Alien Contact by Theo Thomas is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Software
I used Kdenlive to edit this video.
Music
into you feat. missjudged by madimpactunit
Alien Contact by Theo Thomas is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
I used Kdenlive to edit this video.
into you feat. missjudged by madimpactunit
Hey Theo!
Your video uses a lot of eye catching imagery and an energetic soundtrack to create an otherworldly atmosphere, something I think suits your idea. I am very attracted to the man’s relationship with the sea as an analogy for man’s relationship with outer space, a theme your video does a nice job of exploring. As I was watching it for the first time, I could sense a building an anticipation, which pays off with the appearance of highly saturated images of colorful marine life.
Your title does a lot of the heavy lifting in conveying your ideas as the video itself could read more as purely an exploration of diving and deep-sea life without it. Structurally, the video works well regardless. Your edits work in coordination with the driving beat of the song, but they aren’t always cut one-to-one with the beat of the song, which helped prevent it from feeling overly predictable and repetitive.
The aspect of the video that I’m having some trouble with is the repetition of the images of vessels from above the water, particularly the half-submerged ship. While it’s an evocative image in isolation, I have trouble seeing how it fits in with the overall intentions of the piece. The first time the image shot from the deck of the boat appears, it makes for a compelling sense of motion as it transitions into the shot of the bubbles, like the cameraman has jumped in the water, but when we return to the image, it didn’t feel quite the same.
Overall, you did a great job with your video!
Hi Theo.
My takeaway from this video is that humans admire sea creatures, similar to how humans revere aliens. Some humans protect sea creatures, while others harm them and care more about making a profit.
I felt the images paired well with the earthy/breathy audio. The image that stands out the most to me is the image of the diver next to the huge whale.
I felt the timing and pacing of images being a little offbeat worked well for your video. I had never heard of Kdenlive before seeing your credits; I will have to check that out. Overall, good job on your video.
Hi Theo. The first thing I thought of when watching your video is that there is still 95% of the ocean still to explore by human kind. The ocean really is another world despite it being here on earth. Your images make me also think about all of the other undiscovered species that could be lying in the depths below in the ocean. The photo transitions you created have a neat supplementary up beat transition with the percussion in the music track selected. After watching the video multiple times, it also evokes this joy for underwater adventuring such as snorkeling and scuba diving. I liked the use of “People Diving at Coral Reef” by Lamas and “Clownfish Underwater” by Brand; they both accentuate the alien contact theme for me. Your use of image flipping with “Gray and silver School of Fish” was also a nice technique. The only constructive criticism I could think of is that the Koi fish at 0:40 could have been kept to 2 seconds as the air bubbles before it during the drum roll was perfect for 5 seconds of the drum roll. Great work!