Slug & Lede

“Hard Work Pays Off”, the story about a team manager with cerebral palsy, who has worked hard and inspired his team to make it to the 5A state football championship, is an interesting look at a young man who has not let life’s circumstances defeat him. 

Jake Urton, the center of the video, is shown working out and interacting with teammates.  The editor of the video did a good job of mixing the shots around the commentary in an appropriate manner. For instance, when the team trainer is talking about Jake’s work ethic; how he works harder than many players on the team, the editor uses a shot of Jake falling while working on his agility.  Jake immediately gets up and begins again, highlighting his never-quit attitude. This worked very well to sync video to the audio. 

There was really only one little piece I would have taken out.  During a shot of Jake interacting with a player, (”Why you gotta step on my shoe?”) there is a strange ratcheting sound in the background.  Although it was important to show Jake’s relationship with the players, I thought the editor could have found a different piece to use. 

Also, the piece never gives the “where” of the story.  It only tells us that Jake’s school is Blaine High School.  Although it was produced for startribune.com, which is Minnesota based, and the school is 5A; a large school which is probably well known in the area, I would have liked to know what state Blaine is in, and not have too search to find out for certain that the school is in Minnesota. (By the way, Blaine lost to Wayzata 7-27 in the 2008 5A state championship, according to a Minnesota high school football blog.)

All said, it was well written, but could use a few slight changes.  For the local audience it was intended for, the piece works well. For anyone, anywhere, the story of Jake Urton should be an inspiration.

The Year of the River was an audio clip that described how efficient the Cedar River for many people. The clip used a variety of people, which showed a lot of emotion and care and also let the viewers know how important the river was to them.

The slide show of pictures also brought some emotion to the importance of the river and the damages it faced from the flood of 2008.

Some audio clips could have been adjusted, especially by volume. Also, a lot of the men used seem to sound alike so the only distinction I could really make by listening, was the man with an accent, and the volume differences between each interview.

This slide show could be used in a text, as well. I feel as though the clips used were how important the river is to those living near/around it, so using quotes and describing their feelings could easily be put into text. Although, the slide show does show more physicality behind what the men in the audio clips are talking about.

Overall, I think this was well put together and did a great job of how the flood of 2008 really effected people.

The Cats Need Homes video on thestar.com was a topic that could have lead to a visually exciting piece.  But having near 80 cats in a single home wasn’t as interesting to look at, or learn about, as it could have been.

I think the weaknesses are easy to spot.  The first thing I didn’t like was how the video started with the video linked with the audio of the man speaking.  A better start to the video would have been an establishing long-shot from the outside of the home, or a close up of a bunch of cats in a small space.

Also, the shots weren’t very interesting.  There was too much interview to keep the piece interesting and not enough cats.  Though there are a lot of cats in the video, they all seem to be camera shy and they don’t really move around much or interact with each other.  Their weren’t many long shots or close-ups.  I would have like to have heard more of the room tone or cat’s meowing to really put me in the room with cat man.  I also didn’t see any sequential shots in the package.

The things I did like were the low level shots where you can see multiple cats under the dining room table.  I thought the low angle tilt shot of the man’s sons was a bit awkward and the white balance seemed to be a bit off on that shot too.  I also really like the fact that the video was only a little over 1 minute long.  If it were longer I probably wouldn’t have watched it the whole way through.  The interview was framed pretty well because the man was situated to one side of the frame instead of the middle.

Overall, I think this could have been done better to make it more visually stimulating.

index.html?ref=media# - Link to critiqued video

I recently attended the Good Guys car show at the Des Moines fairgrounds and was up to my eyeballs is custom paint, chopped-tops, polished chrome, and roaring engines. “Most people hate what they do.” This is a powerful quote that helps the viewer understand how much this man enjoys his work. The slideshow format is effective as it is used. I would like more background information on the gentleman being interviewed. It works well because the man has an intriguing voice, and the photos of automobiles he has constructed set against the snowy backdrop really look great. We are missing some natural sound though, it gets a little monotonous with his voice against total silence. I would like to hear the cars we are seeing. Some of the audio is less interesting than most and I wonder if a longer interview could have yielded more from the man. I would use natural sound, and more biographical information about the father and son(?) to make the viewer establish more of a connection with these fellows. Also featured are pop-up comments in text below the slideshow. This could be used more to convey even more information. I might have mixed small segments of video into the slideshow.

Danielle Lierow’s story, The Girl in the Window, written by Lane DeGregory, told of a child neglected by her mother who finds hope and love in the care of her newly adoptive parents. The extremely poor conditions of which Danielle had lived in Plant City, Florida, kept her at age seven, from being able to go to the bathroom on her own or even feed herself. With the help of her adoptive parents, Danielle has made great strides in her abilities, she can now go to the bathroom, eat on her own and even convey emotions. This tragic story encompasses the many struggles Danielle’s journey has created in the hopes that one day she will be able to speak and function just as any individual would.

