Creating a captivating video where the viewer becomes a part of the action is a difficult task. David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” graduation speech was meant to connect with his audience in a way that could give them hope while giving it to them straight. Wallace wanted his audience to experience exactly what he was stating in order to get his point that life is not going to be easy across. In the animated video of the speech the viewer sees a glimpse of their future life. The “This is Water” video uses pov and wide angle shots, along with slow and fast motion in order to make the viewer feel a part of the video which helps get the point of speech across.  

The video uses different speeds to give the audience two different outlooks on the same thing in order for them to fully understand the meaning of the speech. Fast motion, seen throughout the first half of the video gives the audience a sense of urgency. This makes it seem like there is a lot to do in a short amount of time, which stresses out the viewer. Repetitive images using fast motion makes everything seem more monotonous and dreary, adding to the dull mood that is being set. Wake up, take a shower, get coffee, go to work, etcetera, etcetera. Contrasting to the fast motion, slow motion video helps the reader relax and take everything in. Slow motion helps the viewer notice everything that is going on. When the video shows the slow motion of the woman with all the coupons yelling at her child in the checkout line it helps put the viewer’s life into perspective. This gives them the opportunity to reflect on their own lives and realize how great it is.     

The most intimate camera angle is the pov shot because it puts the viewer right in the action. The video uses an ample amount of pov shots to really connect with the reader. The first pov shot we get is of the blurry buzzing cellphone. This is something that most students can relate to because everyone has to wake up in the morning and more often than not a student’s cellphone doubles as their alarm-clock. After the audience sees their buzzing phone they are shifted to a pov shot of taking a shower. Just another image to bring the audience into the video in the beginning. Then the video goes right into someone pouring a cup of coffee into a mug. These easily relatable images help draw the viewer in in the beginning of the video because it contains images that they are familiar with. Then the video goes to a pov shot of a man looking into a mirror fixing his tie. This speech given by David Foster Wallace is for a college graduation. For most of these students putting a tie on has not been a part of their daily routine. Waking up and taking a shower and drinking coffee is fairly easy and everyone can do it. Putting a tie on and going to work every day is not as easy and not everyone does it. This is coupled with a pov shot of a being on a computer. This is a stressful pov image because being on a computer doing what seems to be busywork for hours is not fun at all. The person on the computer in the video is obviously becoming frustrated as well because he begins smashing buttons on the keyboard over and over again making the audience become just as stressed as the person in the video. Then the video quickly switches to pov shots of a stove and boiling water. This reminds the audience about having to cook their own meals every night, which just adds another monotonous task onto their to-do list. The pov shot of someone holding a remote control for a television which abruptly goes to a pov shot of someone getting into their bed gives the audience the idea that they will not have a lot of time to do things that they enjoy. This reinforces the fact that there is only so much time in the day and so much to do. This helps in the broader scheme of Wallace’s speech in that people need to find joy in everything that they do because you won’t always be doing things you necessarily enjoy. The looking into an empty fridge puts stress on the viewer because no one likes to open the fridge just to find that it is empty. This means that you have to go get food and everyone knows what that means. The view from behind a steering wheel can be extremely stressful as most people know and the video does an amazing job of depicting the stress of driving. Nothing is more stressful than driving in horrible city traffic and that is exactly what the video shows. This driver seat view aggravates the audience and continues to build their tension. When you arrive at your destination though your stress is far from over. The longest and final pov scene where we are inside the grocery store is the last straw. The tension has been rising and rising within the audience and they are already tired and confused. Nothing is more annoying than trying to find something you need within the ginormous grocery store with what seems to be millions and millions of items and unending isles. Then after the person in the video has gathered their items they proceed to the checkout area. To the audience’s assumption there are only a few checkout lanes available, all with long lines. This puts the audience in an almost depressed mood. As if literally nothing can go right in their day. This is when the audience is at rock bottom and wondering if college was the right decision. 

Zoom out from a pov shot to a wide angle view and the audience can see all the other people in the grocery line, just as frustrated and tired as them. This is where the video takes a turn. In a pov shot the viewer is only thinking about themselves, contrary to a wide angle shot where they are viewing multiple objects or people in one view. In a wide angle shot the audience can look at things holistically. This switch in camera angle is important because it helps the audience see exactly what Wallace is trying to get them to think about. The view of everyone in the checkout line at the grocery store helps the viewer think about how everyone else is going through the exact same thing, if not worse. This gives the reader an uplifting feeling, as if it is not the end of the world. Then the video’s wide angle shot of the traffic helps the viewer realize that he is not the only driver on the road and that everyone else wishes that they were not in traffic just like them. 

Wallace wanted his audience to understand that life is difficult, no matter what, but that if you took the time to look around you and embrace your situation that it would not be as bad. The video’s use of the two different speeds paired with the two different camera angles helped put the viewer right where they needed to be in order to understand what Wallace was trying to say. Without the visual aid, it would be much harder to understand exactly what Wallace was talking about. 
