Slug & Lede

The first thing I noticed about the video (quite obviously) was the use of music to capture attention and break up the verbal introduction. I really liked the use of the band to create the music. A band is a symbol of unity and teamwork–symbolic for this video, I think.

Also, the way in which the music got softer for the introduction was easy to listen to and kept my attention really well, making the intro affective and making me want to continue to watch and listen.

Next, the main thing I noticed was the affective use of close ups and wide shots. The wide shots, setting the scene at the school so viewers can understand what it looks like, the types of students who attend it, and what the halls are like was nice for me to compare the school to my own so I could have something to reference in my mind. Understanding the setting for a story like this one is key, I think. Then, the close up shots of students in their uniforms compared to the close ups of their shoes was really affective. The uniforms were meant to create unity amongst the students and erase the gang-violence that ruled the school. This was a way the school intended to minimize the number of gangs–separate from how families and outside influences may have been affecting the students. Also, the close up shots of so many different shoes showed that the students were still individuals and not just reformed robots. The contrast was very symbolic, and I felt like the use of shots really got the message across to viewers.

I was scared at first.

The title, “Last Call for Haircuts,” threw me off — I thought the twin brothers were barbers in a jail! Even worse, on Death Row!

The second voice, a man getting his hair cut but one of the brothers, said, “Someone told me these were good barbers down here.” I thought by “down here” he meant in the basement of a jail where men went down to visit the barber. Correct me if I’m wrong, but did the matching coats make you think the same? I know maroon is not standard prison uniform hue, but really… Did the unforgiving light of the shop give off an air of creepiness?

But enough about my prison rant. I like Dan Pelle’s idea of a video journal. It’s a really great idea for a blog. It was simple. No background music. No graphics. Nothing. I sort of enjoyed it that way because it seemed more intimate.

And I suppose that style of video reporting is what makes their story so sad!

I pity Bill and Jeff for having to close their “focus of Lincoln Heights” of a shop, which probably meant a lot to many Lincoln Heights residents. It’s even more sad that they didn’t have anyone to succeed them. I think the video did a great job of interpreting that.

And the repetitive “yeah” clip around the 1:19 minute mark? Hilarious. Was Pelle trying to pull a Christopher Guest or something?

But the prehistoric cash register the bros worked with and $5 tip almost brought a tear to my eye.

However, I think the video needed a bit more — more b-roll of the building or something. I wish I could see what the front of shop looked like! Here’s a video I did a few months back where I set the scene of my story (which was about a bookstore), by getting a scene-setting shot of the facade of Iowa Book, and then interviews and other b-roll followed that shot.

The video posted on spokesmanreview.com titled “Last call for haircuts” had its strong points and its weak points. In general, it was a decent piece and was fairly enjoyable to watch. It had an interesting human interest aspect to it, and I think that the makers of the film were thinking out of the box when they decided to film a news story that could very well have been written in a two paragraph news piece. However, there were several things that I noticed about the piece that bothered me.

The first thing was the lack of narration. While the narration wasn’t necessary, I think it would have helped pick up the pace of the video and leave the video with less awkward pauses. Most “news” pieces that you see on the 10 o’clock news have narration, and I’m not saying that this piece needs narration. However, there was an awful lot of boring, dead space between quotes from the twin barbers, and narration of some sort would have helped solve this.

The second thing that bothered me was that the camera was not always steady. While the shaking of the camera was very slight, I felt like it decreased the credibility of the piece and made it seem like something done by a film student, not a professional news organization.

While I was watching the piece, I actually thought that it would be better in print form. I could almost hear the story in my head and imagine what it would sound like, and I thought it was definitely a more than adequate way to tell this story. Then, I saw a notice after the video saying that the story did appear in print form, so I hunted it down. I don’t want to sound like a snobby journalism student, but I think that the print piece could have been written better, and the video piece could have been filmed better. But, overall, both pieces got the job done and were enjoyable enough.

