Using a non-verbal way of transmitting information in the genre of video essay

Mashaev Malaik Said-Magomedovich ORCID: 0000-0002-9358-541X Postgraduate Student, Department of Theory and History of Journalism, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, ul. miklukho-Maklaya, 6 malaikmashaev@gmail.com

Bazanova Anna Evgen'evna ORCID: 0000-0001-5560-5953 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Theory and History of Journalism, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, ul. miklukho-Maklaya, 6 bazanova_ae@pfur.ru

Introduction

The global network has become a convenient platform for hosting and distributing content, which is why new genres began to appear and existing ones began to change. Thus, the genre of video essay was formed within the framework of film criticism. Audiovisual essays began to gain popularity on YouTube and Vimeo sites in the early 2010s. Now the number of subscribers on major YouTube channels exceeds 1 million people.

At the center of our research are non-verbal ways of transmitting information in a video session. This genre uses the key advantages of the video format, thanks to which the authors of publications can convey information to the audience through the use of visual materials. It is assumed that in the future video genres may displace text from the dominant position in the field of film criticism.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the features of the video essay genre in order to find out how non–verbal ways of transmitting information to the viewer are used in it. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were formulated: to define the video essay, to consider its features, to analyze previous research in this area, as well as to study examples of individual videos.

When writing the article, a number of theoretical works were used, including a study by E. McWhirter, in which the definition of the video essay genre was formulated and its features described ^[14]. In Russian practice, the analysis of video essays in the context of modern processes of media hybridization and media convergence was carried out by E.A. Glazkova ^[1].

The definition of verbal and non-verbal means of communication is given in his research by S. Langer ^[13]. K.S. Turkgeldi touched upon the discursive features of audiovisual essays in his work. He identified the concept of transfiguration to denote the process of creating new images based on existing ones ^[16]. We also used the classification of video essays, which was proposed by researcher K. Keatley. He determined that audiovisual essays are divided into two types – explanatory and poetic ^[12].

An important part of our research is the analysis of information transmission methods using the example of audiovisual essays from the English-language channel Every Frame a Painting. We chose this channel because it is the largest in terms of the number of subscriptions – now 2.05 million subscribers have subscribed to it. It also became one of the first channels on popular video hosting sites working with the video essay genre. Every Frame a Painting set some standards that were later used by other authors of audiovisual essays.

Definition of the video essay genre and its features

A video essay is a small video clip analyzing films, TV series or other phenomena of film culture. Essayists often choose the director's method as the object of research, as well as camera and editing solutions in films ^{[14, p. 369]}. Researcher K. Grant also introduced the terms audiovisual essay and visual essays applicable to this genre of film criticism ^{[10, p. 255]}.

The video essay was formed from the textual genre of literature and journalism – the essay. Among the traditional features of the essay, one can distinguish a free composition, a relatively small volume, concentration on a specific topic stated by the author in the title, as well as a pronounced author's subjective position ^{[3, p. 71]}. It is noted that the essay is a media hybrid, which is characterized by a combination of many elements – recognition, diary, reasoning, article, narrative or story. Crossing the boundaries of different genres is a characteristic feature of the essay ^[4].

The signs peculiar to text essays have also been transferred to the video essay. Video essayists often do not pretend to the objectivity of the information they broadcast. They explain the visual processes of cinema, which each viewer is free to interpret in their own way.  Most of the essays reveal highly specialized topics – they can be devoted to a certain genre, the filmography of the director, or even the method of camerawork in one particular tape. At the same time, essayists are free to choose the structure of their work, so the content and visual style of the videos differs from channel to channel.

The timing of the video session rarely exceeds fifteen minutes, however, the videos can sometimes be divided into several parts if the topic is difficult to cover in one video. Despite the fact that video essay is a short genre, there is no formally established time limit, therefore, if desired, authors can publish longer works ^{[14, p. 370]}. E. McWhirter notes that video essay, among all other genres of film criticism, has the greatest potential to compete with the historically established primacy of the text in the field assessments and interpretations of cinema and related phenomena ^{[13, p. 369]}. Researcher E. Sendra also notes that the practice of creating video essays challenges the position of written text in the modern system of film criticism ^{[15, p. 67]}.

