In this opinion piece, I talk about the issue of Video Surveillance and explain a reasonable conclusion to the problem. With the underlining solution being a balanced perspective of video surveillance I break down both the pros and cons of video surveillance. I explain how It’s dangerous to fully support surveillance as it will reach a point of ethical misconduct and a breach of human rights; But at the same time surveillance pose a great benefit to the community and can often be a string tool to save lives. And conclude by highlighting the underlining point that people should have a balanced outlook on it and accept that its existing is beneficial but always be ready to push back if or when it goes too far.
With the video being centered on providing a conclusion to a controversial issue I needed to learn about the issue and understand both sides; therefore I had to explore the various takes on the issue of surveillance, look through facts and statistics in order to formulate my own opinion. I first set out to research the benefits of surveillance and found many both small and grand reasons that support its existence. However, with only having 7 minutes to talk about the topic I picked out two major points to elaborate on. I did further more intensive research on the chosen points outlined above and found one article in particular that consisted a grounded outlook on the benefits of CCTV which I used to construct my own opinion piece. I followed a similar process for researching the negatives of CCTV yet again focusing on two major arguments to research on. Finally, after gaining an understanding of the two sides of surveillance, I read through several more articles to explore ethics of surveillance that would help to add more context and credibility to my own view that CCTV is beneficial if its honest and ethically correct.
With this video, I decided to approach the audience more intimately in order to connect my opinion strongly with them and engage and maintain their focus on me due to the extensive length of this video. In order to achieve this, I had a very dim background with one backlight adding some form of depth. I then positioned my key light next to the lens to avoid any shadows from above or below me. This was also done to further enhance me as the main focus of the video. One major technique I used was framing and positioning. I placed my self very close to the lens in order to feel more connected and “in your face” with the audience. Like mentioned earlier this allowed me to connect with the audience more thoroughly over the 7 minute period. And in order to achieve a wider shot allowing me to get up close with the lens, I used an 18mm focal length. This also added a decent depth of field allowing to further separate my self from the background. Other subtle things I included to enrich my self as the focus was leading lines. Leading lines are lines that guide the viewers focus into the subject of the video. And in my case, I positioned the carpet to create a point so that both sides of it would lead to the center. However, I made it very subtle to keep the video more authentic. In terms of editing, I wanted a simple look to my video. with traditional cuts and occasional fade-ins to give the overall video personality and help maintain a clear flow. I did, however, include some humorous parts through the video such as the equations clouding the frame, which is a popular pop culture reference. This was done to add personality to my self and the video and also connect with the audience and drive their general emotions. And for music, I decided to include a simple beat and instrumentals with a calm tone that wouldn’t distract the audience from the main points that I state. I made sure that it had a creative commons license and that I had authority to use it however way possible.
I was pleased with the final project, and I definitely feel like I have improved some of the errors I made in previous videos. However, I did run into a few problems as I was making this video that did add certain flaws to the final project. The biggest issue I had was that I had to reshoot the whole video three times. The first time I forgot to turn my mic on which led to the footage having no audio. The second time the ISO of my footage was too high giving the video a super exposed grainy look which was too distracting and unprofessional. Due to this repetition, my energy level and general enthusiasm in my delivery were lacking compared to the first attempt. I do hope in the future I double check for these potential mistakes before recording.
Sources: Richards NM. 2013, The Dangers of Surveillance, Harvard Law Review, retrieved 20 September 2018, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c… Volokh E. 2002, The Benefits of Surveillance, The Responsive Community, retrieved 22 September 2018, http://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/camer… Marx GT. 2006, Ethics for the New Surveillance, Original Article, retrieved 22 September 2018, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1… Music: Talky Beat by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Source: http://www.twinmusicom.org/song/265/t… Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org