I thought that the video “A Bronx School Revives Under New Leadership” , a piece by Adam B. Ellick and Elissa Gootman of the New York Times, was an exceptional piece. As a viewer, I was drawn in from the onset of the story, and the content that was presented throughout the piece held my attention. I felt engaged and invested in this story and I found myself thinking and reflecting on what I had learned when the video was over.

The story is about a Chilean-born Hasidic Jew and former US Army captain who in 2004 decided to take a job as the sixth principal in two years at Jordan L Mott Junior High School, which was at the time one of the most dangerous schools in New York City. In the four years since Shimon Waronker accepted the post, the school has been rapidly improving.

The video contains a great deal of footage from within the school, interviews with students, teachers, and Waronker himself. The piece starts by showing Jordan L Mott marching band students performing in their school’s auditorium and ends back in the auditorium as students play the Star Spangled banner, which I though was a neat device, similar to a circle kicker in a written piece. The rest of the video takes the audience on a tour through the school, showing students arriving in the morning, classroom activities, meetings in Waronker’s office, and Waronker speaking to students during an assembly. The footage and the interviews give a great deal of information, telling about how much the school has improved, the challenges that the school faced in 2004, the death threats that Waronker received when he started the job, and the numerous reforms he has brought about. The piece is fast-moving and interesting to watch, engages audience members, and efficiently presents the entire story in just over seven and a half minutes.

This story was very well-suited to a video piece for several minutes. It is fast, engaging, and informative- the audience is allowed to see the school, the students, and the teachers, and emotions and opinions are clearly portrayed. A traditional text piece, I believe, would not have been as emotionally engaging nor would it have been nearly as interesting. An audio piece might have done well, but many of the clips- such as the marching band clip or the footage of teachers bringing students wearing their new uniforms into the school- would not have worked in an audio piece. Overall, I think this piece was excellently executed and I am glad that video was chosen as the medium by which to present it.

“Here I am alive,” said ex-army commander and Hasidic Jew Shimon Waronker. The “here” he is talking about is one of New York City’s most dangerous middle schools. The school has a large latino population and has a long history of violence. Waronker is a Hasidic Jew, which seems like an unlikely fit, but he grew up in South America so he speaks Spanish and this opened a level of trust. I thought the way the video was shot got the message across well, it drew the viewer in and made me want to hear more. There was a good mix of quotes from Waronker, the students and the staff. The images they showed were effective as well, showing the signs in the hallway that were about firearms and other weapons, seeing the police officer at the desk in the hallway. Those images showed you that the violence is a very serious thing. Hearing from students that they were afraid to come to the school and that gangs were very prevalent. Hearing from teachers that gangs were that prevalent and that when punished by Waronker they responded with death threats, it makes it real. Waronker had a hard side, from his military background and a softer side, and both were shown well in the video. You really got the sense that he wants the school to be a success, he wants the students to be successful. Many reviews have noticed that since Waronker came to school 22 the changes have been overwhelming obvious. Before Waronker there were no uniforms and the gang colors were overwhelming, attendance was extremely low and the school test scores were way below the state level. After Waronker attendance is up to 90% and test scores have risen, hearing the personal stories from students made this achievement that much more impressive and real to the viewer. I thought the video did a complete job of representing Waronker and the school and the progress that has been made.

Feb. 7, 2008—Las Vegas Sun’s “Are EPA coal emission’s standards strict enough?” video produced by Matt Toplikar is well-produced and covers an interesting topic for that market because of its local impact.

The video focuses on Mesquite, Nevada and the surrounding community’s fight against the instillation of a coal plant. They were worried because they believed CO2 emissions would pollute their air and ultimately cause global warming.

I would like to discuss the positives and negatives of the package by taking you through the video piece by piece.

The first few scene setting clips are good because they establish location and are edited well. They sweeping motion ends before the clip cuts away to the next scene. However, some of the B-Roll of the men speaking into the microphone looks a little shaky; perhaps the videographer did not have a tripod and therefore, it appeared unprofessional.

I thought the use of the graphics to display locations of the towns and the plant where very good because audiences needed to know where exactly this emissions plant would be placed. Its locality could effect their health.

