A Detailed Video Essay Outline on Amatörer

Introduction

• Open to black screen. Fade in white text “Amatörer (2018)” next line “Directed by Gabriela Pichler”
• Cut to minute 8:59, play with film audio to 9:09.
• Cut to minute 11:07, play with film audio to 11:15. Pause.

• Flash on white text “Starring” in the top right corner of still.
• Flash on white text “Zahraa Aldoujaili (as Aida)” over her left shoulder (she is the one in a yellow helmet).
• Flash on white text “and Yara Aliadotter (as Dana)” to the bottom left of her blue helmet.
• Voiceover (VO): Amatörer, or Amateurs, is the story of a small town in Sweden called Lafors as it attempts to attract the construction of a German superstore, Superbilly. The town council members ask local high school students to make films that advertise the beautiful qualities of the town of Lafors. Amatörer follows two students, Aida and Dana as they unexpectedly take to the medium, and proceed to document the less-than-beautiful aspects of the town they call home.”

National and Transnational Elements

• Fade to still at minute 1:17:13.

• VO and white text appears as details are spoken. On-screen text is indicated with “” in the following narration. Text should appear on the right half of the still as a list.
• VO: Amatörer was released in “Sweden, Germany, the United States, Poland, Denmark and Finland” in “2018”
• VO: The film is a primary example of transnational cinema as no fewer than nine languages are spoken in the film: “Swedish (primarily), German, Romanian, Serbian, English, Arabic, Tamil, Kurdish and Bosnian”
• VO: The film first premiered in Sweden at the “Göteborg Film Festival,” but it also aired in other European and American film festivals. Today it can be accessed via Amazon video.

Thesis

• Cut to black screen.
• VO: Director Gabriela Pichler takes viewers on an intimate path that exposes the inhumanities of the “Traditional Style” of making film and recommends a newer, “Egalitarian Style” of making film. (The on-screen white text should appear in the upper half of the frame as “Traditional Style vs. Egalitarian Style”).
• VO: The egalitarian style relaxes the cinematographic ‘rules’ of filmmaking and employs affordable technology. Pichler juxtaposes scenes that are shot using conventional filmmaking techniques with those that are made using an egalitarian style. Amatörer thus contributes to the rising era of cinema that both democratizes the process of filmmaking and that places value on its ethical production.
• VO: Two scenes highlight the differences between these two styles: the “Drone Scene” at the beginning of the film and the “Selfie Stick Scene” at the end of the scene. (Text should appear as “Drone Scene vs. Selfie Stick Scene” in the lower half of the frame).
• VO: Let’s start with the drone scene.

Drone Scene

• Cut to minute 29:48, play with film audio to 30:17. Pause.
• VO: This scene exemplifies the “Traditional Style” (text in upper right of still) of making film. As you can see, this scene is shot with a drone, which is a very expensive piece of equipment. Since only filmmakers that have substantial funding can use this technology, drones can be considered a facet of traditional filmmaking. Also, the shots are “clear and non-shaky” (smaller text below starting a list), revealing their professional production. Lastly, the “lighting” is ideal since the shots are taken at dusk, making the images look romantic and idyllic. Attention to lighting is also a conventional filmmaking skill.
• VO: More importantly, this scene reveals the film’s overall critique of the traditional style. We hear Swedish folk music from 1962 playing extradiegetically. The out-datedness of the music points to the out-datedness of the traditional style used to produce this scene. Also, the shots are extreme long shots, making them cold and distant. We can see this in the following still.
• Cut to still at 30:42.

• VO: This extreme long shot dwarfs the people in the frame, as you can see with Aida and Dana in the lower right corner. The shot belittles them and the extradiegetic music silences them, producing an overall dehumanizing effect. These elements reveal the indiscretion and apathy of traditional filmmaking as it removes the humanity from the humans on screen.
• Play with film audio to 30:47.
• VO: Now let’s compare this scene with the selfie stick scene.

Selfie Stick Scene

• Cut to minute 1:19:15 and play with film audio to 1:19:41. Pause.

• VO: This scene demonstrates the “Egalitarian Style” (middle right of frame) of making film. Aida shoots this scene with a smartphone and selfie stick. This use of this relatively affordable technology is a criterion of the egalitarian style, and contrasts with the use of expensive technology in the traditional style. As such, the shots are shaky and not resolute, pointing to the fact that they are not professionally made unlike the stable and clear shots of the drone scene. Lastly the lighting is natural and unaffected, as only the cloudy daylight and the theatre fixtures illuminate the scene. Now let’s see how the film shows its veneration for this egalitarian style.
• Play with film audio to 1:20:02. Pause.
• VO: As you can see, the scene is personal and celebratory. The shots are long to close-up and are packed with people, producing a feeling of inclusiveness and excitement. This shot composition humanizes the people on screen. Also, the music hails from 2017 by a popular Norwegian-Swedish artist, Ane Brun. The song, called “Do You Remember” is upbeat and in English. The modernity of this song (i.e. its date of release and its use of English, a modern transnational language) alerts us to the modernity of the egalitarian style. However, we can still hear the people on screen as they laugh, chant and yell, further giving them presence and agency unlike in the drone scene. Lastly, the shear celebration of this scene underlines the film’s overall celebration of the egalitarian style. The people on screen dance and clap as Dana and Aida ascend the stairs, groups chant “Lafors! Lafors!,” high fives are plentiful and smiles are wide. The association of celebration with the egalitarian style drives home the film’s reverence of and preference for this new style.
• Play with film audio and begin fading out sound and image at 1:20:20 to black and silent screen by 1:20:27.

Conclusion

• Fade in to still at 1:30:27.

• VO: Amatörer is not only the story of two young amateur filmmakers, but it is also that of a growing era of cinema, the era of egalitarian film. The egalitarian style democratizes the process of filmmaking by employing amateur techniques and technology to produce films that are made by the people, for the people. It replaces the humanity in filmmaking that has been stripped away by the traditional style, and it encourages a future where film foregrounds its own ethical production. Indeed, amateurs are starting to find their place in this new world of cinema.
• Flash on screen large (taking up almost entire frame) white block letters “AMATÖRER”
• Play only film audio from where left off at 1:20:27. Begin fade out sound and image at 1:20:47 to black and silent screen by 1:20:58.
• Fade in white text “By Bailey Fallon” in middle center, fade out.
• Fade in white text “Thanks for watching!” white text in middle center, fade out.