Vivian Ong: "The Forgotten Plague, Chapter 1" Blog Post

I really enjoyed watching this video; I actually might go back and watch some more of it when I have some free time. The subject itself was interesting(obviously, it was what caught my eye first) and when I started watching the video I found myself more and more engrossed in the information that was being conveyed to me.

The clip began with a video of a cold, dreary window, perfectly accompanied by calm, melancholy music to complement the context of the video. After the viewer gets a sense that the subject discussed will not be a pleasant one, you start to hear the beginning of a narrative, of a survivor of the disease known as tuberculosis. The tone of his voice sounds like he has gone through a lot in life; he continues to voice over pictures shown of his family, who all have had and died from tuberculosis. The raspy, first person narrator voice then transitions to a regular narrator over another winter video who speaks statistics and information about the disease itself. There is constant soft music in the background behind the voice overs with the accompaniment of the pictures; the narrator perfectly times it so that when he says phrases such as "wasting away" and "coughing yourself to death" images of bed ridden victims are shown. It was a very emotional experience, and I found myself feeling strong sympathy towards those who had to go through this traumatic experience. There were videos of historians talking about the impact of the plague that switched off with the voice over.

Finally, they went on in detail to describe someone's story of how he seemed to get better from tuberculosis. Edward had taken care of his brother with tuberculosis, and was horrified to discover he had the same disease that killed his brother. However, this particular story didn't touch on tragedy; in fact it spun tragedy around to make it better. With a combination of voice overs, pictures, videos of scenery, and videos of historians commenting on the story, I found myself very interested in what would happen with Mr. Edward. He started spending more time outdoors, as his passion was hunting, and found that fresh air and outdoor living could change the course of the disease. When he went back to living in the city, the disease came back with full force. He moved his family out to the wilderness, as the clean mountain air was something like medicine for this lungs. Although the majority of Edward's story was a voice over combined with pictures, it captured my attention, as the pictures were bright and were in context with the story. All in all I thought the professionalism yet strategically placed personal touches were what made this video very successful.