Dec 1, 2020

Cary Grant Comes Home for the Weekend Festival: Making My First Video Essay and Chatting on a Panel with Creators


One of the best things I've done since the pandemic has changed life so dramatically was to learn how to make a video essay. 

I did it for the Cary Grant Comes Home for the Weekend Festival, a wonderful event that usually takes place in the actor's hometown of Bristol, UK, but was online for the first time this year. 

My video was part of a partnership between the festival and Will DeGravio's Video Essay Podcast. This year's festival celebrated the 100th anniversary of Grant's first voyage to the United States. Participants were tasked with creating a video essay exploring the concept of journeys. 

I immediately knew I had to discuss Grant's emotional journey in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946), something I wanted to do so badly that I humbled myself and asked my kid how to make a video. This is the result (to view the whole screen, click on the title link below the video):

 

Cary Grant in NOTORIOUS: A Journey to Love from Kendahl Cruver on Vimeo.

While I have a lot to learn, I had a lot of fun making this. If you have any interest in making your own video essays, go for it! Once you get deep into the process, it can be addictively fun. 

I was so impressed with the creativity of my fellow participants, a collection of bright, fascinating people from around the world. We all had the opportunity to talk about our work with DeGravio and festival director Dr. Charlotte Crofts on a panel that took place during the festival. Here is a compilation with all of our videos and that conversation edited together (to view the whole screen, click on the title link below the video):

The Journeys of Cary Grant: An Audiovisual Celebration — Full Screening and Q&A from Will DiGravio on Vimeo.

You can also watch the videos individually here. I am looking forward to making more video essays, which I will share here. If you have made a video essay you'd like to share, please put a link in the comments!

No comments:

Post a Comment