 In its entirety the story was quite compelling. This, for me, was an immediate strength. Although the story was rather lengthy, the in-depth details provided the listener with a knowledge and understanding of the complexities of Danielle’s situation.

 The story also provided the perspectives of various individuals connected to Danielle, from her adoptive parents to her speech therapist and finally to her mother. The story grasped each individual’s opinion, in turn creating an astounding depth to the piece.

 The reader’s voice throughout the piece was very pleasant. The reader was able to capture and convey the emotion presented by the different individuals in Danielle’s life, the way they have interacted with her now and the hope they have for her in the future.

 At times however, the reader would pause to swallow. These instances were made quite clear, as the action could be perfectly heard. I felt this issue distracted me, ultimately taking away from the vigor of the piece. If I were to re-edit this story, I would delete these areas, replacing the noise with a short pause. This would eliminate the distraction without creating an awkward transition.

 The natural sound of a silent room I felt was most appropriate for the piece. Being that this was a story being read, I felt any other sound would only have taken away from its gripping context. Within the background sound however, there were instances when the reader would turn a page. I really like this idea, as I felt it gave the immediate action depth, but her volume levels would fluctuate, making for an awkward few seconds. In order to fix this problem I would suggest a page turner, which would eliminate the reader’s need to shift her placement.

 Finally, I felt the media used for the piece was the most effective. The simple audio really allowed for the listener to focus on what the reader was saying. I felt anything added such as a slideshow would have taken away from the story itself. If only several pictures were added, demonstrating Danielle’s progress in the two years following her foster care, this could help enhance the audio.

 Overall, I felt the story was incredibly compelling, presented in an almost flawless manner.

http://www2.indystar.com/images/graphics/2007/09/0923_coltsfans/

The audio piece entitled Colts Fans In Houston seems a bit confusing, and overall is sub par - at best.

By the name of the piece, you would expect for it to feature fans of the Indianapolis Colts while the team was in Houston taking on the Texans.  Instead, it is complete opposite - fans of the Houston Texans, as there is more Texans fans in this piece than Colts fans.  I’m not exactly sure why they decided upon the title that they did, but a better decision surely could have been made.

While it did show a Colts fan, she was featured for maybe four seconds, and then the piece switched over to the introduction of the Colts starting line-up from the stadium PA.  This was a good segment as you could hear a few of the players getting introduced and then booed.

Then sure enough, they flashed to the crowd where they featured, TEXANS fans.  But wait, for a second they showed a glimpse of someone who had the Colts logo painted in their hair, that can quality as a Colts fan for sure.  Too bad that is only two instances of Colts fans of maybe five seconds shown, as compared to Texans fans which were featured much longer.

The inclusion of the instrumental music was a good idea, it just seemed a bit excessive.  I like how it started playing as the PA announcer was still announcing players, and you could still hear crowd chatter as well in the background.  A part I did not understand at all was where the music cut out and a picture of Reggie Wayne catching a ball was shown.  The event was in Houston, therefore Houston fans should not be getting excited when an opposing player catches a pass. However the audio that was played was a loud boom and a roaring crowd, not exactly indicative of Reggie Wayne catching the ball.  Questionable placement for the audio given the picture that it is supporting.  The music then came back, and gradually the crowd and PA were phased out.

There were some spectacular shots of the game such as the Colts running back Joseph Addai getting flipped into the endzone, yet all we hear is the music, and no reaction from the crowd or the players.  The music was a nice introduction to sights of the actual game, but there was too much of it.  In instances of great plays such as Addai’s, I would much rather hear the crowd chatter, or sounds of the game, not a piece of instrumental music.

Overall, I think this piece was poorly constructed.  It is titled Colts Fans in Houston, yet they focus more on Texans fans, and there are times where the sound does not support the photo’s at all.  The instrumental music was nice, but as previously stated was a bit excessive.  The times where there would be a great place to cut out of the instrumental piece and include other audio, was not taken advantage of.

The Year of the River presentation brings to life photos and audio of the people and areas affected by the floods of 2008. The audio is emotional and clear with memorable quotes that really capture the attitude of the people in the area. The photos also do an amazing job of showing the river with reflections of buildings and influence in daily life, emphasizing the importance of the river to so many people. The audio complements this idea with the distinct voices recognizing the importance of the river in their lives and the concern they felt for something they had held dear for so long.

Several parts could have been improved upon however. The actual website was misleading and did not reflect the amount of information the site actually contained. The slide show itself did not show any people who where affected by the flood which would have given the whole piece a more personal and realistic feel. Some of the pictures where hard to disiphere or understand and took away from the audio because the viewer was attempting to figure out the the picture instead of absorbing the photo and the voices simultaneously.

