My video narrows the focus of the pandemic down to how it developed and grew in New York. There are various references to places outside New York as the general topic relates to the spread of misinformation and results of that in the coronavirus outbreak.
I wanted to start the video with statements from some politicians giving their two cents about the virus and how there was no need to worry. This was followed by a montage of images and videos of NYC empty and under quarantine in sharp contrast to Gov. Cuomo’s last statement. I implemented the use of one of my favorite songs from Chromatics, accurately titled, “Tick of the Clock.”
The rest of the video demonstrates the damage caused by the virus and I wanted to take a page out of director Adam McKay’s book with the style I was going for. His latest film projects, including The Big Short and Vice, can be considered film essays in a sense and are some of my favorite movies to have come out in the past decade. He is able to blend cinematic storytelling with montages of real images and real videos from the topics discussed. These are often some of the most powerful scenes from these films because it reminds the audience that what is being shown actually happened. One particularly effective scene in which Dick Cheney tries to convince George Bush into giving him a load of power as Vice President is interlaced with a scene of Cheney fishing, serving as a metaphor for reeling Bush in. I drew inspiration from this and attempted to use the footage of the lost little boy as a means of representing how we all must feel in the midst of this outbreak but also misinformation crisis.
Articles from the New York Times, The Hill and CNBC stating the declaration of a state of emergency were used for shock value in the beginning of the montage. Subsequently, articles from the Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal added to the montage by demonstrating how the media is reacting and what kind of comparisons they are making, such as to the flu of 1918.
I wanted to add personal accounts from doctors, nurses and people affected by the virus in the middle of the montage in order to have first hand information about what is happening in the worst hit places. Figures from the Guardian as well as the New York Times helped illustrate this better.
The montage is meant to show the chaos of what is happening and serves as a representation of how some news feeds may appear to average people trying to find out what is happening. The rhythm of the music allowed me to implement a lot of images in a short amount of time and this worked for when the song slowed down as well. The very eerie nature of the instrumental made it an ideal place to add footage of the recent spike in protests across the country against the lockdowns and the grim reality this country faces as a result of misinformation and most of all, ignorance.
The video ends with Trump continuing to push the idea that the virus is going to go away and how effective the response has been when, however, the evidence shows something completely different.
The clips used can be found on this YouTube playlist.
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