This blog represents the type of aesthetic I aim to create for my Video Essay. I aim to take viewers on a journey through both Image and video, but to create the atmosphere I will also be using colour theory and and colour grading.

I have a subscription to Canva, so I have access to both stock images and video, as well as graphics that I can animate. Therefore in my Video Essay I will employ my subscription as well as use archival video and images from news sources on YouTube.

Below you can see a cool Blue/Teal futuristic Image; I intend to use it as a representative of the western world connected through technology and weather. Blue also connotes futurism, calmness and rationality, which, I suppose is how the Western World represents itself to the rest of the World.

The voiceover will also include a segment on technology, but more specifically battery operational technology as well as materials used within it, which are known as Rare Earths. This will be a technically informative Video Essay based on facts. However, this does not mean that it won’t be emotive.

After the technological information, I will then discuss the relationship between the west and the Global South and how it is exploitative it is in reality (Institute for Policy Studies, 2023). I will use a video based on the Image below to show the divide in our worlds.

Cobalt Red by Sidharth Kara (2023) was a poignant book that I read, which gave me the jolt that I needed to realise, what it really took for me to get the technology that I use… the content was harrowing. Kara’s book is a powerful exposé of the human suffering and environmental devastation fueling modern technology. It paints a harrowing picture of Congolese miners, including children, risking their lives in toxic pits for meager wages, exploited by multinational corporations and insatiable Western consumerism. Kara sheds light on the corrupt systems enabling this exploitation and the poisoned landscapes left in its wake. His urgent plea for corporate accountability and ethical sourcing challenges us to confront the hidden costs of our technological progress and demand justice for those bearing its burden.

The images in this book were also very striking

The images in Cobalt Red employ stark, Red Earthy tones, all shades of browns, amongst a grey blue sky, almost as if we are in the Mad Max Universe. Emphasizing the bleak and hazardous conditions of cobalt mines in the ground contrasting against acres of red earth, I plan to use some of these images and also reference them in the Video Essay. These visuals are powerful because they confront the viewer with the harsh realities of exploitation and environmental destruction, making the suffering of Congolese miners of all ages, impossible to ignore.

References:

Institute for Policy Studies, 2023. Mapping the Impact and Conflicts of Rare-Earth Elements. Available at: https://ips-dc.org/mapping-the-impact-and-conflicts-of-rare-earth-elements/ [Accessed 29 November 2024].

Kara, S., 2023. Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. New York: St. Martin’s Press.