This episode of The Video Essay Podcast was produced in collaboration with Open Screens, the open-access journal of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies, and released as part of a special issue, “Thinking in the Timeline: Videographic Dissection as Analytical Method.”
Edited by Ariel Avissar, Barbara Zecchi, Matthew Thomas Payne, and Colleen Laird, the special issue grew out of the 2025 “Reframing the Argument” workshop at the University of Notre Dame, a research-intensive videographic workshop designed specifically for graduate students.
At the center of the special issue is the “videographic dissection” exercise, developed by Ariel, which invites makers to “dissect” media objects within the editing interface, devising their own method of analysis and applying it directly in the timeline panel. Five such videos produced by participants for the workshop are included in the special issue.
In this conversation, guest host Lucy Fife Donaldson joins Ariel, Colleen, and Matt to discuss the special issue, the videographic dissection exercise, the Reframing the Argument workshop, questions of videographic methodology and pedagogy, and the role of collaborative, in-person workshops in fostering communities of practice.
Learn more at www.thevideoessay.com.