Slug & Lede

The Star Tribune’s video piece on Jake Urton’s inspiration to the Blaine Bengals football team is a well done piece. The overall message is clear and the visuals are strong and advance the message that Urton has worked hard to overcome his personal struggles and can serve as an example for anyone, including the Bengal’s players.

The personal interviews with the coaches, with B-roll footage of the hard work done that involved coordination is especially moving, because the coaches speak honestly and sincerely about their admiration for the young man, and it goes well with the visual of Urton pushing himself to achieve something that is truly difficult for someone with his condition. Doing this as a video piece is essential to creating a clear picture, using audio or text would never do justice to the amount of hard work that Urton puts in to better himself. The video footage that shows how difficult it is for him to even walk, let alone do complex speed excercises and lift weights, is crucial to understanding Urton’s level of commitment and dedication that serves as the focal point of the piece.

The only weakness of the piece, in my opinion, is that the narrative explanations (seemingly from the producer of the video, but never clearly defined) are not synced well, the volume is especially a problem, as it is much louder than the rest of the audio in the piece and seems out of place.

Overall a very good piece, well put together and the video and audio works well together, only technical issues with the narrative. Video was definitely the best medium for this story.