Best of Michael Scott

Outcome

My final outcome is the youtube video below. It can also be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pioHMycjOfs 

Intention

This project was created with just one motive in mind: to make people laugh. Over the past few weeks, I have been seeing so much artwork that has some serious intention: some hidden idea to dig for, some truth the audience must face, etc. And for me, even when I originally set out to entertain with my artwork, I feel like sometimes I can get lost in all the deep meaning behind my work that by the time I have a finished product, it has lost its entertaining factor. I'm fairly sure I am not the only one who has experienced this phenomenon. Therefore, with this project, I wanted to keep the deep, intellectual motives to a minimum, and focus solely on making the viewer laugh. If, by the end of my video, I leave my viewers happier and in a lighter mood than they were in before they began watching, I will have accomplished my goals and consider this a successful product.

Context

I have always been very interested in supercuts. Something about going through and finding the best moments in a serious of works, and then creating a product out of those individual parts really appeals to me. I had a pretty good sense of what supercuts look like, and in keeping with intention for this project (see above), I wanted to make a simplistic supercut with minimal video or audio editing in order to focus on the source material instead. 

Additionally, since all my material comes from The Office, I wanted to follow their style. The Office is filmed in a manner that focuses on tight, quick cuts between scenes, and this is something I tried to incorporate into my project as well so that it would be similar to The Office. In this way, if a viewer is familiar with The Office, the style in which my product is constructed would potentially remind the viewer of the style in which episodes from the show itself are put together.

Process

My proposal was a supercut of well-used slow motion. I rejected that idea and started considering several others, each of which I rejected before deciding that my main intention was entertainment. Being a fan of The Office, I decided I would share the best moments from the show.

I came up with a list of moments to use, and then went about finding each of them. I used Quicktime Player's screen recording feature, along with Soundflower for internal audio, and captured all the clips. I decided to use iMovie, and after importing my clips, the product was over 7 minutes long. I decided to use as much as I could, and cut the rest in order to reach 4 minutes. After my desk crits however, I realized that I could go further in my editing, and managed to squeeze in even more material into those 4 minutes.

Finally, after the product was complete, I posted it on Youtube, added a link on Reddit, and also shared it with my friends in order to garner as many views as possible. It currently stands at 163 views, and I hope by the end of the semester it may reach 1000 views.

Product

My final product is a video about 4 minutes in length. It contains what I consider to be the best moments of Steve Carell's character Michael Scott from The Office. My viewers seem to find the video funny and have responded to it positively, which was my intention. 

I created it by first recording each clip using the screen recording feature of Quicktime Player, along with Soundflower which allowed me to also record the internal audio as each clip was being played. I moved all my recorded clips into a project folder in iMovie. I chose iMovie because it is easy to use, and I was not planning on doing any heavy, or complicated editing. I cut down all the clips to just the material which was relevant, and then began organizing them in an interesting way so that they would flow well together and would be as funny as possible. I went through several iterations in order to be able to fit in as much material as I could. I also made sure to keep in mind that the idea was to make people laugh, and the product is focused on this idea. 

Critique

My inner critic was very satisfied with this work. For me, The Office has always been a stress reliever, mainly due to its lack of seriousness. I feel like I was really able to capture that quality of the show in my work by choosing some of the best moments it offered, and arranging them in a way that builds up the humor over time. The video includes the best clips I could think of, and everyone I have showed it to so far has laughed while watching it. My intent was to offer something that has no deeper meaning, and is only focused on entertaining and making the viewer laugh, and therefore, I think I managed to match the intent and outcome effectively. 

One component that I am not yet satisfied with is the spread. Although I feel like I have a good product, I have not been able to spread it as far as I would like. This is mostly because it has really only been up for 2 days, but I need to find better ways of spreading the link to my video in order to receive more views because I really do want to share this product with as many people as possible.

Reflection

For me, the biggest takeaway from the project was the fact that art, especially electronic media, does not always need to have some deep meaning. It does not need to have all sorts of interpretive elements in order to be interesting. Sometimes, what people want most is only to be entertained without having to focus too hard or look for meaning. 

That is not to say that art which does in fact have such deeper intentions is not good. In fact, I often greatly enjoy works that really make me think hard about important issues. However, the big idea is that art does not need to necessarily have this quality in order to be interesting or to get a good response from the viewer. Sometimes, it can just be 4 minutes of non-sensical clips put together solely to get as many laughs as possible.

Sources

The various clips in my video come from the following episodes of The Office - US:

The Chump - Season 6, Episode 25
Diversity Day - Season 1, Episode 2
Traveling Salesman - Season 3, Episode 12
Frame Toby - Season 5, Episode 9
Money - Season 4, Episode 4
Fun Run - Season 4, Episode 1
The Fight - Season 2, Episode 6
Pilot - Season 1, Episode 1
Sexual Harassment - Season 2, Episode 2
Casino Night - Season 2, Episode 22
Safety Training - Season 3, Episode 19
Stress Relief - Season 5, Episode 14
The Negotiation - Season 3, Episode 18
The Duel - Season 5, Episode 12
Drug Testing - Season 2, Episode 20
Christmas Party - Season 2, Episode 10
Did I Stutter - Season 4, Episode 12
Michael's Birthday - Season 2, Episode 19
Finale - Season 9, Episode 23

References

I am a big fan of The Office, so in terms of figuring out what quotes and moments to use, I came up with the list myself without any external sources.

I used http://theoffice.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page to figure out what episode each quote or moment came from.