So sometimes I watch the instructional videos they have on Merriam-Webster.com, and this one I found particularly surprising! I can't even begin to think of how many sentences I've had to rework because of this rule!! This is quite refreshing and informative to know! [wyt=Ending sentences with a preposition]9OLxLK_R6jQ[/wyt]
I know I'm not supposed to end sentences with a preposition.....but if you don't, people think you are an efette overeducated snob or flaming homo (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
The thing that distracted me was the hair attached to her left cheek. It didn't move for the whole video. Like it was super glued or something....
Well, that's one less harpooned student. Wait.....well, that's one less thing about which to harp on to my students. ?
I want to enthusiastically state that this is something I agree with. We ought to celebrate this. Where can we all meet up at?
[churchill]"This is the sort of English up with which I shall not put!"[/churchill] I imagine English is like music as a music teacher once described it to me. He said: "You spend many years learning the rules. Once you've done that, you begin breaking them." I like to boldly split infinitives. And I like to begin sentences with conjunctions. Fragments? Hell, yes! Finally, a preposition is a fine thing to end a sentence with.
That's true of many things. In my line of work it's common to tell young photographers and editors, "You have to know the rules before you can break them." That way you break them "right" in a way that looks or sounds good instead of doing it in a random or haphazard way. People who ignore the rules from the outset in an effort to be bold or "different" almost always end up with stuff that looks like shit.
Breaking the rule in the right way leads to a new rule. To take an example from your field, I took a video class once where the instructor told us to avoid jump cuts pretty much at all costs. But a sequence put together with jump cuts can suggest repeated trial and error, and so has now become a convention in film. (Example: in the movie Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth [Cate Blanchett] rehearses a speech in front of a mirror, and there are jump cuts between each variation, emphasizing and compressing the repetition.) Yep. Departing from convention either results in (a) a new convention, or (b) shit that is indistinguishable from a mistake. Usually (b).
Actually, I do that all the time. There's a difference between deliberately framing something "wrong" like that and shooting something crooked "just because". Most times, the latter just looks like you're being lazy.
I'm a big fan of hand-held camerawork in dramatic shows; it gives the viewer a real you-are-there feeling. The unsteadiness of the camera, the sudden changes of subject, etc. all work to good effect. I tried doing that with a video camera while shooting a couple of people talking. It looked like the asshole videographer was having an epileptic fit.
That handheld camera thing doesn't give me a "you are there" feeling. Maybe because I don't experience 42 minute petit mal seizures. I know what that it's supposed to be an imitation of documentary cinematography, but that's half the reason I don't watch fucking documentaries.
I think it has something to do with the frame rate. Handheld stuff shot on actual film or 24p video looks okay to me (within reason). "Normal" 30p video looks like ass when it's shot in that herky-jerky style. I think it must have something to do with the slightly higher frame rate looking a little too "sharp" while the lower frame rate appears a little more "blurry" (at least to some extent).
My favorite is when someone holds the camera in such a way that you can only see people from their knees to their collar. Or when someone thinks the subject's face must be in the exact center of the frame, resulting in half a screen of nothing but sky. Or I should just stop watching things on YouTube.
1. These videos are really interesting. 2. I've always thought of "don't end a sentence with a preposition" as a rule that applied only to written, not spoken English. Sometimes ending sentences in a preposition is just sloppy writing, but sometimes it's natural and would be awkward to revise.
