By Reilly Wisniewski
What Would It Look Like? is a film from Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee about what it would take from civilization to advance the world towards its highest potential. We live in a world where a majority of the population only look after themselves. What if we began seeing ourselves as not just individuals, but as a collective unit? What if we began to make choices that weren’t in our own vested interest and began to consider what benefits the greater good? The film tackles many of these questions, pooling together testimonies of actors, nuns, activists, and spiritual leaders as well as people from many other walks of life.
The film includes a lot of excellent quotes and philosophies from the subjects in the film, stitched together with B-roll that is hit and miss for me. Although there is plenty of great imagery in the film, sometimes what’s on screen just doesn’t necessarily match what’s being talked about. The film clocks in at just under 30 minutes, which seems a bit too long for the content being presented. I think condensing the film by about 10 minutes would help increase the emotion elicited by the B-roll that does work.
One aspect of the B-roll I found really engaging was the use of juxtaposition. A great example of this is at the beginning, when the film opens on the various inclusions of nature. It cuts from the beautiful shots of wildlife such as cows grazing in meadows to meat being heavily processed on a conveyor belt, something I would describe as the exact opposite of beauty in nature. This is an excellent way to provoke thought and emotion without relying on dialogue.
I personally think this piece is a great starting point for people to begin switching their thought process on the topic at hand. There’s definitely some work that can be done to improve the B-roll and runtime, but that being said, you can still take away the filmmaker’s overall message.
I would personally give this film 3/5 stars.
Reilly Wisniewski is a recent graduate of Compass College of Film and Media. He is currently on his way to receive his Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts with an emphasis on Film Editing. He is a Film and Video editing intern at CMRubinWorld working on their Net Zero series.
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