>A highly motivated Brave Supplicant asked a question on BTG about the Tuck Consortium option for submitting a video essay. (NYU accepts video submissions; UCLA used to but seems to have backed off of that this year.)
This BSer sounds like they’ve got a very ambitious — and possibly quite effective — project planned.
If you’re considering something similar, then we submit this for your consideration:
A Year in New York from Andrew Clancy on Vimeo.
OK now hold up, before you throw up your hands in frustration and shout at EssaySnark through your computer, we are absolutely NOT expecting you to create something for a bschool app that is this polished, with such a high production value.
What we want you to notice is how much this video communicates — with no voice over — with no subtitles or captions — with no gobs of text on the screen.
Now granted, it is MUCH easier to pull off this type of “communication” when we’re talking about a PLACE. NYC is nothing if not evocative. It’s just lends itself to the video screen in such an amazing fashion.
But doesn’t your life offer something similar?
Obviously you only have the NOW of your life to work with — if you’re creating a video, then you must create the video — you can just take a subway to Coney Island and film the station that already exists, that is fully established there in all its glolry like the perfect movie set.
You absolutely should not go off in a bunch of directions in an admissions video and capture scenes and stuff that is not about you.
BUT… if you have a strong personal association with a particular place, for a particular reason, AND you can convey something ABOUT YOU through filming that place (hopefully with you smack dab in the middle of the scene!!), then you might consider doing so.
Watch that NY video again, and take notes.
What does it communicate?
How does it make you feel?
What is it about?*
As you plan your own project — video essay or PowerPoint slides or just a standard written draft — stop first and think about it. What is your INTENT? What are you trying to communicate?
If you have that mapped out first, then the chances are seriously greater that you’ll actually convey something worthwhile in the end product itself.
*EssaySnark has an opinion about that video and what it’s about… as we have opinions on everything!!!! We’ve hidden our own opinion in a sentence below, which is captured in white text. To reveal what WE think, drag over the section below with your mouse to highlight it and reveal the words — but you should do this after you have formed your own opinion!!! Go through the effort of doing your own thinking and creating your own impressions first, please.
Tell us what you think.