American Soldier Slide Show and Captions (review)

Part 1...

A) I think the most powerful pictures are the ones of when he is leaving home for the first time go to to training. Saying goodbye the first time, is always the hardest. These pictures show a lot of emotion with Ian's friends and family.

B) Set #1. At home in Denver - images 1-8
     Set #2. At Basic Training - images 9-30
     Set #3 In Iraq - 51-70
     Set #4 Back in Denver - 71-83

I think the second set of pictures were the most powerful, because it was during Ian's training. Ian went through second thoughts, a breakup, first time injuries, and a lot of emotions while he was in training. The photos show that emotion and doubt he feels.

C) The images are put in the order in which they happened, showing you a timeline of the events that happened along with a caption. Putting them in this order shows a story, Ian's story, of what he went through day by day and his emotions. It's a if you are looking at a picture book.


Part 2...

A) The captions are usually written in present tense. This is because pictures are freezing time, and so the captions are written as if you froze time, not as if time passed and it's in the past.

B) The captions give extra background information that tell you what Ian is thinking, or what he is going through. For example, with image 56 Ian is tearing up something. Without the caption, it looks like he is just tearing up a random piece of paper, which doesn't really seem important. The caption tells us that Ian is actually tearing up a picture of his girlfriend, Kirsten, because he had found out she had another boyfriend back home while he was in Iraq.


Part 3...

Image #27 - Ian is put to the test in a nearby forest area, to be tested on the skills he has recently learned in 3 months since arriving at training at Fort Benning. 

Image #59 -  It nears Christmas as Carlos (left) and Ian (right) put up some festive lights in their platoon's bunker, to add some spirit to their lives, creating a home away from home.  

Image #76 - Ian's father holds a sign while waiting with the rest of the family and Ian's friends, for Ian to walk in with the rest of the troops, home after being gone for almost 5 months.

Part 4...

A) The videos enhance the photos by adding comments and what Ian and his family had to say about the situation. They videos add more emotion to the photos and also give more background information that wouldn't fit into a caption. 

B) Videos are sometimes better than photographs because they can show more pictures in a slide show fashion, and they can add snip-its of what the family and Ian's friends had to say. Videos also allow music to be played in the background to set the mood of the experience better. For example, the video about Ian going through basic training gave a lot more information about what he was going through. It added parts with Ian talking about how hard and crazy it was, which helped people to connect and imagine the experience better than reading about it in a news article. 

C) Photos can also sometimes be better than videos. Photos can sum up information with a short caption, so that you don't have to watch an hour worth of videos to learn about whatever it is you are learning about. For example, in the "Army Blues" set of pictures it shows many pictures with emotion and they give hints and tell you how Ian is feeling is short little parts.