Film criticism was born and developed in the form of text genres – the first publication that can be attributed to the materials of film criticism appeared in the publication The Optical Lantern and Cinematograph Journal in 1908 ^{[6, p. 4]}. Although there were attempts to consolidate the genres of film criticism on radio and television (for example, the TV programs Kinopanorama in the USSR and At the Movies in the USA), print film criticism remained dominant. This can be attributed to the fact that preparing TV shows takes longer than writing articles, so it is easier and faster for the audience to read an article in a newspaper or a specialized magazine than to track the necessary information on radio or television.

 However, with the advent of the Internet and in the context of media convergence, film criticism has spread widely on the global web. It began to develop on video services, and over the past decade, many content creators with millions of subscribers have appeared. Notable among them are the American channel Every Frame a Painting (2.05 million subscribers) and the Russian Kinopoisk (1.16 million subscribers).

The video essay offers content that may be of interest to both the casual viewer and those who understand the topic of cinema. They combine an in-depth analysis of the theory of film production and the visual design of films with an easy and emotional presentation of the material. Therefore, for users interested in cinema, video essays have become an alternative to articles in specialized publications, including because of their accessibility and diversity.

The main purpose of the video session is to tell certain information about the subject of discussion so that the viewer has material for reflection. E. McWhirter notes that another goal is to immerse the mass audience in the subtleties of the work of cinematographers ^{[14, p. 369]}. Video sessions are aimed at increasing the "visual literacy" among the audience so that viewers can understand and talk about the process of making films and various subtleties of the "inner kitchen" of cinema. They ensure the dissemination of information that previously could only be found in a limited number of sources.

To some extent, video essays can be compared with scientific research. Scientific research recognizes activities aimed at a comprehensive study of an object, process or phenomenon, their structure and relationships, as well as obtaining and putting into practice results useful to humans. Its object is a material or ideal system, and the subject is the structure of the system, the interaction of its elements, various properties, patterns of development, and so on ^{[2, p. 8]}. As in scientific research, the authors of the video essay put forward a thesis, after which they argue their conclusions with the help of evidence (often in the form of excerpts from films) and literature. Audiovisual essays are also linked to scientific research by structuring.

At the same time, journalist V. Rene believes that the video essay does not meet the standards of scientific works on film studies. He states that audiovisual essays are fundamentally creative works created with an emphasis on the visual part, rather than a comprehensive study of the topic. The genre itself is, rather, a tribute to certain filmmakers, rather than a full-fledged scientific study ^[7].

The video essay really distinguishes from scientific research the emotionality, imagery and the presence of value judgments traditional for artistic and journalistic genres. In addition, there are works in which there is a minimum amount of voiceover text. Instead, the authors rely on revealing the topic through the use of visual frames and editing, which is also unusual for scientific research.

Authors of audiovisual essays often face problems such as copyright and circumvention of YouTube algorithms that block content. There is a Content ID system that prevents content protected by copyright holders from being published to the platform. Essayists have to learn how to select the length of frames from films, their sequence and visual effects so that the design of their work complies with the rules of fair use of intellectual property.

This is what the authors of the Every Frame a Painting channel tell us. While developing their videos, Zhou and Ramos studied the basics of copyright in detail. Knowledge of these rules turned out to be necessary in order to protect the video from litigation in case of unfair use of intellectual property. At the same time, such restrictions have a positive effect. Thanks to them, the authors were able to form their own style of editing in videos, learning how to use materials without copyright infringement ^[17].

The video essay uses a combination of verbal and non-verbal ways of presenting information. S. Langer divides the ways of presenting information into these two types. Every day we use the verbal method, because we express information through verbal communication. There is also a non-verbal form that cannot be expressed through language ^{[13, p. 22]}.

Most audiovisual essays feature the voice of an announcer who reads the voiceover text. This is a verbal method of transmission to the viewer. However, the video essay is distinguished by the fact that the author's voiceover text is complemented by what the viewer sees on the screen. The author uses footage from films, documentary chronicles, excerpts from interviews, infographics and a picture. The approach to editing should also be responsible, since timing and proper selection of the sequence of frames is a key element of the genre.

