Slug & Lede

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.