INTRO:
A truck drives under the sky painted dark gray-blue. It is Ennis who leaves the truck and stops at the front door of an office that is temporarily set in a house car. That is where he first meets Jack, who he spends his whole life falling in love with.
The film is called Brokeback Mountain, a heartbreaking, touching, and legendary milestone in the LGBTQ- themed film history. Having watched its several times with pain and a broken heart, I want to create a video that briefly summarizes the story. Meanwhile, I am a huge fan of Taylor Swift, who recently gets addicted to her 8th studio album, folklore. The eighth track in the album, August, becomes my favorite due to its catchy melody and lyrics that depict a vivid image of a summer romantic tragedy. Thus, the sparks happen when I combine this soundtrack with Brokeback Mountain since both of them tell a sad love story. Besides, I want to create another video that tells a more contemporary and happier gat couple story. As both videos are created, they show different aspects of romance in the LGBTQ community.
AUDIENCE/ PURPOSE:
While my videos can target a variety of audiences, including fans of Brokeback Mountain, Swifties (Taylor Swift’s fandom), and film lovers who show an interest in gay pride films, my intended audience is gay pride activists and anyone willing to learn more about the romantic relationship in the LGBTQ community.
From my perspective, the lack of formal education about the LGBTQ community is somehow causing people’s misunderstandings in this community. In my home country, China, people even tend to connect gay couples with HIV, causal relationships, and cheating. As a member of this community, I feel sad, angry, but mostly helpless. While I cannot change the educational system in Chinese schools, I can still convey messages through my works. Thus, I want more people to get to know our community and realize the fact that love is love. The love between homosexuals is the same as those between heterosexual couples: we also experience the rise and fall in a relationship, and we are also royal to the one we love and willing to protect them with our whole hearts and lives.
IMAGES:
In the first video, I compress the story between Jack and Ennis into a short video. With August as the background music, the memorable scenes from Brokeback Mountain showcase the rise and fall of the melody and generate our emotion towards the touching story. For example, when Taylor sings, “Cause you weren’t mine to lose.” which is the strongest part of the song, the video presents Ennis pushing Jack to the wall and kissing him so hard with love. Likewise, when the music approaches ending and is about to fade out, the video shows Ennis closing the closet with Jack’s jacket hanging on it. As the video works with the music, they together stimulate our senses and generate our emotional responses to the project.
In the second video, I selected a gay couple from a Chinese television show and created a short and positive storyline in which they begin their adventure and finally find each other at the top of a building. Compared with the first video, which is sad and depressive, this video tells a more energetic, happy, and modern story about gay love.
In my opinion, the two videos guide us to explore the love in the LGBTQ community in different ways, and the contrast between them also highlight the progress in gay right that countless gay pride activists have achieved.
PROCESS:
It has been time-consuming to create both videos since I have to make sure I select the visual elements that fit the music.
While creating the first video, I reviewed both the film and the song and created a google doc to place screenshots of the film next to the lyrics that perfectly fit the scene in certain ways. For instance, as the song goes, “salt air, and the rust on your door,” I place an image in which Ennish stands in front of a rusty door to remind me of what scene I need to put here when I create the video.
Besides, I added some special effects to the video. For example, when the video shows Jack dying from being beaten by homophobias, the color tone changes to black and white to reinforce one of the most heartbreaking parts of the film.
To create the second video, I reviewed every video the couple has posted since they started their channel and repeated the process of how I created the first video. One additional thing I added to the video is the sound effect that appeared at the end of the video. In the original clip, there is no sound effect but only music. In this case, I muted the music and added the sound effect that fits the storyline.
LEARNING:
Creating these two videos allowed me to witness the power created when video and music fit each other. Human beings are emotional creatures, and we can generate feelings while our senses are stimulated by touching stories. The project allows me to create this power, which I believe can be impactful.
Besides, I also learned the importance of preparation. While I was creating the previous two projects, even though I had written down general ideas for them, I still largely relied on my feelings and senses to gradually find out which was the best way to convey my message. However, to create these two videos, I made more preparation. I felt like I was writing a research paper when I reviewed the film clips repeatedly, trying to figure out which was the best one to fit the music. Although this process can be time-consuming, it saved more time when I started creating the project.