Slug & Lede

http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2008/dec/01/1212/

The Sin City Shooters video does a great job of using the natrual sound of the guns to start the clip.  It really gets your interest quick and is a great opening piece for the video.

Later we have the individuals talking about the joy they get from the shooting range, and it really helps you understand the joy that they get when at the range and hitting their targets.  As the one lady put it, “The satisfying wopp” of when the bullet hits the target.

A few of the others interviewed were less enthusiastic about their time at the range, but they all seemed to really enjoy what they were doing, with one saying, “I wouldn’t spend my time any other way.”

One of the camera angles used was a great, as it was behind a target being shot at, so the footage makes it look like the person shooting the gun is aiming at the camera.

The same lady who talked about the satisfying wopp of the gun, again describes the feeling of hitting a target and how a person is “just struttin’” after hitting their target.  She does a good job of describing the feeling you get after a great shot on a target.

For me, watching this video makes me want to go out to a firing range and experience what they are talking about.  This video does a great job using sound and good shots of video to make a very good overall piece about the shooting range and the people who enjoy it.

In Sin City Shooters, the positives significantly outweigh the negatives.  The variety of angles and different camera shots really help to keep the viewer’s interest.  Specifically, the shot where the camera is in front of the shooter while he is shooting and the bullets are coming directly towards you.  That seems like it would be a hard shot to get, but it was very well executed.  However, the scene at the beginning when the camera panned to follow the running shooter was a little too fast.  It made it hard to follow the main focus of the shot, or anything on the screen for that matter.

Another positive quality of the video was the mix between actual footage and interviews of the people in the shooting league.  Since some of the interviewees were a little boring, I think putting their voices as the background at various parts was also a successful idea.

I would only change two things about this video.  First, I would take out the high-speed panning at the beginning and go for a different approach.  Instead of panning, I’d go for a wide shot positioned in front of the shooter.  This way, you could watch him run and do the shooting course without getting motion sickness.

Second, I would take out some of the interviews.  Sometimes I felt like they were kind of rambling and not really providing any necessary information for the piece.  I think taking a little of that out would really clean up the video and make it even more entertaining for its viewers.

Sin City Shooters is a video clip about a group of shooters who hold contests at the Desert Sportsman’s Rifle and Pistol Club. The piece does an excellent job of featuring individual shooters in interviews and then putting their voices over clips of the people in action on the range. This technique is used several times and mostly the people are talking about their excitement over the sport and their love for it. The first women interviewed shows good emotion and energy and that is captured on camera well, also a young man in a black shirt gives a thoughtful explanation of why he participates and what that means to him.

The action shots used are extremely valuable to the piece and really are the reason behind it being successful. Many of the clips show impressive scenes of the shooters in action and these also include some of the gear and targets are shooting at. Viewers catch a good look at many different types of wepons that might interest them and targets that look out of the ordinary. Also, the camera angle used is impressive including scanning of the scene following people as they go from station to station on a course and the camera angle which gives the perspective of being shot at by one of the contestants. Even during the interview sections the background is intriguing, but not overly exciting to take the attention off of the subject that is talking in the scene.

Although many things where done very well in this video, several things could have been improved. One interview in particular added very little to the piece as a whole. The man in the red shirt mostly just said he was from somewhere else and usually shot at other places but had come there today. I know this adds the aspect that people come from other areas to participate, I thought that it took to much time in such a short piece. I would have preferred to see a manager or someone who had some kind of authority interviewed and asked questions about the people who come to the site and the atmosphere of the community. Also, the women interviewed at the begging and end of the segment pretty much repeated herself. She had good energy and excitement but not nearly as much as seeing someone shoot and blow up targets, I would have preferred that segment to have been changed and have asked her another question or put it as a voice over with action shots of people shooting.

Overall, I think the piece was good and the camera work was the best part. I do feel however that when working with such a short segment that better quality material could have been shown during some of the video.

The Las Vegas Sun posted a video on their website on December 1, 2008. The video was done by Evelio Contreras and it was called Sin City Shooters.

This video was very professional. It was easy to watch and it flowed very nicely. The speech was not choppy and the video was good quality. The camera seemed to have been on a tripod during filming because there was no unnecessary shaking of the camera.