One of the main reasons for the use of verbal description in the field of film studies is the primacy of scientific publications. However, cinematic images cannot be expressed in their entirety in such an analytical framework. Cinema is in a state of continuous formation, so it is changing much faster than language. For this reason, the studies of film critics sometimes face a methodological problem when researchers try to describe images that are difficult to verbally interpret ^{[16, p. 815]}.

When trying to talk about the installation solutions in a painting, about its visual or musical design, you may encounter the problem of incomplete context. This arises from the fact that the viewer needs to see a specific passage from the film in front of him in order to understand what the author of the text means. Cinema is in the plane of images, so a verbal way of transmitting information is not enough to fully conduct an in-depth analysis of the visual design of the picture.

Turkgeldi notes that in some cases it is possible to compensate for the loss of context by using professional terms. However, this is only partially possible, since it is not possible to find the right concept for every visual image. In addition, the recipient of the message should be familiar with these terms ^{[16, p. 816]}.

Another problem lies in the subjective perception of the described images. The author of the work talks about the images he saw through the prism of his own perception. At the same time, the reader may have his own idea, which will differ from the author's.

W. Baker stressed that the video was a turning point in the context of the democratization of images. Since the author can choose the video format and its theme himself, new types of creative works appear that cannot be attributed to films or documentaries ^{[5, p. 59]}. E.A. Glazkova notes that the Internet environment has made video essays a "democratic" genre, since the global network makes it possible and simple to repeatedly borrow, quoting and transformation of images, an organic combination of elements of various types of media, as well as the author's comparison of various ideas, symbols, musical compositions, etc. ^{[1, p. 239]}.

Due to the sharp popularization of video essays, it became necessary to introduce new concepts that will explain the phenomena associated with this genre. Audiovisual essays are distinguished by working with new images that have been created using existing ones.

S.K. Turkgedli introduces the term "transubstantiation" to describe how some cinematic phenomena are described in a video essay using existing frames from films. Video essay creates new semantic levels and new images from film images using manipulative editing techniques. By simultaneously using unrelated existing images, a connection is established between them, that is, a new context or a new interpretation is created ^{[16, p. 819]}.

K. Keatley notes the impact of the Internet on expanding opportunities for film critics outside academia, as they have gained the opportunity to contribute to cinema through blogging. Affordable and inexpensive programs have also appeared that make it easy and fast to perform complex image and sound manipulations, including iMovie and Final Cut Express ^{[12, p. 178]}. There is an increased availability of technical and technological means of production and post-production of video content - software for video editing, animation production and sound editing. There are also many photo and video banks that content creators can use as archives ^{[1, p. 239]}.

If earlier film critics could share their knowledge only on the pages of magazines and newspapers, now anyone can do it on their personal blog. Modern editing software also contributes to the fact that videos can now be released almost as quickly as printed materials. Thanks to this, many amateurs who do not have a journalistic or cinematographic education have gained access to the opportunity to freely broadcast their knowledge of cinematography theory to a wide audience.

I. Gurkan emphasizes that audiovisual essays also represent an alternative to traditional text-based scientific research. Moreover, such a narrative makes the experience of the audience and even the author unique and subjective. It can lead to the emergence of connections that had not been thought of before, for example, to detect certain patterns ^{[11, p. 301]}. It is implied that a completely new image is formed due to the combination of different images. Moreover, it is possible to link not only frames from films – excerpts from films can be combined with video chronicles, musical compositions, photographs or even computer graphics.

According to Turkgeldi, here we can talk about the concept of "transfiguration", which includes all images that "transcend" themselves. The author emphasized that this concept can offer a new concept and perspective that can be adopted for future research in the field of cinema ^{[16, p. 819]}.

Analysis of the non-verbal way of transmitting information using the example of the Every Frame a Painting channel

Many standards of the video essay genre were set by the Every Frame a Painting channel, so it would be advisable to study non-verbal ways of transmitting information using its example. The channel was created in 2014 on YouTube by editor Tony Zhou and his friend Taylor Ramos. It published a series of 28 video essays about films, film editing and cinematography in the period from 2014 to 2016 ^[17]. Even after the closure of the channel, the number of subscribers continues to grow - a total of 2.05 million users subscribed to it, and the total number of views of all videos is more than 106.1 million.

