of publishing my result with them: http://www.grin.com/en/help/author which seems to be quite easy.
Why am I mentioning this? Because they have a video on the help site, that might be interesting for you. Bye, bye and all the best for you - looking forward to read more.

Stephania Eckstrom said...

I guarantee your thesis will be accepted by your board of judges. Making a video with your thoughts and ideas can help establish communication with your target community. Open their minds and influence them with your ideas.

Mary Hatcher said...

So, how did the thesis writing went? From the looks of your slide presentation, your thesis looks great! Well, I bet you were great defending your master graduate thesis. Anyway, how’s life after finishing the tedious master thesis?