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Hybrid Art Assignment

Perhaps one of the most memorable monologues in all of film is the on the V gives to Evee Hammond in the first fifteen minutes of the movie V for Vendetta after saving her from the notorious “fingermen.” In the movie, the speech is mastered through the use of phenomenal and creative alliteration with the “V” sound, and the crescendo and decrescendo of the actor, Hugo Weaving’s, voice makes the speech come alive. 

Even though the movie is a work of art in itself, there is a method of internet media that was employed by a YouTube User to remake this epic monologue: Kinetic Typography. A form of media in which words pop up on the screen in a synchronized fashion with the audio, the words being altered to be large, small, bold, and move in a manner to mirror the fluctuations in the intonation and emphasis placed on certain words (the link posted on the bottom will take you to this particular example of kinetic typography). 

The first exceptionally notable aspect of this is when, after Eve asks V “Who are you?” at the beginning of the sequence, when V replies “Who?” in response, the shift is made through the deletion of “are you,” and the “who” carries over from Evee’s words to V. Within the movie, V and Evee are clearly characters that are meant to mirror one another: V after his ordeal, and Evee (for a time) represents the person he was before his imprisonment by the dystopia of England’s government.  While this overlap in their characters is made exceptionally clear in the movie, it is expounded upon exceptionally clearly hear, when the words that one uses melds into the words of the other, this mirror is made even more noticeable than in the movie, as perhaps the only thing that could demonstrate their reflection of one another to an even greater extent would be if their minds were to physically meld together. As the media progresses, the words fold out from each other, smash into each other, overlap each other, and so on. This helps to demonstrate the continuity and fluency of V’s speech, as just as his manner of speaking in the movie is incredibly fluid and without hesitation, as is the incredibly driven manner of the way in which the words flow onto the screen, further evoking the purposefulness of V’s speech. Another noticeable development is the size of V’s speech compared to Evee’s speech. Just as Evee is uncertain and timid in this scene in the movie, the size of her words in the kinetic typography reflect her mentality, being rather small, implying a sort of “meek and mild” quality.  V, on the other hand, is confident, bold, and dominates the conversation, so his words are naturally far larger, reflecting his domineering nature.

As I mentioned above, the words in the media stream at the same rate as they are said. So when V slows down, so do the words, ceasing to flow into one another and instead becoming more punctual and forceful, such as the part where V says “I’m not questioning your powers of observation I’m merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is,” where the words appear slower and slower, and also progressively becoming larger and larger, and in the end the phrase “WHO HE IS” being in all capital letters, all of this combined demonstrating the increasing forcefulness and power behind his words as he nears the end of the sentence.  Then, after Evee responds, V’s words become more fluid again, falling into one another just as before, shifting back to his original flowing and driven speech.  Then, suddenly (just as V’s movements in the speech are), a giant “VOILA” flies onto the screen: bold, large, and loud, commanding the reader’s rapt attention just as much (if not more so) than the watcher of the movie. Then it begins.

V slides right into his masterful speech, with v sound after v sound flowing into one another, and just as his speech becomes borderline confusing and jumbled in the movie, the words reflect it even more so, as they literally built on top of and to the side of all the words, with the emphasis he places on the “v” words demonstrated through their size and boldness in the text. And as the words continue to scroll continuously, smashing into one another constantly, it is alleviated by the word “vanished,” in which, fittingly, all other words have indeed “vanished” from the screen. An effect that the movie did not capture nearly as well.  Then V continues, moving into a sequence which separates the v words from the other words, with valorous, visitation, vexation, and vivified all set off to the right, bold and large, which places a strong emphasis on the alliteration that, while Hugo Weaving did a remarkable job, the words in the kinetic typography emphasize this even greater than in the movie.  Then the real fun begins, where V presses onward, he words growing larger and larger, bolder and bolder, as the words become louder and louder, and smashing even tighter together with his speech’s accelerating tempo until finally acuminating in the fully capitalized and ferocious enunciation of the word “VOLITION.”
            At this point in the movie, V whips out his knives and slices up a poster on the wall, capitalizing on his passion and wrath with the motion.  In this version, there are two massive flashes of light where each slash would be, which is arguably just as powerful (if not more powerful) than the scene in the movie, where we are left to our imagination what it is that he is slicing open with his knives. That, and the flashes of bright white light in stark contrast to the red background make the action even more notable than in the movie, where there is but a brief (bad-ass, but brief) streaks of silver in the form of the knife, while the flashes consume the entire screen, capturing moment more fully than the movie was able to. V then proceeds to once more continue his slurring v speech mannerisms, the words colliding into each other, growing bolder, etc. Then we reach the part where V laughs a very light chuckle. Undeniably, the kinetic typography captures this moment better than in the movie, as since V’s face is covered by a mask in the movie that is frozen in a perpetual smile, we are unable to see his facial expression while he does so. In this part, the tossing and jumbling of the words playfully on the screen gives us the best indication of what his facial expression would be—not an uproarious, jovial, belly shaking laughter face, but sort of that awkward laugh and expression you get on your face when you realize you’ve just made an utter fool of yourself. After the laughter expires, V rushes through the final part of his speech as to get his “Vichyssoise of Verbiage” out of the way, in which he then begins “simply,” which is illuminated on by the typewriter pace that the words take to pop up on the screen, which is certainly the simplest, or at least most basic measure of typing available.  Then, after the final accumulation of the monologue into a giant, size 48 font “V,” (certainly more powerful than the movie, which ends with a subtle bow), Evee asks him almost sarcastically “are you like a crazy person?” with her own confusion mirrored in the haphazard way that the words pop onto the screen and the awkward slant of the question mark, and V answers just as certainly and in just as much of a matter-of-fact tone as ever with “I am quite sure they will say so.”

I still hold a vast amount of respect for the movie and the acting abilities of Hugo Weaving in the film, yet I must admit that the power of the words and their movement in the kinetic typography is perhaps more breathtaking that the speech in the movie.  Either way, there is no doubt that the emphasis on V’s words is accented phenomenally in this method of digital media hybrid art, and regardless of one’s preference, there is not denying its remarkable artistic quality.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=v+for+vendetta+kinetic+typography&aq=0