The authors explained the idea of creating a channel by the fact that they often faced the inability to verbally explain complex concepts related to visual art to other people. They decided to create a channel that would help them spread "visual literacy." Before that, the authors constantly had to demonstrate their ideas using examples found on YouTube. Since there were already channels on YouTube dealing with the analysis of the plot, the authors focused on analyzing the form, rather than the content of the films. The main theme of the channel was the connection of image and sound in cinema. This allowed them to make the video essays visual so that the viewer could understand the essence of the video without knowing the content of the picture in question ^[17].

We use as the basis of our research the simplified classification of video essays, which was highlighted by K. Keatley. According to him, audiovisual essays are divided into two types – explanatory and poetic ^[12]. We will look at the video from the Every Frame a Painting channel to find out how they create new images using existing ones, as well as how exactly the visual series is used to explain the thoughts of the authors.

Explanatory video essays can explore many different topics, from the narrative features of a film to cinematic techniques. In such video essays, various illustrative effects, graphics and animation with explanatory audio accompaniment and editing are used to reveal the topic. Illustrativeness is a distinctive feature of such works. The video itself becomes a form of expression that reveals the topic that needs to be told. Such short studies are becoming important tools suitable for use in teaching cinematography and film studies ^{[16, pp. 823-824]}.

The explanatory video essays include most of the videos on the Every Frame a Painting channel. As an example, we will consider one of the latest videos on the channel - "The Marvel Symphonic Universe" ^[8], since in it the authors clearly demonstrate editing techniques by combining various sound sequences with frames from films, as well as using manually shot frames.

 In the video, the authors criticize the films of the Marvel cinematic universe for the lack of a stand-out soundtrack. Zhou notes that composers too often use an orchestra, which is no different from the orchestral music in most blockbusters. In some cases, they even copy music from other movies a little bit.

To support their thoughts, the authors carry out various manipulations with the editing of frames from films. First, they show a scene from the "Iron Man" tape, in which, according to the authors, music that is not too memorable is playing in the background. After that, they show the same footage, but without music in the background. This is how the authors check whether the audience's perception changes if the scene is slightly changed. Thus, they create a new image themselves in order to convey to the viewer information that cannot be described in words alone.

The authors show footage from various Marvel studio films, including "Thor", "The Avengers", "Ant-Man", "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron". Excerpts are selected as an argument in favor of the fact that Marvel studio films choose too predictable video sequence – funny music is used for a funny scene, sad music is sad, tense music is ominous, etc. In combination, these shots convey to the viewer the author's thought. Such examples would not be possible if the essay were presented in text form – it requires the viewer to have a visual idea of the picture, as well as an idea of the musical series.

The authors further repeat the technique with the sound removed, but this time to prove that memorable music is present in Marvel films, but it is muffled. To do this, they removed a voiceover monologue from one of the scenes in the movie "The First Avenger: Another War" to compare the emotional perception of the scene. The authors show that if this were done, the composition would be presented in a more favorable light and would affect the feelings of the audience more.

After that, using the example of different films, the concept of temp music is justified – this is the music that is used in the test version of the film, which the director superimposes on the visual series to show what style of composition he wants to hear in the final montage. An example was the film "300 Spartans", which used music based on the soundtrack from the tape "Titus the Ruler of Rome". Zhou and Ramos superimposed both compositions on the same video sequence for comparison. Footage from the films "Thor" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", as well as "The First Avenger: Another War" and "Mad Max: Fury Road" are also compared.

In addition, the authors of the channel asked random passers-by to hum a melody from various films (including compositions from Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc.). After that, they asked them to hum a melody from any Marvel movie. The respondents could not answer this, except for one man who jokingly sang a song from the animated series "Spider-Man" in 1967. These frames are also used to reinforce the main thesis of the video essay about the unsuccessful selection of music in the studio's films.

Using the methods described above, it is clearly shown how the authors of the video essay can argue their position, resorting to a minimum of verbal explanations. They manipulate the video and audio order to justify their position – a certain sequence of frames is used, excerpts from films and chronicles shot by the authors are borrowed, music is actively used. Such techniques would be difficult to use in other genres and impossible in text ones. The audience needs to hear and see what is being said in the essay, so here visual images directly complement verbal explanations.

