A Good Life, Too: Alonzo Clemons from The Good Line on Vimeo.
This is the story of a man that was institutionalized for 10 years after suffering a brain injury as a child. He began to make sculptures as a way to express himself. “When they wouldn’t give him clay, he would scrape warm tar from the parking lot.”
This is an example of a character profile that a filmmaker might stray away from due to fear of not being able to understanding the character and their message. However, the people that put together this video short thought outside of the normal realm of creativity to be able to help Alonzo Clemons tell his story. They used text as a tool to help the audience understand his message. Also, I thought that this was also a good example of Wes’s point that video is over 50% close-up shots. The detail shots of Alonzo’s face and hands as he was molding the clay figure were very powerful and effective.