The Crisis of Credit Visualized

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on The Crisis of Credit Visualized

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx_LWm6_6tA[/youtube]

This one is trying to do what’s on the cover. The sound works really well, I’m not a fan of the colours, but that’s not really the point here. It works heavily with titles, and is well paced. More an attempt to explain very concretely what triggered this specific crisis (and very focused on the States), not so much trying to explain the general concept of capitalism. It works well though, and I actually do get the impression I’m learning something when watching. Although for some reason I don’t fully trust it.

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The Impossible Hamster

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on The Impossible Hamster

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqwd_u6HkMo[/youtube]

Another analogy: The market with it’s need for constant growth as a hamster that ends up eating earth. It doesn’t really reference the idea behind the growing markets very much, so while it is very cute, I’m kinda missing something here and watching it leaves me a bit unsatisfied.

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The Story of Stuff

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on The Story of Stuff

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM[/youtube]

There’s a lot of people who just love The Story of Stuff. The way it’s talked about, you would think it’s the latest movie by the Cohen brothers – but better! I have to say, I find the presenter quite annoying. It’s just a bit too American for me, she sounds like a parody to me tbh.

So this one is using a presenter, interacting with some animation. The animation is fine, and I’m a fan of statistics. But this whole idea stands and falls with the viewer liking the presenter, and that’s a dangerous thing. Because part of the audience will always dislike the presenter, even if they are interested in the content or message of the film.

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RSAnimate – Crises of Capitalism

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in scrapbook, visual pamphlets | Comments Off on RSAnimate – Crises of Capitalism

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0[/youtube]

RSAnimate is a series of talks made into animations by adding drawings on a whiteboard. It’s an extremely well executed concepts, and I envy the artist’s drawing skills. Very simple concepts: take a talk and make drawings to illustrate what is being said and make it more engaging and entertaining. You should check out the other films from the series, if you haven’t seen them.

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You are terrorist

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on You are terrorist

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdIA0jeW-24[/youtube]

Another German one, but this one comes with subtitles.

It’s very straight forward, not really dealing with anything too abstract. The graphics are working very well, nice and clean looking. The most notable point is the voiceover, explaining in a creepily hypnotic tone why all the surveillance is necessary and ho everyone is a terrorism suspect nowadays. Obviously, this perspective of pretending to be in favor of surveillance is the main device that makes this video work.

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Like a frog in boiling water

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on Like a frog in boiling water

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diq6TAtSECg[/youtube]

Because the voiceover is German, here a quick summary: If you put a frog into a tub of boiling water, it’ll feel the heat and jump out. However, if the temperature is ok when you put it in, it will stick around. If the heat is now turned up gradually, the frog won’t notice and you end up with cooked frog.

Here it draws an analogy: Our society displays similar responses to a frog. If you would try and install a totalitarian surveillance state, people would protest. But surveillance is introduced at a low level, and then turned up gradually, with the same end result. Because we are getting used to it, we are in danger of not noticing when it’s getting too hot for comfort. A person who is watched adjusts their behaviour to this fact, and this can have severe effects, e.g. on the freedom of speech. If you are worried about being watched, you are more likely to not say what you think, especially if your opinion are not in line with the mainstream.

Simple but effective.

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The Big Brother State

February 21, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on The Big Brother State

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTLL1UjvfU[/youtube]

The Big Brother State is a very well made video, explaining the use and dangers of cctv and other surveillance tools. Sadly the website at http://www.bigbrotherstate.com/ seems to not exist anymore.

It summarises the arguments for surveillance and then goes on point out some of the downsides. Visually it is very appealing, the pink and grey aesthetics are easy on the eye, the little bombs and hearts visually represent abstract concepts and ideas and make them more tangible, without making them too concrete. The pink ‘wallpaper’ background is a bit sickly sweet, but adds a self ironic element, which counteracts the somewhat dry and depressing subject matter.

It is made from a mix of footage of real people, 3D and 2D animation, creating a well paced, informative and entertaining little video.

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