At the heart of our nation's capital, the National Mall and Memorial Parks is home to iconic structures and rich history. The National Mall, where history happens. www.nps.gov/nacc
A National Park Service video should be classically beautiful and cover all the main sites in a deliberate way to allow the viewer to appreciate their full form and context within the park. This video is a crazed jumping-about between time-lapses, shots that are so zoomed in or at such odd angles that it's unclear what they're even of, and barely-relevant footage of political events. The MLK, Jr. memorial is a minor site at the periphery of the National Mall - yet it's oddly featured prominently in this video. The shot of the park rangers saluting is at Ford's Theater, which isn't even in the park. Meanwhile, the video doesn't include a simple overhead shot of the entire park - the obvious thing to open with - or any shots of the Constitution Gardens and Pond, the entire Tidal Basin, or of anything other than the Capitol Building from the entire eastern half of the park, with all of its gardens and museums. This looks like it was made by someone used to editing music videos and TV commercials, told to focus on the MLK, Jr. memorial and to be dramatic, and otherwise given too much artistic liberty.
Nice video, but a little fast and short. On RU-vid we expect a slightly slower pace and a little more information. This would make an awesome TV commercial though. :-)
Copying the House of Cards opening for a National Park Service video. Really? The choice of shots shows a divisive racial/party overtone - more exclusive than inclusive. The black civil war memorial, FDR, and three shots of MLK, Jr., but not a single shot of the statue of Jefferson - one of the cornerstones of the national mall, and of our country. I would have thought the NPS would try to be more balanced. I guess someone had a point he wanted to make. Unfortunate.
