Multimedia in the First Person

Since my first post didn’t completely meet the requirements, I decided to take a tip from the first week of class by viewing a project on MediaStorm for my second post.

The project I chose to watch was “Love in the First Person” by Matt Eich and Melissa Eich.

This is how MediaStorm described the project: “The College Photographer of the Year contest has launched many famous photojournalism careers. At 20 years old, Matt Eich is a hard-working college student enjoying life with his girlfriend, Melissa, when he learns he has won the contest. As his dream of traveling the globe with his camera becomes a reality, he learns that he has another budding reality at home: Melissa is pregnant. As these two young people navigate some very hard choices, they also stop to document this time in their lives, sharing their thoughts and fears for the road ahead. What results is Love in the First Person, a touching account of what it means to grow up.”

This project had my attention before I even pressed play. The cover photo for the video, which documents a passionate kiss, combined with the title of the project had me intrigued before I even read the description.

One of my favorite parts of the project is the first minute. It starts with Melissa sitting on a bed caressing a stuffed animal, but we can’t see her face. Next, we see the couple from behind, holding hands and walking down a hallway. The screen then goes black for a few seconds, we hear Melissa’s voice and then pictures of her start to appear on the screen. When we hear her voice, it’s actually a recording she made for Matt. I think that’s a really unique thing to do for this sort of project versus just recording material after the project has been discussed. It shows right off the bat how much they’re going to let us into their lives.

Something else I really like about this project, and that I noticed throughout, are how the pictures on the screen mirror what we hear either one of them speaking about. In Melissa’s recording for Matt, she tells him she doesn’t want to hold him back from going anywhere and that she just wants to go with him. As she said these things, a picture of her standing on train tracks appears and is followed by a picture of the two of them sharing a kiss.

This project is more than just sound, pictures and video. Photos were timed with specific sound clips, which made the story more clear and powerful.

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