Video: https://youtu.be/5xyVA5PMOoU
Reflection :
I created this remix project, in the form of a video, in order to try to show that people working for the justice system are not always fair when they give someone a sentencing. Different people may have different sentencings looking at what that certain person is charged for, but in many cases, some judges are very lenient than others. I’ve narrowed down my audience from the juries, the police, and the judges to just the juries because I want the juries to have a better understanding that it isn’t fair to make assumptions based off of the criminals race or ethnicity before seeing the evidence, that they should think clearly before actually pleading the person guilty, and not just go along with what everyone else thinks when it isn’t the truth. They have to look from different perspective.
Over the past week, I’ve changed the way I want to convey the message to the audience. Instead of trying to reenact the cases, I’ve decided to use the parts of the preexisting videos from the cases and also take some parts of preexisting videos from what people think about these two cases. I also asked a question to one of my friends and they answered what they thought about the case. I want to include those clips in my video as well. I didn’t want to over complicate things in my video, so I chose this way because it makes things simply easier.
I narrowed down my argument for the remix by saying that the people in justice system is racially bias and it isn’t fair for minorities to get a heavier sentencing because of their race. What influenced my decision is what I see on the media and how people look at cases. The video I created showed how racist the justice system was toward black people. Brock Turner had a lighter sentencing than Corey Batey which didn’t make sense. In my video, it shows how “class privilege” and “white privilege” is involved. This video tells my chosen audience that even though someone is of a certain race or class, they shouldn’t be able to get away with things easily. They should get the same amount of sentencing as a person of color because being a different race doesn’t mean you don’t need to take responsibilities for your own actions. Being a different race doesn’t make you special because we are all humans. A particular race isn’t more significant than other races. We were all born equal.
At first, I thought about interviewing people and putting that into a photo essay, but I realized that a photo essay would not be as effective as a video because a video would be more visual. A photo essay, compared to a video, would be very boring because the way you present your project is very dull. You wouldn’t really feel or see some type of emotion after reading large amounts of text because it’s just text, but on the other hand, the people in a video can express their emotions and you can see it. What influenced my decisions to make a video were the movies and dramas I used to watch because the dramatic effects and background noise would make me cry and sympathize for the main character. With this in mind, I knew that a video is definitely a better way to make people sympathize more rather than a photo essay. People would be more entertained and focused watching a video than reading an essay. What I felt that was working for me while making this remix project were the videos that I was going to put together. At first, I was deciding whether or not to show the Scottsboro Boys Trial in the video, but I knew that I should put more recent cases instead because I am trying to prove that racism in the justice system still occurs not only back in the day but also in the present. I wanted to make a comparison between the two cases because the two sentencings were completely different and that backs up my argument. I knew that I had to find specific videos that would give a brief summary of the cases and also put in parts from other videos about what people thought about the cases like what they felt that wasn’t right. I needed other people’s perspective on the case that backed up my argument. What I feel that wasn’t working for me is finding the right music with the right parts. It was definitely hard for me to find the specific type of music I was looking for because I didn’t really know what I wanted as a perfect background music. It had to perfectly match the videos that I put together. After receiving feedback from the teacher and my peer review group, I knew I couldn’t put happy music because the whole video isn’t happy and I knew I couldn’t put sad music because it wasn’t really a depressing video. Then I figured that I could just find background music that had a lot of suspense. The suspenseful music would definitely make the video more intense as the suspense builds up from each part of the video and it would definitely make the video more interesting. After thinking about what music I should put into this remix project, I had to think about how I was going to arrange this whole project. I didn’t know how to cut up the videos and place them together. I didn’t know how I should incorporate text into this and how the text in the video would make the video itself very powerful. I thought about putting slides of text in between each and every one of the clips, but like the teacher said, it would be very annoying because most of the clips already proves what I want to say. Later on I realized that in order to make my point show across the entire project, I could put text on top of the video clips and emphasis my points by emphasizing what the person is saying in the video. I knew this could work, so I would put subtitles and quote the important points they were making in order for my audience to know the message I was trying to convey to them.
I am glad that I didn’t choose the choices to make a comic, podcast, prezi, and like I said before, a photo essay. Out of all the choices, I believe my video would be the most engaging. What my video could do that other things can’t do was make my message more lively. You could see the message I’m trying to convey, unlike a podcast, and also hear the message, unlike a comic. My video may also make the audience feel a certain way because of the background music and effects. This is certainly something other types of modes can’t do. To me, the other modes like a prezi and a photo essay is almost the same because it is basically just pictures and words. It isn’t as powerful and captivating to me because I tend to get bored of reading.
This project differs from the process of drafting an essay because instead of writing an essay, I am making a video. I don’t need to really have to write an introduction and a conclusion. I just need to look up videos and put parts of other videos together. It is similar to drafting an essay because I need to find some evidence or opinions to support my argument and then arrange it in a certain order. I do need a beginning and an end for my video and make sure that my video catches the audience’s attention just like how my essay has to catch my reader’s attention.
All in all, my project is ready for public view for the audience that I chose. I know this because my video conveys a very powerful message and after people watch the video, they will know to clearly think about a case before convicting someone for what they have done wrong. The people’s thoughts on this case also have a very big impact on my audience because they are the one’s that matter the most in this video. It’s not only what I think, but also what others think. Looking from different people’s point of view, you can see that the justice system is clearly flawed.
WORKS CITED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXjGKsdRWAw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EpNBr7Zw24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZqXmofxd80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRqg1OMohGg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XENhhGIcRSI