Video Summary and Critique on the Ancient Egypt Video

Egyptian civilization is traced through the five periods of history that it spans: Early Dynastic Period,Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom and ultimately The Late Period. The expansion of Egypt is inexorably connected to the lifetime of the fantastic river. Aside from the life-giving hordes, the Nile itself offered a valuable supply of food, and transportation. The priests have utilized hieroglyphics for good inscriptions. The royal court was composed of the heads of different administrative offices, like the treasury, the judiciary, and the diplomatic service. The king was the primary institution of the express. He would play a critical theological role. Two main cults developed, one particular worshipping Re as well as the other Thoth, but unifying all was the strong perception in lifestyle after death. Along with their concern for the spirit of the deceased, early Egyptians set store that is great in protecting grave remains to be used in the afterlife also. As the era of the pharaohs drew to a close, his empire was weakening, 5,000 decades after the great kings initially ruled over the emerging our society alongside the river Nile.

The Glows of the Video

The video aligns just okay with the story, which blends a complete documentary of each segment under review and this, in-depth, is useful as it produces a dialogue. The dialogue and the rebuilding of scenes around the story are useful tools in getting topics that are important on the table in a compelling manner that goes a long way in sparking a discussion. The video documentary connects us with ancient Egypt reality by using non-fictional pictures, which equip us with the scenic nature of the Egyptian empire. Also, the exposition applied to this particular video presents the key themes of the film, and that is quite crucial as it makes the viewer’s very first impression. The exposition also introduces the audience to the content of the video.

For each of the scenic features in the video, there is a magnificent use of music for the transitions, which helps the audience understand that there is a new scene feature to be introduced, hence making them ready to internalize the just concluded scene before the next one. This kind of transition helps ensure that the audience is not lost along the way, as it helps in connecting the scenes. The remodelling of the statutes, sculptures and other architectures in the scenes is an excellent culmination as it helps create a connection of how the current ruins were in the ancient period, why they were built and the various aspects that led to the present-day appearances. For instance, to save the Aswan temple after the construction of the Great High Dam built just to the South of the temple, the people decided to save it by moving it, literally “Ancient Egypt”.

The Egyptist points out clearly how the media is creating a bunch of non-ideal situations from the excavations and robberies from the king’s tombs in the 1920s. The media claimed that the people involved in the excavation were affected by the curse of the mummy and that it formed the basis of their deaths. However, Carter, who discovered and orchestrated the excavation, did not die anytime around the period of excavation as it would have been expected if the curse was true according to the media. “Ancient Egypt” . Through the various documentaries such as the video, the vast amount of materials in the archives still bear a mark in reminding the modern societies of ancient Egypt as a way to have a view of the ancient societies “Ancient Egypt”. This view is well manifested especially through the in-depth re-imaginations of how the fading sculptures and statues, including the pyramids and other magnificent buildings, looked like and their meaning in the then present time.

As an audience, it takes a lot to connect between one scene and another as there are many transitions happening. The transitions do not give enough time for the audience to interact with the different aspects of the videos, yet the same scenes are brought back later in the video. Instead of bringing the same scene more than three times, giving the audience enough time to immerse themselves with the scene and elaborating the scene to its entirety could be essential, especially to avoid confusions that could arise as a result. In addition to that, some missing connectors can play a significant position in connecting the scenarios in the video. The idea of archival footage could be extended to include most, if not all, of the photography of the historical information of the characters. The inclusion of these missing links will help the audience have a better view to comprehend that which the video is expressing. For instance, when the narrator is talking about the treasures of Tutankhamun that were discovered in the 1920s, the audience wonders how much of the treasures were discovered to the point that Carter, the archaeologist, lied that the tomb was empty “Ancient Egypt”.  Obviously, many goodies were discovered. As the audience wonders about the number of treasures, the outskirts of the valley are brought out vividly.

More Building Stones

This video is a documentary, and there is a handful of suspense created rather than having all the key aspects pointed out. Part of the documentary key elements is a great and flowing story, conflict, structure and characters (Nomads). Creating the urge to get more information about a scene could be another way of sending the audience in search of more information for the different parts of the documentary. This kind of suspense could be introduced in different ways, including conflict, which is not well laid out in the video. When the narrator brings into picture Alexander the Great, we expect a grand entry of conflict and resistance from the Egyptians. However, the conflict is scrapped off the video with an immediate transition to another scene.