eNordy: January 2011

So for my visual essay I decided to talk about depleting our resources and the effect we have on our environment. I got the inspiration from Disturbed's Song Another Way to Die. The song is about how the way we are treating the world is giving us "another way to die." We are losing what we need by over using and not conserving, and it is starting to affect the entire world.

When I started this project, I knew that I had to put at least part of the music video into my project. Originally, I had the entire music video starting off my project. That, with the part that I made, combined for a total of around five and a half minutes. Seeing as more of my project at that point was a video that I had no part in making, I decided to make a change. There were two ways I could affect the music video to what I made ratio. I could either take out part of the actual music video or I could add a lot more pictures and potentially end the song that I had as background for the images that I chose.

Adding enough pictures to balance the music video would have made my project overly long, so I decided to take out the part of the music video that was not as relevant. I also put the music video at the end of my project, starting off instead with what I made. That way it did not look like I was trying to get out of work by putting someone else's work in mine. I tried to pick not only a song that would go with the mood what I was talking about, I also tried to pick pictures that fit with the words of the song.

A repeating line of the song says "It comes to take away the ones you love." To go with this, I picked an image that had a mother holding what appeared to be her extremely malnourished child. It shows not only how running out resources is affecting people on a personal level, but it also fits in with the songs and ties it together. I put this picture to not only fit in, but also for shock value. When a picture comes up with a mother holding the body of what literally looks like a skeleton with skin, you can not help but to feel something. Some of these are pictures that you can not just ignore.

Another line says "It's a beautiful landscape. The sunset makes the coast look so clear." I put in pictures of landscape with absolutely no trees, a sunset that is behind a nuclear plant, and water that is basically a floating landfill for irony. "But no one has those problems here." For this line I put in a picture of African children, who are all skin and bones, reaching out. This is a picture for starvation. I put this picture with this line to show how starvation may not be as much of a problem here in America, but it is a huge deal in other parts of the world. "Out of site, out of mind" is not an acceptable excuse. I must admit that I am guilty of it, but when I see pictures like theses, I want to do something.

That is the impact I was going for in this video. After people see this, I want them to have the same feeling of urgency that I got. I ended the portion that I made with a drawing of the Earth surrounded by smog and pollution and coughing. The line of the song during this picture just says "Gone." I did this to show that if we do not stop what we are doing and try and go in a different direction, we will lose our world. The Earth will not disappear, but we will. We need to wake up and start fixing all of the numerous problems that we have been blindly causing for all of history.

Another Way to Die talks about how we are killing our planet, and how that in turn is killing us. It shows not only a possible future, but what led to it. In the music video, people can only drink small amounts when allowed to, and are not allowed to grow anything. The purpose of that is to "conserve water", but those in charge are incredibly hypocritical in that they are cleaning their boots in the already dirty water and throwing the filth back into the drinking water.

People try and fight back. One man grows a strawberry, a child steals bottles of water and a mug, and is chased by military men, and others protest as well. In the end, non are successful, especially the lady who never even got the water in the small vial like the other man.

In my project I not only tired to tie the pictures I chose with the song, I also made almost my own version of the music video to Another Way to Die. In the end, more of my project was the part that I made, but I still put in another published video about the same subject. I hope that those of you who decide to watch this enjoy it, and decide to conserve in your daily lives, even if it is just a little.

To see my video, go to http://youtube.com/user/enordstr1?feature=mhum

Works cited for pictures (not entirely in order)