Two Men, One War

What I first noticed about Bush's War was the dramatic opening theme. It really put me in a solemn mood which was the overall tone of the whole video. The video begins with a voice-over done by Bush and other speakers while a narrator says an introduction. In the background, many mini screens move around to eventually make up Bush's face in black and white. This kind of rhetoric was effective because it really associates Bush with the war on terror.

As for the structure of the video, I noticed the director used a lot of voice-overs with pictures and footage in the background. Someone would be speaking and the audience can only see various pictures or video clips and then the speaker would be shown in an interview setup. The narrator's voice sounded deep and serious, adding to the somber mood. The director also liked to display pictures and zoom in on them (sometimes slowly and other times quickly). Sometimes, the pictures were also slanted. Real footage was used which showed the chaos in the East Coast and Iraq. I also noticed that some of the interviewees had their faces zoomed in more than others and they were mostly not centered. I found it interesting how the interviewer was seen and heard interviewing the Marine general towards the end unlike in the other interviews.

Music wasn't played noticeably but I did hear a soft, low-pitched beat at certain times. This beat was slow and added more drama to the conflicts addressed. Other times a high-pitched sound was played which was the kind that could be placed in a scary movie.

Obama's War was a lot different than Bush's War. One of the first things I noticed was the narrator's voice. It was a lot more pleasant and casual than the narrator's voice of Bush's War. The video reminded me a lot like something that would be shown in The Discovery Channel. The footage of the Marines in action was obviously uncensored, which I found surprising. I thought they would've at least bleeped out the curse words.

The interviewees were once again off center and the camera zoomed in on them, showing them chest-up. The correspondent was seen and heard asking questions for a few of the interviews but not for all of them. One interview was done by a Marine casually talking to the cameraman while he did his work, contrasting with how all the interviews were done in Bush's War. I didn't see any pictures used, it was all video clips. The camera shots varied: some shots were zoomed in, others zoomed out, some scenes were shot from behind, others in front, etc. Again, voice-overs were used and connected different scenes together.

Unlike Bush's War, this video only had one voice-over from Obama and no film of him. Obama was mentioned only a few times. I find this interesting since the video was called Obama's War and he was rarely in it. I expected to see or hear more of him like in Bush's War but this was not the case. As for music, I barely heard any. No scary movie violins or low-pitched beats.