Very cool, Josh.
Winter:
I think I dig what you're trying to do with the TV static effect. I think my opinion differs from WO's in that I think it works fine through the entirety of the video. At the same time, considering WO's input, if I were to consider trying some version of what s/he suggests, it might be something like as follows. Not recommending that you should do it. I don't know what you should do, really. But, along the lines of what WO said about beefing up your good shots, what if you, I'm not sure how to articulate this, beefed up only parts or bits of the images in your shots/compositions with stronger, deeper color here, or a little more clarity there?
Hey, easy for me to say. I don't know if you can do that with the software, or how easy or difficult that would be to do. So, with a grain of salt, I'm sure.
So like with the shots of those trees with the stronger greens of their leaves that first appear around 2:14-ish. Visually, I'm thinking of something like what they did with the colorized little girl with her red coat in Schindler's List. Sort of. But muted by the snow. What would it look like if you tried something like that? Would that even fit the aesthetic you're going for, though?
And isn't that sort of what we experience visually and perceptually in the real world? When something or someone comes closer to us through or from out of a snow shower? But maybe that would be incompatible with your vision.
Also, have you ever played around with those particle effects things in software like After Effects? How would that work, as opposed to the TV static effect? Since you're going for the feel of looking out through a snow shower, would that be an interesting alternative? Or, how about shooting a real snow fall and transposing it over the rest?
Just ideas. Maybe bad ideas.
It's fine they way it is. These are art pieces, right? So really, I think your vision should come first.
The Purpose of the Ritual:
Don't worry. At least in my case, the "heavy-hand" visual metaphors are over my head. I liked it. But just to try to give you something more than a "I liked it," I suppose I might wonder what it would be like if it were even more trippy. Which is to say, my sense of it at the moment is that these things seem to make more of an impression when they're really trippy...man. But you have to be going for really trippy to want that. Anyway, nah, it's cool the way it is. =)
