Journey of a Duck Response

                The visual effect that struck me the most was the use of landscape and spacing in the “Journey of the Duck,” video.  The way in which the film was shot gave subtle yet effective visual cues to the ducks location with regards to campus. This allowed for the viewers to enjoy the film as a journey, but also to focus on other aspects of the video, such as the song and pacing. If the visual cues were less subtle I feel as if the duck would have not been the focus of the video, therein detracting from the purpose of the video.

                The actual distance covered in the video is relatively small. It would take a boat less than 10 min to traverse the route taken by the duck, however due to the way the duck was shot with regards to its environment, the distance the duck was travelling seemed almost endless. I am very impressed with how space was handled in the video and I believe that handling of space elevated this video to another level.  I believe that the way that the sense of space was accomplished was by using the zoom and situating the duck off center. By not zooming too much, the duck appeared smaller in reference to its surrounding environment. Perhaps the most effective method was not centering the duck in every scene. By allowing the duck to remain at the bottom of the frame the duck was dwarfed by the background environment. The dwarfing effect would not have been as intense, in my opinion, if the duck was centered on the screen.

                I think that the simplest aspects of the “Duck Journey” video were by far the most effective. The random cuts, and even the music were outdone by the subtle and informative visual cues and editing choices. I thought this video was a great example of movies/videos being effective visual media because I think that visual communication predominated in the video.