Next, Toplikar decided to use a still image with audio and I think that it works, but it is not as effective as a movie would have been because this topic creates emotions in people’s faces when they speak in anger about it. As an audience member, that would have been intriguing to see.

The first SOT had excellent framing, as well as the second one. I really thought the second SOT’s angle was interesting because the camera was pointed upwards towards the pink sky. The man being interviewed was talking about solar power…I sense some irony.

The use of the multiple bars and copy as graphics did not work for me because it was too much to take in during that amount of time…and I am not sure about whether or not it was completely necessary to include all of the statistics.

I thought the flashing images of the people at the meeting worked to establish just how many people attended this meeting and were upset; however, there were too many images of different people. The first 10 would have been enough.

The framing of the SOTs during the meeting were great, but each one lasted too long for this package. I did not pay attention to what they were saying after they spoke for more than 10 seconds.

I really enjoyed the coal plant graphics and the big list of the chemicals. It was presented in an interesting way; one that really impacted me as an audience member.

The last SOT was not framed well because the lower thirds were sprawled across the man’s face.

Overall, the piece was important journalistically to present to the public because it was such a concerning issue.

The video A Bronx School Revives is about a Hasidic Jew who since becoming principal of Jordan L Mott junior high school has turned it around completely.  Once a school filled with violence it is now a school filled with hope.  I think the video portrays this in an effective way, but a few parts could be changed.

Scenes of children being scolded for slumping in an assembly, grabbed by the hood to get in the back of line, and saying the pledge of allegiance in unison show the authoritative side of the principal and his military background.  He seems insensitive and unlikeable when he tells a science teacher with more than two decades of experience that he isn’t teaching right.  One scene shows him writing “Live life to its fullest,” on the dry erase board, showing he has a nurturing side. 

Some of the close-up shots in the video seem unnecessary and I feel like the video could have been made shorter.  If some clips like the many close-ups of shoes were eliminated, the video might have been smoother and less boring.  A good example of a short video with effective close-ups is Last Call for Haircuts, where there aren’t any shots that don’t have some sort of connection to the story.

Overall I think the video was good and portrayed the message it was intended to.  I think with less random shots it could have been smoother. 

Spokesman-Review’s “Last call for haircuts” worked well in video form since it showed people’s faces. It showed the people who would be most affected by the closing of the barbershop: the owners/barbers—twins Jeff and Bill Haines—and the customers. The video was able to physically show the broad range of men who frequented the shop, from the Haines’ oldest customers to their newest and youngest. By showing diversity, the video attempts to show the breadth of people who are affected by something as small as the closing of a barbershop. The video serves as a jumping point of a much larger story as well: the closing of many small family-owned businesses. The big business model of chains is making it harder and harder for the individual person to run their own business. Though this is a well-known problem, video footage showing the very personal affects of the problem—how even something as small as a barbershop closing could pose a problem to society—is an excellent way to publicize the plight of flagging small businesses. The shots which showed the poor the condition of the barbershop accented these problems as well.  

However, the video fails in other ways. Though the most important point was pushed across, the video has a lot of boring and silent segues. The viewer does not need to see one of the barbershop twins saying “Yeah” for fifteen seconds while he trims eyebrows because it adds nothing to the piece. It also lacked transitions that could have been provided by a voiceover. Without the voiceover, the viewer is left to infer their own meaning behind the video. While I thought it was about a much larger problem, other viewers could take it at face value—that it is just about Lincoln Heights Barbershop closing and that is it. There could have also been more nameplate cards. There was one for Jeff and Bill Haines, but not for their customers. It would be nice to know the names of the customers featured in the video and also the number of years they have been going to Jeff and Bill for haircuts. It is important to establish tiny details which will bring the whole piece together and become more pleasing to the viewer’s eye too.

This story might have been better in a written medium, such as a feature story in a magazine. A video, if not done properly, can come off as lazy and uninventive. Even better, no matter what media this story takes place in, it should be a part of a series all about small businesses closing, putting an economic downturn spin on the series to give it timeliness. As the video stands now, it seems rather isolated and is in need of improvement.