The main point of the presentation was to show the importance of the river to the people of Iowa who where touched by the floods of 2008. The audio overall shows a true compassion and a sense of value that the citizens feel for the river they live on, but when combined with the photos the meaning of the piece becomes masked. What would have helped show the true importance of the piece would have been to show not only the clear images with city life reflected in the river but also the actual people interacting, especially in video, before and during the flood to actually give a face to the meaning of the relationship.

Year of the River is an interactive map full of stories and photos of the Cedar River and the damage the flood caused in that area in 2008. The problem with the site, however, is there is no indication that it is interactive. The other slide shows visitors may access are part of the river graphic on the left. At first glance it just looks like a map with spots on them. The only text on the site refers to the journalist covering the story.
The biggest prompt is on the right; which displays, “Echoes off the River,” and a play button. Once the user hits play the site plays a slide show accompanied by audio recordings from people impacted by the flood. The photos show different parts of the river, and different vantages of the river, but there is nothing about those photos that relates to the audio recordings. It is possible those photos belong to the people recording their accounts, but nothing is certain.
The audio clips themselves do not tell a story, but rather play a vox populi, voices of the people. The recording is clear; however the ambient noise of the river is sometimes distracting. The transitions run smoothly, but their is little reason behind the order.
There are other slide shows, but there is no indication what visitor must select to view and listen to them. The icons are small and correspond to the map. It is a clever device, but unfortunately the visitor is not in on the joke. The audio recordings become more confusing to play, with a numbered order, but no other sense of logic to follow.

I thought that The Year of the River left a bit of room for improvement, yet overall it was a well captured and edited snip of audio.

The focus of the piece seemed a bit vague for me.  I couldn’t identify a theme between what the people were talking about, besides the fact that each one of them mentioned the river.  While this could have most likely been the point of the project, it left too much to be desired.

I thought what they had to say was interesting, and it told of the many connections that people have to the river.  But still, I wanted to hear more detail from each person.

I also think the audio track of the running water was used a bit much.  Some of the audio was clearly captured in a small or open room, so the running water seemed a bit out of place for the clips of men talking indoors.

The main strength of the project for me was  how you could hear the different types of people that were interviewed.  It was easy to differentiate between each person who spoke and their voices carried a certain kind of personality.  There could have been some addition of youth or female voices to make the river seem more valued by everyone, not just men.

Overall I think this type of project is better suited for audio rather than print or video.  I do think some of the pictures added in with the audio were a bit cliché though.

The audio piece for the Colts’ fans in Houston was not what I anticipated it to be. The piece does a subpar job of describing or visualizing what Colts fans are like in Houston, and trails off quite a bit at the the end. However it is an uplifting piece, it just has a confusing title and doesn’t focus much on the Colts fans.

The strengths of the piece are the music and the entrance of the Colts. They inserted the music in there to get you ready for the colts to come out, which I thought played well with the slide show. There’s also a clip of a lady yelling “The Super Bowl champs are here” which let the Houston fans know who was in town. I thought both of these played really well into the audio and should have been the stepping stone into the rest of the piece. Also I think the idea of showing the fans before the game with some interaction, and followed by the game and how it progressed was a great idea. I think the orginization of that went well.

The weaknessses of the piece seemed more prevalent to me than the strengths. The video was very confusing because it is supposed to be a piece on the Colts fans in Houston and was almost anything but that. Instead, it starts out with Houston Texan fans, trash talking colts fans and beating what looks to be a colt Peyton Manning pinata. Even though that could have been a great transition into some footage of Colts fans, it seemed to focus more on profiling Texans fans than Colts fans in the beginning.

After that we finally get some Colts fans, who happen to be the only Colts fans featured in the audio piece,  it goes right into the Colts entering the stadium and focuses on the Texans fans booing the Colts. This still has me wondering when they will show the Colts fans. I think the piece definitely needed more interaction betweeen Colts fans and Texans fans, and if anything should have focused on the Colts fans in Houston, because that was the topic. As far as the actual editing of the audio, it was a decent job. They could have transitioned into the game a little bit better, but i did like the idea they had. I think visual media is necessary for this piece, and while i think an audio slide show is good, I think a longer video segment is what is needed.

Overall it was a nice piece with a great idea. While I think the piece was very inspiring, it was also a little confusing. The title of the piece leads me to believe it is going to be about Colts fans in Houston. Again, it seemed almost anything but that. I think the clip they did get of the Colts fans in the beginning, and some of the game pictures fit in very well with the piece, and they should have shown more of that.The piece definitely needs more audio and visuals of the Colts fans, however I liked where they were going with it.