It was very easy to get a feel for the Sin City Shooters and the video was filmed in a way that made you feel like you had met the Shooters themselves. The camera did not stay in one place the whole time. There were over the shoulder shots, close-ups, medium shots, etc. The variety of shooting techniques made the video very interesting. 

About 30 seconds into the video, a husband and wife are shown. I believe it would have been best to do a zoom shot on them to get a closer look at their faces and how much they enjoy being there. 

The text at the bottom of the video that ocassionally popped up with names and titles could have been seen as distracting. I thought it was actually perfect and was a nice way of letting viewers know who was speaking and what they do. It was also nice because it did not stay in the video long, allowing the viewer’s eyes to move back to the subject speaking.

Overall, the video flowed very smoothly and was extremely well done. It was short, concise and still informative. I would highly recommend others to watch it.

The video Sin City Shooters by Evelio Contreras found here was a greatly entertaining video about sport shooting in Las Vegas.

The initial voice over and close up shot was a great way to kick off the video. The powerful image of a handgun firing and the sound of bullets hitting the target really grabbed my attention to the video. Following the solid starting sequence was an interesting clip of an elderly woman, which one wouldn’t initially pick to be a sport shooter, describing the passion and thrill of shooting. The inclusion of an atypical enthusiast presented an interesting angle on the sport shooting of Las Vegas.

The rapid succession of wide, close up and medium shots along with the seemingly constant sound of gunfire kept the pace of the video upbeat and enticing. I thought the medium shots capturing both the focus of the shooter and the intense image of a firing gun were the most entertaining.

All of the interview shots were framed well with the camera man obviously keeping in mind the rule of thirds. The pan shots, which seemed to be filmed with a shouldered camera, were a nice break to the still camera shots and gave the piece more movement.

I thought the process of shooting could have been explained more. I would have liked the video to explore the uses of different targets, stances and even guns. There were many shots of people moving through the course without a gun and I thought it would have been interesting to see what the motivation was behind that. In my opinion, they flashed to shots of the interviewee to often. The points each person were trying to make could have been made with a voice over and shots of more appealing images.

Overall I thought it was a great piece and shed light on to an area that I wasn’t to familiar with.

Evelio Contreras’ Sin City Shooters video illustrates the thrill that a group of gun enthusiasts experience as they practice shooting targets at the Desert Sportsman’s Rifle and Pistol Club in the desert of Summerlin, Nevada.

The video which was published by the Las Vegas Sun opens with the sound of bullets hitting the metal targets, followed by a close up of a gun used to fire the shots. The combination of the gunshot sounds and the images of artillery was a good way to set the mood for the rest of the piece. Contreras was very successful in the blending of the interviews and the sounds of guns in the background. He also did a good job of using the rule of thirds while shooting the interviews and the sound during the interviews was very clear for the most part.

The video could have been stronger if Contreras had used more close up shots. Most of the shots throughout the video were either wide or medium shots which were not as effective in telling the story as close ups may have been. In addition, the video would have been easier to watch and follow if the choppy transitions were smoother. Specifically, there was one awkward portion toward the middle of the video which first pictured Brandon Wallace on his own and then transitioned to a group of three. At this point the video became somewhat shaky and was shot at a very awkward angle.

A video was probably the best option for this story which would have been too boring for print. The video was able to capture the setting of the hot desert, the fast pace of the shooting and the passion of the gun enthusiasts.

Sin City Shooters, is a video on a shooting competition, which is held in Las Vegas at Desert Sportsmen. Evelio Contreras’s video is a short clip looking into the world of shooting competitions.

The video did a great job with mixing different shots and angles showing the shooting competition happening. I liked that instead of watching a person talk about shooting the voice over came on while they were in action.

The extreme close up of the gun mixed with the medium and close shots of the people in action kept the piece moving. During the piece there were many medium shots of the groups of people together teaching each other different movements. The camera was in the action, which showed how they shot and that the shooting competitions are a community of people getting together.

One thing that I noticed that I thought could have been improved was the use of the voice over with a shot of a gun at the beginning of the video. I would have preferred to see the woman shooting because it was her voice over at the beginning of the piece. I enjoyed watching the video and thought that it was a great piece, which was a good use of video. I do not think that a written story or an audio slideshow would do this justice. 