Poetic video essays differ from explanatory ones in that they do not use voiceover text at all. This form of audiovisual essays is closer to art than to analytical work. In it, the video sequence is usually complemented only by music, without voiceover text. Nevertheless, images are used in a certain context, which the author needs to express a certain thesis ^{[16, p. 824]}.

An example on the Every Frame a Painting channel is the Hollywood Scores & Soundtracks video: What Do They Sound Like? Do They Sound Like Things Let's Find Out! ("Hollywood compositions and soundtracks: How do they sound? Do they sound like other works Let's find out!") ^[8]. In it, without using off-screen explanations, the authors compare musical compositions from films with soundtracks from other tapes. The video demonstrates the continuity of musical compositions in Hollywood films, using only the necessary music and footage from films.

First, the viewer is shown a scene from a certain painting with an original melody. After that, the same video sequence is repeated with a similar composition from another film. Thus, a scene from the 2011 Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon is borrowed. For the first time, the visual series is accompanied by music from the trailer for the 2010 film "The Beginning", which was written by Zach Hamsey, and for the second time by the original soundtrack from Steve Jablonski. The similarity of the two audio compositions is compared using a simple editing technique – frames with similar music and an identical video sequence follow directly after each other.

The following example is an excerpt from the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy with a composition by Alan Silvestri from the 2012 film The Avengers. The scene is shown for the second time with the original melody by Tyler Bates, written specifically for the film. The video also shows excerpts from the films "Battlestar Galactica", "Stardust", "Ralph" and others. All used footage is presented in two versions – for the original soundtrack and for similar music. The authors, without voiceover, prove to the audience through video and music that Hollywood paintings borrow musical patterns from film to film, which viewers often do not notice. Thus, the creators of the video took advantage of the methods of a non-verbal way of transmitting information. There is no announcer's voice in the video – viewers themselves build a logical chain by observing a certain sequence of frames and listening to music.

Such a way of communicating with the audience would be impossible to use in printed materials and even film reviews in video format, because they rely primarily on the verbal explanations of the author. In print criticism, we see only text that is almost completely devoid of visual images (however, screenshots may be used in some articles). In the video review, the author combines verbal and non-verbal ways of transmitting information, but cannot completely remove verbal explanations, relying only on the visual and musical series.  Otherwise, the reviewer risks creating only a montage with scenes from the film without expressing his personal opinion.

Video essay uses non-verbal communication methods as a special way of narrative. In order to understand a specific thesis, the author can easily do without off–screen explanations - modern editing methods make this possible. This led to the emergence of a separate kind of video essay in the form of poetic works.

Conclusion

As a result of our research, in accordance with the set goal and the tasks specified within it, the following conclusions were obtained. Video essay uses a non-verbal form of information transmission, because it conveys knowledge that cannot be fully reproduced verbally. Most audiovisual essays combine verbal and non–verbal methods of transmitting information - that is, verbal explanations are complemented by video and music, which can provide additional context and serve as an illustration of the authors' thoughts. At the same time, in some cases, essayists can focus on non-verbal methods, significantly reducing or completely removing verbal explanations. 

We have considered the concept of "transimage", which implies a new image created from existing ones. The video essay uses "trans images" to convey knowledge to the audience that could not be conveyed in text form. They can be a combination of frames and music from several different paintings, or a combination of a film with a documentary chronicle, image and graphics.

We also concluded that the verbal techniques of discourse are not conducive to the full disclosure of theses for research in the field of cinematography.  Working with the video format can give researchers the opportunity to make new scientific discoveries in this field.

In order to reveal this idea, we analyzed the video from the Every Frame a Painting channel, using a simplified classification of audiovisual essays previously proposed by another researcher. Using the example of these videos, we saw that they use techniques that are unusual for other genres. The authors of the video essay can use frames and music from various paintings in various combinations in their works to explain the theme of the video. They use all the advantages of video editing and editing programs to create their research. 

Such methods were not possible in the traditional printed genres of film criticism, since the authors do not have the opportunity to supplement their text with video materials. At the same time, the effect of video essays is difficult to repeat in other online genres of film criticism, since video essayists were able to form a unique way of visual narrative, in which the visual series is more important for the narrative than verbal explanations.

This article should help in the further study of video essays and can serve as an addition to the theoretical apparatus of research related to this genre, as well as the entire film criticism in general.  

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