I’m a huge fan of Vox’s ambitious, explanatory video journalism utilizing a variety of camera, editing, motion graphics and storytelling approaches in producing compelling stories. Vox crew members are master tour guides in leading audience members through the journey of a person, place or thing.
A great example of this is The mass graves of Tulsa. It’s a gripping, horrific and necessary story about the 1921 massacre that took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s “Black Wall Street” – a once thriving community of black-owned businesses in a neighborhood called the Greenwood District. White supremacists burned more than 1,200 Greenwood buildings and killed approximately 300 people there following accusations of an African-American teenager assaulting a white teenager. Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum recently launched a search to find the mass graves where the murdered victims were buried and bring closure to their families.
In the opening starts with a voiceover from the video producer and drone footage with three different bird’s-eye view shots, coupled with some creepy music and the narrator/reporter saying, “Something terrible happened here…” – which gave me a sense of morbid curiosity, foreboding and definitely wanting to know What Happens Next? The drone shots make effective use of contrast by going from what looks like Small Town USA to a cemetery – bolstering the What Happens Next? tension and drawing the viewer in even more.
Introducing the Interview Style, there’s a J Cut at :09 where we here audio of an interviewee as a lead-in to the visual cut of her. It’s a seamless transition as the video producer guides us from the drone shots into the room where we meet the first interview subject and gain context.
At :14 Vox gives us an effectively abrupt and eye-catching Symmetrical Composition with the next interviewee. The composition creates a demanding, in-your-face and straight effect for a story and resolution that demands the same.
At :18 and then :21 we see a medium cut, then close up, of an MOS interviewee that makes use of Shallow Depth of Field to tone down a background that may have been distracting. However, we can see the blurred image of a police car with flashing lights in that background. It’s appropriate for the criminal nature of the subject matter at hand providing continuity. In addition, we see a cut form medium shot to a tight shot to emphasize the importance of what the interviewee is saying, “It was an absolute massacre.”
Vox also uses the Re-enactment Style in telling us what happened nearly 100 years ago with old footage, photos, newspaper articles and records documenting the racial violence. These powerful elements are peppered throughout giving us historical prospective and authenticity.
In addition, Vox employs motion graphics layered over and alongside old photos and newspaper stories to enhance the explanatory portions of the piece. It adds an interesting aesthetic element to static b-roll (still photos, records, newspaper stories, rock shots) and guides the viewer to a deeper understanding by visually connecting the dots for us as to what went down. It draws our attention to what we need to see and says LOOK AT THIS now. Below are just a couple of examples.
Sound effects conveying an antiquated/historical feel are used as well. When showing the viewer images of archived newspaper stories, we often hear the tap of an old -fashioned typewriter – bringing us back to a time when the stories were published. These segments are also edited to the beat of that sound effect creating greater impact – like audio exclamation points.
Overall, Vox’s polished, professional and highly-produced Mass graves of Tulsa leaves us with an urgent sense of call to action to provide closure to the families of the massacre’s innocent victims.