Evelio Contreras’ video Sin City Shooters explores a day at the shooting range, revealing a microcosm of culture that some may not be familiar with.

This was a short video, and rightly so. If it had gone on much longer, the viewer would be much more inclined to lose interest, as this video wasn’t particularly packed with interesting content. The film was well filmed, with each shot composed purposefully. When an interview was taking place, the interviewee was filmed in the right side of the frame speaking towards the left. This made good use of space and took rule of thirds into account. The shots of people shooting were quickly paced, and some were handheld to give a more exciting feel.

One thing to take into consideration about this film is that it is not very newsworthy. Contreras filmed something that many may not be familiar with, the but the video did not give any reason for the viewer to want to become familiar with it. While the quick pacing added to an exciting feel, at times it may have been too quick, leaving the viewer disoriented.

Contreras put together a moderately entertaining film, but would have done well to select a topic that was more newsworthy, or at least to demonstrate why it should be of interest.

          The sun shines as the Sin City Shooters video begins, highlighting the emptiness of the vast desert, heightened by the metal crunch of gunfire reverberating through the canyon as a motley crew of gun enthusiasts discharge bullet after bullet.
         

          Evelio Contreras weaves commentary with plenty of movement, pushing the constant crash of gunshots to the forefront. Even as the shooters praise the sport, the “satisfying whop” of lead on lead remains.
 

            As for the footage, the crew did an excellent job dealing with the bright desert sun cascading down.  Seemingly everyone donned a pair of sunglasses, shielding from the bright, hot light. In one frame, however, the camera captured the sun, angling up towards a group of people at an awkward angle. Although short, the frame encompassed the feeling of the day, accentuating the warmth and delivering the knowing feeling so well.

           This warmth did not appear in any other scene as the crew positioned interviewees excellently. The distance was just about right, as was the gap to the left, showing an expansive view of the landscape as well as fitting the person into the frame comfortably.

           This deliberation failed to find its way into the transitions, as the video delivered a barrage of images, ostensibly jumping from one to the next. Although it accentuated the action, the lack of transitions was manifest and created a rough experience. Video’s strength as a smooth, transitional medium does not come through as well as it should have.

          Additionally, the close ups of the hands and guns were few, but executed well. Seeing the shot of a man’s hands grasping the gun at the beginning adds a dimension to the video by providing some diversity. Some more shots like that would have been helpful as the rest of the video focuses entirely on people and scenes set in the desert. Understandably so as they were in the desert, but breaking up the monotony with more close ups of the firearms would have been helpful.

Sin City Shooters is a video by the Las Vegas times which depicts a day at one of the local gun clubs. Members of the club share experiences and why they value the club as a whole. Many of the sequences such of the interview shots, as well as the opening close ups were well framed and shot well. They helped to catch the viewers attention and contributed to the overall feel of the video.

The director did a nice work of interviewing a varying number of people who were involved in the club regularly, from a seasoned member to the director of the club. The director even manged to interview visiting members from a distant club, which seemed nice because it offered an outside opinion of how the club operated.

Some things that could have been altered to make the video better were also present. Many of the shots involved a bright light in the background and sometimes made seeing the person interviewed or the focus of the shot difficult. Also the people who were interviewed, though diverse pretty much reiterated the same point of liking to shoot guns. It would have been nice to get perhaps a first time person using a firearm or an alternating perspective other than seasoned gun users.

Lastly the director did a nice work with the action pans, capturing the person firing the weapon and then moving over to see the results of this. I really liked how the action in the video was captured and felt genuine, however that isn’t to say it was perfect. A few of the shots seemed shaky as if being shot by a hand held camera and a tripod might have been a better option.

Conveyed in a different medium the opening wouldn’t be nearly as strong. The image of the firearm shooting and  the video feed of it that follows is what grabs your attention. Print couldn’t possibly have that same effect on people especially like a firearm going off does.

Overall the piece was interesting, but even though the intro was well shot and exciting the remainder of the video failed to hold most of my excitement. Perhaps with some more riveting interviews this video would have been much better off.